Back in the dark ages, Brown had what they called "Early Action"--basically, you could apply early and not have a binding admissions decision. Brown was the only school I really wanted to go to...so I applied, knowing that I would hear by December 15 and my college search would be over before most of my classmates' had begun.

...December 15 came, and went.

...So did December 16...

...and December 17th and 18th.

Being the neurotic that I am, I begged our college consultant to check on the status of my application. By the morning of the 18th, she was willing to do it, so I guess she called Admissions. By that point, I was calling my mother every hour to see if the mail had come in. At 1:30 on the 18th, the letter finally came.

Brown's admissions letter, for those of you who've seen Varsity Blues, is pretty cool:

"I hope you are as pleased to receive this letter as I am to send it to you. You have been admitted to the 236th class to enter the College at Brown University." There's some more stuff, but that's the important stuff.

I accepted the offer on the spot (I didn't want to go to UF, Emory, or William & Mary anyway!), and am now a very proud and supportive graduate of Brown University.

This isn't really a story about getting accepted into college as about me accepting the college ... I kind of did the whole process backwards.

I have always had a bit of a problem making life decisions. So I applied to eight schools, all very different from one another, because I couldn't make up my mind and figured I'd stall on the decision part by at least seeing where I could get in and how much money they would give me. This wasn't altogether a bad plan, except that seven out of the eight accepted me (damn you, Washington U. in St. Louis, and your stupid waitlist!). Four of the schools would cover my tuition: Georgia Tech (HOPE scholarship since I am a Georgia resident), NC State (some random grant for people with my last name), and two small private schools. So even though I really wanted to go to GWU, really badly, and they accepted me, I couldn't justify taking out the loans with four other MUCH cheaper options. I thought I might like the the private schools better of the four, since they were liberal arts schools as opposed to engineering schools, but visits proved otherwise. The small school was not appealing. NC State was ... well, no offense to anyone, but I got a really bad vibe off the whole place and the students I met. Not the place for me. I was not looking forward to visiting my fourth option (which my mom had forced me to apply to) ... but I loved GT! It was oddly pretty, not at all what I expected from an engineering school, and I had a great time :D I accepted my acceptance as soon as I got home.

I applied to an academically rigorous high school when I was a sophomore. I knew that acceptance letters were coming out in April, so I started sitting on pins and needles in late March. I went to a weekend retreat with the Youth Council I was on for my presbytery when my mom called me to let me know the letter had come. She asked me if I wanted to know the answer. I didn't know. On the one hand, my mind was racing and I couldn't contain my curiosity. On the other, I was with a group of people and if I was rejected, then I didn't want to be crying in front of them. Curiosity won out, mom opened the letter and said, "Congratulations on becoming a member of the class of 1996!" I was sooo excited, not just because that was my first taste of acceptance, but because it let me move from home as a junior in high school! :D

When I was at Governor's School, I decided to apply to Davidson early decision. I was a legacy, so I had that in my favor. And I am a Hispanic female, so that was more points, I'm sure. And I was at a difficult high school, but I still didn't know for sure how things would turn out. A couple days before winter break, I went with 3 other guys to check mail who had also applied to Davidson ED. The letters came in the mail, and all of them were thin. I kind of froze. One of the guys went first... deferred. The next guy opened his... deferred. Oh no, I was getting really nervous. My boyfriend opened his letter... ACCEPTED! It all came down to me. My mind was racing. I finally tore into my letter... ACCEPTED! Of course, I ended up transferring after a year... go figure. That acceptance was rather anti-climatic.

i don't remember anything special about getting the letter from my undergrad, i had applied and been accepted at lynchburg, when i decided to go and check out wac, from my first moment on campus i knew wac was where i belonged, so i applied and then was accepted in mid february. i really didn't think i wasn't going to get in, because my intervew went well and i had the grades, involvement and scores.

now getting into grad school, well that was fabulous!
i had studied abroad in ireland for a semester as a junior, and they had a postgrad program which was exactly what i wanted, and it was the only school i was seriously looking at for the year after undergrad, if i didn't get into UCC, i was going to take a year between college and grad school. so i had mailed my application, and gotten an email saying it was received, and i could only wait, not knowing when i would find out.
so on the friday of our spring break, rowing training trip in florida, i checked my email on my friends computer, when i saw an email from UCC, i opened it and immediately saw the congratulations. i just started jumping up and down, sooo excited, tears streaming down my face, when my friends looked at me and i said i'm going back to ireland, i got accepted into UCC. i just remember my friends and teammates being so excited, and when i went and told my coach, he was just as excited as we were. so that was a perfect day, then the sunday when we got back from florida, all the seniors on the team went and celebrated at the irish pub in town.

and i'm back in ireland, and loving every second of grad school here.

I do not remember anything about my undergrad admisions other than the fact that I got admitted to all 3 schools I applied to.

So I'll tell you instead about my library school admission.

That day I had gone to substitute-teach at the international/ESOL school. Probably one of my best and most fulfilling substitute teaching experiences- I got to meet kids from so many nationalities and cultures! Anyhow, I get back home- and there is a message in my answering machine saying that the director of admissions had his application on his desk and that I HAD been admitted to library school at one of the two schools I had applied to. I could not call him back that day- so I called him back two days later and let him know that I would be enrolling and asked what I should take. I had applied to another school, but the city where this one is located had many more opportunities for me- and that's why I still live there.

