@AnonMomof2 Most people aren’t athletic recruits, so often there isn’t a relationship (like a coach) that needs closure until maybe after admission is offered. This is especially true now that we didn’t have fall visits where the parents got to meet the AO’s more.
But – if a school has offered admission along with a nice merit scholarship or FA award, and then you attend some of their revisits, and then you get a little more plugged in and connected as you are considering options over a period of a few weeks of you and kiddo asking questions especially if debating among several offers – well then by the end of THAT, you might well have a quick note of thanks to write. Add to this picture that in non-covid times, you WOULD have met this AO in person most likely by visiting schools in the fall. (I didn’t interview most of my DD3’s zoom interviewers this year. I DID interview with ALL 12 of DD2’s school AO’s last year.)
So thinking back to last year: the school my daughter did NOT get into – I had zero sense of “needing closure,” as it were (apparently they agreed. ha!). The others though – we DID connect with more post-M10 once she had gotten in, and she was offered some great opportunities that felt like they deserved a thoughtful follow up beyond just a click-and-go-not-accepting. (If it helps: imagine if now, your daughter were to turn down the school where you are planning to go – you probably now wouldn’t just click a button and say SEE’YA after 3 weeks of them seeing you at revisits, etc…)
That said, short and sweet. this is part of the gig for the schools so we definitely take it more personally to say goodbye to them than they take it with us. (And, some schools were definitely less gracious about our farewell, which made me glad we hadn’t accepted, TBH.). A couple of schools were truly lovely in parting ways, and we were glad for that this year when DD3 out of the blue decided she wanted to apply!