<p>@consolation, I WOULD DIE. omg, what a sick joke.</p>
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<p>Penn State has many campuses. IIRC, an applicant for the main campus may be offered admission to a satellite campus often with automatic admission to the main campus after their sophomore year. So, in Penn State’s case, it’s really often an acceptance but not necessarily at the main campus.</p>
<p>Last year other than Caltech, which was a thick envelop, everything else was an email.
It seems Caltech has gone to email route this year too. So I’m not sure if any envelop drama still there.
Likely letters were in a thin envelop though.</p>
<p>MIT used email for the HS graduating class of 2008. Harvey Mudd came via snail mail the same year. Guess the techie schools either like the anachronism or they are trying to avoid hackers getting into their admissions systems! :D</p>
<p>Instead of staring at the envelope and wondering what the size signifies, your S should just open it!</p>
<p>When older s applied to colleges 6 yrs ago (my how time flies) one envelope came with “CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE A <<<< Name of school mascot>>>>” on the outside of the envelope. That didn’t require a lot of guessing. Anyone here remember the parent who posted that year that they steamed open their kids’ letters !?!?! :eek:</p>
<p>I love the new technology they are using. My s just found our this morning that he was accepted ED via online. The school sets up an account where you can check the status of everything regarding your application, financial aid, classes you are taking etc…Because of this great system, D now knows he was accepted and does not have to worry about working on other applications etc…If they did not use this system, he would not have found out until next week.</p>
<p>My DS’s e-mail is sitting on his screen ready to open and he’s over at a friends doing some stuff. We have people from both coasts and in between, waiting for him to come home. I think he’s the only one that is not pacing.</p>
<p>Well, we got the thin envelope with the rejection letter inside today, so my question has been answered. Sigh. Not a happy day, but we still have 7 other schools to hear from between now and spring. This was by far his first choice, though, so it’s going to sting for a while.</p>
<p>jsmom: that’s too bad. I’m sorry to hear that. I’m bracing myself.</p>
<p>There’s a kid on the Caltech forum who got two letters, one deferral and one acceptance electronically. No one to call until monday… I guess they have a few kinks their first electronic year.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that jsmom1. My s’s girlfriend get a rejection letter from Stanford yesterday and was really sad. </p>
<p>ihs76, that would really stink getting to letters, but I still think the technology is great and will also save on unnecessary paper and energy etc… Hopefully they will be able to work out their kinks. Everything will be going electronic as we move forward.</p>
<p>The year that my S was applying (HS class of 2008), our mailbox was taken out by the snow plow some time in early March, IIRC, and then buried in a huge drift. There was no possibility of fixing it until all that snow melted. So I had to go to the post office every day to pick up our mail! It was really the worst possible scenario for feeding parental angst around envelopes. And S was always at track practice until about 5 every day, so my agony was prolonged! I never resorted to steaming, but I did hold several envelopes up to the light, I admit. I was very grateful for colleges that made the decision clear on the OUTSIDE of the envelope! I live in a very small town, and the postal service employee who usually mans the window got into the process with me. He’d say, “That’s the GOOD envelope!” (His nephew is a prof at S’s college, so he was pleased that S made that decision. 
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<p>S considered applying to RPI because they send a cap if you are admitted.</p>
<p>The earlier post about a parent steaming open his/her child’s letters is very funny!</p>
<p>Technology does have its advantages, but there’s a downside as well. Last spring UCSD emailed an invitation to Admitted Students Day; only problem was, they emailed it to 28,000 students who had recently received rejection notices. </p>
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<p>LasMa, that is correct, but I also heard of a school that mailed out via regular paper mail acceptance letters to the kids that were actually declined admission. </p>
<p>I still think that the modern technology they are using like common application and electronic letters is the way to go. They can always follow up with a paper trail if necessary.</p>
<p>I grew up with the thin v. thick envelope rule. So when our first applied EA to three colleges this year, the entire family were on the lookout for, hopefully, a thick envelope. The first acceptance was one page long in a business class envelope–which my S threw in the junk mail pile. Thankfully, it was rescued by our D and opened–with good news. The second came in a large, thin envelope–my S wouldn’t open it for fear that it was a rejection–thankfully, it wasn’t. I think the four of us learned to open all envelopes at this time of year–no matter the size or thickness. Sigh</p>