Treasure hunt with clues to find the letter? Although you won’t have a letter for many schools, you log into a portal to find out. You could probably print from there, though.
My son’s snail mail came while he was at school. I figured out the red YES! on the envelope (expected flagship admission). I’m much more excitable than he is (most are).
If you are still touring colleges, you could buy one of those “My kid and my money go to State U” bumper stickers and put it away for when the letter comes. Be prepared and buy them at the schools you really want to go to or just the ED school?
twoinanddone-H took a picture of that shirt at every college we toured. That might be a good way for D to let us know about her schools!
Did anyone notice that the OP posted this in 2011??
(But I did enjoy reading the suggestions and stories)
this is a 4 year old thread!
the recent posts should be moved to a new thread as they are really great.
You just have to know your parents (or whomever) in order to gauge whether this would be a good idea. Neither of my undergrad acceptances were surprising so I got the letters and that was that.
For grad school, I didn’t have it in me to contain myself long enough to “prank” anyone. I was excited and so I started screaming the minute I got off the phone. My mom happened to be staying with us and she came up to share my excitement (OK, admittedly she first thought I was screaming about a spider… but once I got the words out, she cried along with me).
I admire people that can hold it in long enough to plan something out. I am not one of those people lol.
@romanigypsyeyes
…“she first thought I was screaming about a spider…”
Does that mean you got into University of Richmond? JK
^^
I will say that DS, who is usually NEVER called me unless there was a problem[ !! ] , 5 years ago in Jan called, with a trembling voice, to say that he had just learned that he had been accepted at Caltech for his PhD program while chatting with a CT professor. The Prof and DS were at a conference and upon learning DS’s name, said in a nonchalant manner “oh yeah, you’re in…”
He was incredulous and just had to share the news!
I nearly fainted!
best phone call ever!!!
LOL
I did not realize schools actually had the beast-creature as a mascot… shudders
,I was really happy when CMU sent a big envelope with YES on the front. This was 10 years ago, when many schools still doing the snail mail. Once one acceptance comes in, everyone can relax.
This thread is 4 years old!!
No need to chop off the new additions. This isn’t a time sensitive topic and some of the ideas are very creative.
Sure, I suppose, but it seems so many other old threads are immediately locked the moment someone comments on it. And I don’t think some of those who responded even realized it was so old because they were addressing the OP directly. (The OP hasn’t been on since 2012!)
My daughter got accepted to UMich EA. We knew that it was coming out but also " knew" she would be deferred at best as her test scores are low. Her HS counselor even had Warned her that there was a 90 percent chance she’d be deferred. So I really was not focused on the EA coming out. I figured she wouldn’t know til April. So… On day in mid December I texted daughter and told her I was out running errands and asked her if she needed anything. And she sent back "yogurt, toothpaste., UMich sweatshirt, applesauce.
LOL!
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Yes, I am well aware of that. 
While I generally discourage resurrected threads, this has gotten more action in the past 2 days than the initial posting did 4 years ago; as it is really not time-sensitive, I see no valid reason to close it just to start a new one.
Thanks @skieurope! There really is nothing time sensitive here and it’s a fun thread!