<p>My daughter is a freshman in high school- so she isn’t part of the college search process yet- but I wanted to post something that I just read about on her high schools LJ.
( I know I have read previous threads re:rejection lists- but too lazy to look)
Her school apparently has a wall ( entitled : I didn’t want to go there anyway! )where students can post rejection letters- it is voluntary- and apparently it is soothing to ego to see where some of the high powered students got rejected from.
I think it is fine if it is voluntary , it actually seems healthy if a bit full of black humour, but I didn’t even learn about it until students started complaining about
the principal taking it down. I haven’t noticed a coordinating wall of acceptance letters- and doubt they have one- but a wall of rejection letters is so Garfield- students have highest numbers of National Merit and AP classes in the state so virtually their entire high school career is focused on going to college.( many students also attend Ivies blah blah blah(
I imagine that most students DO get into somewhere- they seem to apply to at least 8 schools if not 10- and have a high % of students attending 4-yr school. THis is a new principal- his first year as a principal and while the parents generally love him ( I do) he also has made some changes to long standing expectations and traditions that this years seniors especially are up in arms about- as they often involve things that didn’t benefit anyone but seniors- but now they are seniors they find that it has been taken away!
So I was just curious what other schools do-
My older daughter didn’t have a wall of acceptances or declinations but at graduation it was announced what school they would be attending / what their next year plans were. I have seen some students on the high school LJ post their rejection letters there- some are so elegantly worded that it is hard to tell if it is a rejection letter or an offer of future funding!</p>
<p>Hah! The kids at my son’s high school would have to APPLY in order to be rejected. :(</p>
<p>They have a place for UT and A & M acceptees to post outside the college and career center, but if you aren’t going there you have to make your own notice. </p>
<p>At the senior awards they usually announce where the student is going, and sometimes where they’ve won scholarships.</p>
<p>The local high school has such a “tradition”…THE WALL OF REJECTION! Since this is strictly voluntary, I personally see no harm and it appears to provide a little dark comic relief that these stressed out seniors need right now. My own senior immediately made copies of rejections (sigh, one to a school very high on his list) to post. The current level of anticipation is so thick for these kids (an extremely competitive high school with huge expectations for the majority of these kids), better to share the bad news and commiserate with peers. The waining days of high school seem to have lots of them reaching out to each other, so this helps meet a hidden need for them to connect. A bit macabre, yes, but what do you expect from a bunch of 18 year olds?</p>
<p>I 100% agree with vulture. Students really reach out to other students, even ones they had previously ridiculed or ignored, as HS comes closer to the end. A “rejection” board seems like a form of therapy that could ONLY thrive in this “bonded second semester senior” setting.</p>
<p>As for a board like this at my school…no such thing. However, all acceptances and scholarships are posted in the Guidance Office. By the end of the year, three of the four walls are covered in nothing but Index cards that hold a student’s name and the college.</p>
<p>what a great idea - the wall of rejection!</p>
<p>my son has his rejections on his bulletin board. he wants to keep them to show at the academy awards when he wins for best director. he said he wants to wave them in the air and give a special thanks for rejecting him.</p>
<p>At my S’s school the tradition is to post acceptances and scholarship awards on their lockers. It’s fun to walk down the senior hallway this time of year and see all of the lockers getting covered. At the graduation Honors Assembly, they read off all the scholarship awards for each student as well as where they are going to attend. (It’s a small school, only 90-100 grads per year). No rejection board although I think it would be very therapeutic.</p>