How to Gracefully Handle the College Acceptance Letter Season

Many of us have already received responses from our early decision colleges. But the regular decision acceptance letter season is coming in just a few months. Attitudes toward the correct behavior during this time vary. A lot of people don’t believe the admission decisions to be private and decide to tell everyone they know as soon as they find out. But I think it’s best to err on the side of privacy and sensitivity because some can be very heartbroken at a certain rejection. Here are some suggestions for ways we can all be more respectful of our classmates’ feelings. Together, we can make rejection letters a lot less painful. Try to open letters in private Try to be at home when you open your letter. If you really need to be at school, go somewhere private. This is a good decision for a variety of reasons. If you get in, you will probably want to celebrate. You don’t want to cause a big scene with your screams of excitement. Your celebrations could annoy people around you who were recently rejected. If you are rejected, you probably won’t want to be around a lot of people either. You might want to cry or deal with the news in any other way you need to without everyone watching you. Don’t use public school computers When using public computers, it’s easy to accidentally leave a window open or forget to log out of an account. But these accidents can cause extra harm when it comes to checking admission decisions online. Before you know it, the information will have spread all over the student body. That can suck if it was a rejection letter. And don’t be the person who leaves an acceptance letter open on a screen for the world to see. That’s just not classy. Don’t ask if they got in Of course, this suggestion might not apply to best friends. If you are very comfortable with someone, it’s okay to ask them if they got in. But try to avoid this topic in conversations with acquaintances and random classmates. Different people have different opinions about the privacy of this information. You don’t want to put someone in an awkward position if they didn’t get in and don’t want anyone to know. Don’t post acceptances on social media This suggestion is pretty controversial because I’ve seen dozens of these Facebook statuses and Instagram posts in the past few weeks. But being bombarded by happy news can be annoying for those who got rejected or deferred. It’s not going to kill you if you don’t post a status. If you must, wait till May, when all the drama has blown over.