For my specialist degree, I remember that day I had gone to work to send an email with an attachment that I had saved at one particular computer's hard drive- but I had to go home right afterwards due to either a cold or the flu. I got up to pick up the mail and go to the supermarket- and I got my letter of admission! At Publix they were playing "White Flag" by Dido on the radio- and I began singing it out loud not caring about anything or anyone. I had to jump through some hurdles with my application, so the song fit because it is about not giving up.

Funny I should find this thread got bumped today since I just re-found my acceptance letter today. I was no intention on going to Illinois, was on campus when I was a freshman in high school to see our high school basketball team, and thought "EWWW! What is with the cow smell?! Who would go here?!?" I eventually went on college visits to Bradley, Bethel, Augustana, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Indiana U Bloomington, some schools I can't remember, and lastly Illinois but ONLY because my dad wanted me to visit. Oddly enough, the absolute second I walked on the campus, I knew it was my number one school. The other places didn't "feel right." Then I procrastinated, and got my application letter in the mail the day of the deadline or the day after, I can't remember which. Needless to say...rejected. I got the thin letter, cried, went on more college trips and decided that I had to go to Indiana since it was a big school too. My dad was not impressed by several factors and said I would not be going there. Hindsight, it didn't feel right either, but I was so set on going to a big bustling school, that I tried and tried to fight the decision. I told everyone I was going there.

Needless to say I ended up at one of the other ones, which was such a blessing. I ended up being a big fish in a small pond and was taking on lots of leadership roles as early as a second semester freshman. A few months into my sophomore year, I was feeling like I was outgrowing the campus and was getting very disenchanted by the college I was in. I got all my ducks in a row and applied to transfer into Illinois. I remember it was April when the letter came. It arrived at my parents house, so I called home and had my mom open the letter. The second she said, "The College wishes to congratulate..." I was done! I started tearing up and then ran up and down the hall to tell my friends. The college I applied to accepts very few transfers, so I was just beside myself with excitement. My former BFF roommate was kind enough to say, "Why would you go there? They're all snobby, and I bet I would have gotten in too had I wanted to transfer." There were some bitterness issues between her and me in case you couldn't tell. :rolleyes: The first day on campus, I knew I made the right choice. I got those butterflies of excitement and couldn't wait to get started.

I wanted to go to Dartmouth so bad and I worked so hard to get the grades and SAT's they wanted. I applied for early admit and got bumped over to regular admit. I thought OK, at least I am still in the hunt but I had to apply to a bunch of other schools just in case. Then they put me on the wait list and that really hurt. It was like they were saying I was good enough to get in but not quite. I did get in to my 2nd choice where I am now but every time I get mad at my university I wish I was at Dartmouth. Such is life.

I went to a community college right after high school (I was 17 when I graduated & really immature). I wanted to go to UConn, but I got a letter back saying that they had already closed their out-of-state transfer applications for that year when I requested an application. UCONN would have been my first choice, but I never even got a chance to apply. So I then applied to the University of Kentucky and got accepted (this was back in the days when you could still apply to only one school and decide to go there).

I remember the letter coming and my brother saying, "You have a letter from the University of Kentucky here." I ripped it open and yelled back, "Tell Mom I just got accepted at the University of Kentucky!" He was on the phone with her, & they both were pretty excited like I was.

I have one regret: I never even applied to the University of Louisville, my second choice or to Northern Illinois University, which would have been my "safety school." Sometimes I wonder... :)

I know this sounds stupid, but I didn't expect to be rejected from any school, so each letter was expected. I had very good grades in high school, very active in leadership rolls, I was in Student Council, a class officer, editor of the school newspaper and I always held a job. My challenge was to see which school would give me the most scholarship money. I was accepted to all that received my application, several by early acceptance.

* Ohio State (attended classes as a senior in High School, so I really didn't need to be accepted again)
* University of Texas (parents refused to allow me to attend a school so far away when they offered no scholarship money)
* George Washington University (decided I was afraid of big cities when I was 18)
* Miami University (I did attend one semester and hated it)
* Marietta College (too small)
* Ohio Wesleyan University (too close to home)

Marietta and OWU were very expensive, and even with a lot of assistance, would have been costly. After my one semester mistake at MU, I returned to OSU and never looked back.

Well..My first acceptance letter came from Auburn and it wasn't really an acceptance letter..I found it out online I think..and I wasn't really that excited..It was a safety and a little too close to home for me...but it was nice to know it was there..

Now, when my acceptance letter came from Ohio State..I was laying in bed and sleeping (it must have been the weekend) and my mom busts into my room waiving the letter in her hand and is yelling 'Oh my god Casey, You got in! You got in!! Oh my god!'. She opened my letter! haha..but she was just so excited in the heat of the moment I guess..it was totally memorable though..

Looking back, I probably should have applied to more schools. I looked into a LOT of colleges and had planned college stuff for years it seemed like..but when it came down to it..I knew where I wanted to go and I guess I was just lucky to have gotten into OSU which was my first choice.

and the best choice:D

I'd say so!

Well, since I had to pay for all of my college applications myself, I decided to apply on a "rolling" basis to save money- so in November I sent in my application to my #1 choice- Ohio University. In December I started filling out all the info for Ohio State and Miami of Ohio. On Christmas Eve my Mom handed me an envelope from OU- and it was my welcome letter. Not only did I get into OU, but I also got into the TCOM program right off the bat (and didn't have to try and transfer in from University College like most people). It was a great Christmas.

Oh, and the Ohio State and Miami applications that were ready to go never did get mailed (so my strategy saved me $$ too!).

(I do like Ohio State, but it is 5 minutes from my parents house and I wanted to be a LITTLE farther away!)