Bumps on doors

I have been seeing this for the past 4 years. But only today I stopped to think about it. I am talking about the habit of appers[1] sticking their bump[2] letters on their door. I wondered why would a person do that? Why would anyone publicly announce one's sorrow? Instead thay could take a copy of their admits and stick it up. To me, it appeared that this made more sense. Sharing your joy with others. Moreover, if it is one of the top univs, this is a way of showing off, which we al like to do to some extent or the other. But here I saw a very funny behaviour.

I found Arun later in the morning, sitting outside my room. He has got in Stan and Princeton. So I thought I would get some GYAN from him about this, and I did get a lot of it. "People advertise their bumps because they do not want others to ask them about those univs. It is a way to avoid being reminded of something painful. They don't paste copies of their admits because they want people to ask them about it, just giving them a chance to talk about something pleasant."

Made a lot of sense.

1. Apper(n) - one who applies to a foreign university for higher studies.
2. Bump(n) - rejection.