When your child is rejected from a college, don't make these mistakes.

Your child got the thin envelope: rejected from their dream school, and your hopes are also dashed. How will you react? Through the difficult first stages of this, you can upset your child more if you do the following:

Mistake #1: Calling the admissions office and yelling at them in your child's presence. An angry conversation will achieve nothing (aside from annoying the admissions officer), and it models poor sportsmanship. If your child really needs closure, he can call the admissions office himself and make a calm, rational investigation.

Mistake #2: Encouraging your child to open a new campaign for admission. Sending letters and emails, returning to campus to visit the admissions office in person, will only waste your child's time and prevent him from moving on to other choices. Admissions decisions are rarely, if ever, reversed.