Tips for Sharing Your College Admissions Decision

a student sits at her desk at home and smiles at a friend

When you discover where you get into school, let it sink in, be classy and be kind. Read on for some tips for handling your college or university admissions decision with confidence and maturity, no matter what you’re feeling.

Allow Time to Process

Before you talk to anyone, take an hour or more to absorb your admissions decisions. If you’ve been accepted to your first choice, it’s wonderful. Celebrate your accomplishment by sharing the news with your family and allow yourself to grow excited about the next four years of school.

If you’re waitlisted from your top choice, remember how there’s still a chance that you could get in and there are actions you can take to increase your chance. On the other hand, it's important to be realistic and consider alternative options, identifying all of the positive traits about the schools you were accepted to.

For students who receive rejection letters, know that you’ll find amazing opportunities and make great friends at any of the other schools that accept you.

Be Discreet

It is important to be respectful of your friends and peers, especially if they applied to the same school as you. If you received good news, don’t immediately immediately rush to social media to announce it. Although you should feel good about your accomplishment, it’s better to tell your friends in a conversation.

If you received bad news, discretion is important. Brace yourself for questions that might be uncomfortable to answer. Don’t bash a college or university just because things didn’t work out how you hoped, especially since others may be excited to go there.

You can respectfully decline to discuss in depth, but do congratulate others who were accepted. Remember, admissions decisions are often random to some degree, made in a matter of four minutes and aren't made by anyone who actually knows you.

Be Happy for Others

Whether you’re happy about your admissions decisions or not, remain positive and be there for your friends. A year or so from now, those feelings will fade, but friends who you supported could still be in your life, no matter where they earn an undergraduate degree.