So here’s my comment…Re-read your initial post. Do so from an outsiders point of view. I think you’ll see what many of us who are not in the throes of your disappointment see- a temporary inability to maintain perspective.
Before our son’s portal updated, we were preparing our response to rejection. Hadn’t even thought of what we’d do/react if he were accepted, because who cares? That is natural and everyone would be elated. But the rejection was our primary focus.
Significant others will break his heart, he won’t receive promotions he thinks he should get, he’ll lose out on jobs he thought he was qualified for. The greatest skill in life is the ability to recover. The fact that he is forced to do so now- with loving parents right next to him as opposed to having to face this alone- is a gift.
It is a major advantage that this occured in college application process. Those of us who are successful (and I am absolutely assuming you and your family fall into this category)…think about the colleges all of our colleagues have attended. With very rare exceptions, they are literally all over the map in terms of “prestige”. I love the WSJ’s article of a few years back. They measured what the T20 possessed, 10 years out of college, for their graduates in terms of success, quality of life, etc. Do you know what they found? No difference at all. They took the top 30% in terms of graduates from all of the top 100 colleges, and there was literally only one factor that separated them. The graduates of top 20 schools were much more likely to have come from privilege. That’s it.
Your son has phenomenal stats. I am pretty confident he’ll get into a school he can be “proud” of, but everyone will realize within a year that it’s more important for him to get into a school he can see himself thriving in- regardless of what the USNWR says.