As of October 2026: Say it in writing, before the first decision lands. Two parents wrote their daughter an 8-line letter the night before her first college response, and the letter said their pride would not change based on what admissions officers decide.
Nick Standlea reads the 8-line letter two parents wrote their daughter the night before her first college response, and shows how to write your own.
By Nick Standlea, Test Prep Gurus. Figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.
Write Your Own "College Acceptance" Letter -- Nick Standlea, Test Prep Gurus (YouTube).
The hardest part of this process is not the waiting -- it is the sting As Nick puts it in the video, the most difficult part of the admissions process is getting rejected because it feels personal. A letter written in advance answers that feeling before it arrives.
Eight lines were enough The whole letter runs 8 lines. It names no colleges, no scores and no rankings. It says what will not change, and that is the entire job.
The letter is dated the night before, not the day after The parents wrote on the night before their daughter received her first college response. Written after a thin envelope, the same words sound like a patch. Written before, they sound like the truth.
The letter, in full
This is the letter two parents wrote their daughter the night before her first college decision, as read in Nick's video. We print all 8 lines, in order, in the parents' own words.
| Line | Text |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dear Sarah, on the night before you receive your first college response we wanted to let you know that we could not be any prouder of you than we are today. |
| 2 | Whether or not you get accepted does not determine how proud we are of everything you have accomplished and the wonderful person you have become. |
| 3 | That will not change based on what admissions officers decide about your future. |
| 4 | We will celebrate with joy wherever you get accepted, and the happier you are with those responses the happier we will be. |
| 5 | But your worth as a person, a student and our daughter is not diminished or influenced in the least by what these colleges have decided. |
| 6 | If it does not go your way, you will take a different route to get where you want. |
| 7 | There is not a single college in this country that would not be lucky to have you, and you are capable of succeeding at any of them. |
| 8 | We love you as deep as the ocean, as high as the sky, all the way around the world and back again, and to wherever you are headed. Love, Mom and Dad. |
Source: transcript of the video, punctuated; the parents' own words.
Why write a letter before the decision instead of after?
Because the parents in the video wrote on the night before their daughter received her first college response, and the timing is the point. Line 1 says so in plain words.
After a rejection, kind words sound like repair work. Your child hears comfort and thinks you are softening a blow. Before the decision, the same words are just a fact you are stating out loud.
There is also a practical reason. Decisions for fall 2027 applicants start to land in mid-December and run through late March. That window is long and loud. A letter already in a drawer does not depend on how you feel that afternoon.
We tell parents to write it this week, while nothing is at stake. You will not have the words later. You have them now.
What does the letter actually say, line by line?
It says the pride is already there, across all 8 lines. Lines 1 through 3 set that baseline, and line 3 adds that it will not change based on what admissions officers decide.
Line 4 gives the child room to be happy. The parents say they will celebrate wherever she gets in, and that her joy sets theirs. That takes away the fear of letting a parent down with a school she did not dream about.
Line 5 is the parents' own sentence, and we print it only inside the letter, in their words. Line 6 looks ahead: if it does not go her way, she will take a different route to get where she wants.
Lines 7 and 8 close wide. Any college would be lucky to have her, she can succeed at any of them, and the love travels all the way around the world and back again. Nothing here is about a brand name.
How do we write our own version?
Start with line 1 and say what will not change. That is our own reading of the letter, not a rule from the video, but it is where the parents start and it is the easiest place to begin.
Use a specific memory, not a compliment. Instead of "you work hard," name the night she rewrote the essay, or the season he kept showing up to practice on the bench. Detail is what makes a line believable to a senior.
Keep it short. The letter in the video is 8 lines. Longer letters start to argue, and an argument sounds like doubt.
Write it by hand if you can, and sign it the way you sign things at home. Then put it in a drawer. You are not going to read it out loud the night before. You are going to hand it over.
One rule we hold to: do not name a college anywhere in the letter. The moment a school appears, the letter becomes about that school.
What do we do the morning the decision arrives?
Hand over the letter and then say less than you want to say. The parents wrote line 3 so they would not have to improvise that morning.
Let your child open the portal alone if that is what they ask for. Many do. Standing behind them turns a private moment into a show with an audience of two.
If the answer is yes, celebrate the way line 4 describes, and match their level of joy rather than setting it. If the answer is no, do not start the backup plan talk in the first hour. The plan will still be there at dinner.
Watch the second day more than the first. Line 6 -- a different route to get where you want -- is the sentence to repeat then, once the hurt has settled.
What if our child is calm and we are the ones falling apart?
Then write the letter anyway, because it steadies the writer as much as the reader. Line 2 asks you to decide, in advance, that pride is not tied to an outcome.
Parents carry their own version of the sting. We have watched grown adults read a decision email and feel like a senior again. That is normal, and it is also the thing your child reads on your face.
Putting your promise in writing makes it harder to break in the moment. You cannot sigh at a screen and also mean line 3.
If you find the letter hard to write, that is a sign to write it sooner. The parts that are hard to say are the parts your child most needs to hear in December and again in late March.
The move
Write the letter this week and put it in a drawer. Use the 8 lines in the table as your outline, and say the plain things first.
Do not wait for a decision date to make it feel urgent. Decisions run from mid-December through late March, and by then you will be too close to the news to write clearly.
If testing is still an open question in your house, we run a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT. Call us at 949.229.5359 or start at https://www.prepgurus.com/take-the-next-step.
Questions parents ask
Why write a letter before the decision instead of after?
Because the parents in the video wrote on the night before their daughter received her first college response, and the timing is the point.
How long should the letter be?
Keep it short. The letter in the video is 8 lines.
Should we name the colleges our child applied to?
One rule we hold to: do not name a college anywhere in the letter.
What should the letter say first?
Start with line 1 and say what will not change.
What do we do the morning the decision arrives?
Hand over the letter and then say less than you want to say.
When do decisions come out?
Decisions for fall 2027 applicants start to land in mid-December and run through late March.
What if the answer is no?
If the answer is no, do not start the backup plan talk in the first hour.
What if we are more upset than our child is?
Then write the letter anyway, because it steadies the writer as much as the reader.
Method and sources: The table is the letter itself, taken from the transcript of Nick Standlea's video "Write Your Own 'College Acceptance' Letter" and punctuated for print. All 8 lines appear in full and in their original order, in the parents' own words. This page holds no study data, no admission rates and no survey results. It is one family's letter and our reading of it, and any advice we add is labeled as ours. The names of the colleges the daughter applied to, the decisions she received, and the date of the letter are not reported in the source, and we do not fill them in. Decision timing is described only in general terms, from mid-December early plans through late March regular decision, with no date claimed for any college.
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