Thin Envelopes, Short Emails

Whichever way colleges choose to notify students of admissions decisions, the wait can be agonizing and fraught with anxiety. The season is upon us where Early Decision, Action, and Notification applicants learn their fates. There was a time when this occurred with a physical piece of paper, a time which led to the monikers of “fat” or “thin” envelopes (the former reserved for admitted students containing more celebratory information).

Alas, in the cyber world where our students so comfortably reside, the typical teenager receives an email notification or a log-in link to a college or university website where their fate (and those of countless peers) resides.

How one deals with happy or unhappy news, however, remains timeless. Though the medium has changed, the values of resilience in the face of disappointment and humility as one justifiably shares in good news, remain the same.