In “A Cinderella Story,” teens jealously gawked at Hilary Duff, starring as Sam Montgomery, as she received her acceptance letter toPrinceton.

In “Accepted,” they felt sympathy as Bartleby Gaines, played by Justin Long, shamelessly received rejection letters from every college he applied to. Nonetheless, they watched as both Sam and Bartleby opened envelopes. Real envelopes that came in the mail, actual pieces of paper with typed decisions.

I grew up thinking that I too would one day get that envelope with my acceptance or rejection typed plainly. That when I was a high school senior I would check the mail every day hoping for an envelope. Not just any envelope,  but a big one. One that was heavy and definitely filled with a bunch of papers and booklets. Because everyone knows that a big envelope means a “Congratulations!” is waiting on the inside.

When I watched these movies, it never even crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be allowed to experience this tradition. Never able to have that moment of relief when I open the mailbox and find one envelope filling up the entire box. As I look back, I see that I always assumed I would be able to feel what it was like to be in Sam and Bartleby’s shoes. But I was wrong.

Today, the college process is entirely digitized. I am not talking about solely the application process, but everything. From submitting the common app to hearing a decision, everything is done on a computer. Yes, it is nice to be able to check the status of your application, but what has vanished is the excitement of checking the mail for that ONE envelope. The tradition that we have been looking forward to has suddenly disappeared, and a computer screen has taken its place.

According to Zach Miners in an article on The US news & World Report website, colleges are making an “effort to connect with students on their digital turf.”

However, despite this positive effort, college admissions have failed to acknowledge the negative effects of online notifications. Knowing that a decision can be made available on your account at any time between now and the final decision date not only adds anxiety to students already stressed about college, but also creates an added distraction. During school when students have their laptops out to “take notes,” they are really checking every college account to see if their application status has changed. Even if a student knows they won’t be hearing a decision until January, they will still check that account more than once a day.

It gets to be a point where you have so many different accounts with usernames and passwords like “AHG843nge9MF” that it becomes impossible to keep track of them all. You suddenly have to keep track of 13 separate accounts with different usernames and passwords and deal with the stress to check every account at least three times a day, instead of simply check the mailbox after school, which for most people is already a part of their daily routine.

A physical letter in the mail is something you can put up on the fridge, concrete proof that you have been given a spot at a university. There is something very unreal about a decision given online; if you hit refresh, that “Congratulations” might simply vanish. In one case it did disappear.  In April 2010,GeorgeWashingtonUniversityaccidentally e-mailed 200 acceptances to rejected applicants wrote Miners. One minute students were in. The next they were out. While the Internet is revolutionary, it does have its limits.

A decision that determines the next four years of someone’s life should not be in the fate of a wrong click.