<p>My oldest child (so we are new at this) will hear from his 1st choice school within the next few days (Emerson -- he applied EA, they mailed the letters today). So I need to ask the all-important question: Is it still true that a thicker envelope holds good news and a slim envelope is bad news? How about if he's deferred? Slim envelope?</p>
<p>They will never send a rejection in a thick envelope, so thick is pretty much always good news. Thin is probably bad news but not necessarily. I got my grad school acceptance in a thin envelope with packet to follow.</p>
<p>But these days the news almost always comes first in an e-mail or website log-on. I’m surprised there is still some envelope drama left out there.</p>
<p>They said it will be posted after 1 pm on Mon. (online) but we are likely to receive the letter before then. We live only about 6 miles from the school.</p>
<p>we’ve had a combination of all different, thin, big, one said congratulations on the outside, some were online first, some we got the letter first. but all were acceptances</p>
<p>i don’t think thin is always bad. . .
georgetown’s letters are always thin</p>
<p>and i just got an acceptance letter & scholarship letter from tulane and it was one page, so chill!!</p>
<p>A handful of schools send thin envelopes, but most send thick. I loved Carnegie Mellon’s envelope a few year ago - it had huge letters on the outside saying “The Fat Letter” or something similar. Meant that Mom’s didn’t have to wait for their kids to come home from school to find out the news! (They mailed letters several days before posting on line.) Many schools just post on line the same day they do the mailing though.</p>
<p>Oh and for what it’s worth, again a few years ago, Caltech sent out acceptances priority mail and rejections regular mail. My son had to wait SIX DAYS to find out he wasn’t in.</p>
<p>This year, William and Mary’s good ones came in a large envelope with a big “WELCOME” written right on the outside. Bad news came in a small envelope. </p>
<p>But I believe it varies school by school. In another thread, someone mentioned that one year Penn State sent its rejections in large envelopes along with applications to the satellite campuses - talk about torture!!!</p>
<p>OMG I’m so nervous! I wish these schools posted online before the snail mail came!</p>
<p>living six miles from the school does not mean that the mail will get there faster.</p>
<p>thanks! haha i live in RI and i’m waiting for georgetown, whose letters were mailed today, so monday maybe?</p>
<p>A school tricked me once by sending me an application for the next term with my rejection letter. I had such a fat envelope I thought for sure I was in, but NOPE.</p>
<p>I’ve also gotten a lot of thin acceptances, too. A lot of schools mailed me additional forms and information a week or so after I was accepted, and only a one page letter actually came first.</p>
<p>Admissions in the spring tend to be larger envelopes because they will often include financial aid material. Early admissions is often separate from need / merit aid consideration so the envelope can be fairly small.</p>
<p>D’s admission letter was one sheet, and so was the scholarship award letter a few days later. OTOH, the housing packet was pretty hefty.</p>
<p>With the rise of electronic results, I kinda miss the old daily mail box drama. When D1 applied in 2003 it was about 50:50, with MIT and Caltech both curiously being among the snail mail holdouts. But by time D2 applied 5 years later she got all her results on-line.</p>
<p>georgetown’s so oldschool, i wish i got an email:(</p>
<p>My son’s ED admission letter came in a manila sized envelope and contained just two sheets of paper. Big envelope but very thin.
Good luck to your son.</p>
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<p>Caltech <em>finally</em> gave up on snail mail this year and will be using e-mail. Don’t know when MIT changed but they are now web based.</p>
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<p>I love human nature. I was afraid with the advent of electronic mail the perenniel “size of the envelope” question would go the way of the dinosaur. But over on another forum I visit, with engineers awaiting the results of their PE exam, I saw my first “How many MB is the email attachment?” question.</p>
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<p>MIT changed sometime between 2004 when D1 applied and 2009 when D2 applied.</p>
<p>I recall someone saying that they were excited to receive a “fat envelope” that turned out to be a rejection letter–with a course catalog! That one is hard to figure…</p>