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Health & Fitness

Colleges Impose Looming Enrollment Deadline (Part 2 of 3)

College admissions season is finally coming to a close. On May 1st, students from around the world who plan to enroll in US colleges will make an initial deposit of hundreds of dollars to the institution of their choice. Some students will be excited to click the submit button, while others will be disappointed. Some already have made the choice, and others are holding out until the 11:59 p.m. on April 30th, preparing to flip a shiny silver coin.

There are a few students who somewhat eased through the application process, unlike the majority. Senior Michaela Caplan only applied to one school, Dartmouth College, back in November as part of the college’s Early Decision program. Early Decision means that if the school accepts you, you are in a legally binding agreement to commit to that school and withdraw your applications to all other schools. Michaela was given admission, committed, and also did not have to withdraw anywhere. “The actual process wasn’t that bad for me,” she said. “I think I lucked out. I’m very grateful for the outcome. Knowing in December that I was in college took a tone of pressure off me.”

Most of us, however, didn’t luck out quite as nicely as Michaela. I myself applied to 13 different schools and now am struggling with my final choices (though I also don’t plan on waiting until the very last minute). Throughout the month of April, colleges are opening their doors to prospective students, or “prospies,” to experience life on campus in a longer and more realistic setting than the pre-application season visits. Some are overnight visits where prospies are assigned to a current student so that they can also experience dorm life. Many have sample classes taught by faculty, or allow propsies to sit in on real classes, from intro courses with hundreds of students to small seminars with only a handful of students. I’ve visited a few programs already, and I’ve certainly enjoyed my time being pampered by the colleges as they try to lure us into committing. Free swag in the form of t-shirts, sunglasses, meals and even pizza-cutters engraved with the college logo entice students to make them feel as if they already are a part of the family. As these open-house weekends are designed to ultimately persuade my decision, I only found myself more confused in the moment. I could imagine myself both in one school and elsewhere, and was disheartened with the understanding that I couldn’t possibly have it all. But after a bit of post-visit reflection, being able to thing retrospectively about an experience has enabled me to detach myself from the thrill of the moment and let the gut feeling slowly sink in. I think I’ve found a choice, but I’ll share it once May 1st arrives and I post my third and final article of my college admissions series.

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Meanwhile, there are several important things I learned from applying to college this year and I’d like to make note of here. I’m sharing them with my readers in hopes that some of you don’t have to go through this process blindfolded, or for parents who have started the process too. You can take it to heart or ignore it, as I myself dislike overloads of advice and so I’m being hypocritical in giving some. I found this Wall Street Journal article about how Americans are over dependent on advice, extremely helpful not just when I was applying for college but also for life, too: http://on.wsj.com/1dwdDKs

  1. Advice is overrated. People are always trying to direct your life: take this class, serve this many community service hours, join this club and get this job. The college application process psychologically suffocates you with advice. College confidential is an abyss of gossip, statistics and extreme nausea. Fall to spring of senior year is the one time in life, at least so far, where going with your gut is the only way to make your final decision foolproof. Trust only your gut. I wish I didn’t constantly overload myself with statistics and outside information; I wrongly tried to quantify my future in terms that were impersonal and indifferent to my individuality.
  2. You never know if you will get into a certain college unless you apply. And even if you are denied admission, you will never regret applying. I don’t regret any of my 13 applications and I’ve had my fair share of rejections; I do, however, regret not applying to schools simply because at the time I was configuring my list, I didn’t think I was qualified. (That’s not to say that you should apply to an unnecessary amount of schools. Do not apply to ones that you won’t go to but are just clinging on the hope of an acceptance to boost your ego). I’ve met an eclectic mix of students who took unconventional routes through high school (didn’t take all the hard courses or AP’s, didn’t score within median SAT range, etc.) and still were accepted into their dream schools. Please do not underestimate yourself.
  3. On a similar note, ignore generalizations. I’ve learned that there are always exceptions to every generalization, and that those exceptions often make up a large minority, even a majority sometimes if it’s the outspoken minority that creates the generalization. For example, one of the schools I am considering has a terrible reputation as “where fun goes to die,” but when I visited, that was completely not the case. The slogan was self-deprecating humor created by a small group of students that got taken way too seriously by everyone else. I learned first-hand that there is a large social scene there, which comes to the surprise of many people who believe the study-hard-and-never-sleep stereotype. Stereotypes are great for igniting conversation, but have little use beyond that.

Again, feel free to pick and choose which advice you want. I have a summary of my final words on this experience, before all the US colleges force us students, after already juicing us dry in every way possible, to make an ultimate decision. Mute the constant buzz of hearsay, which skews your perception of information that is crucial to your application process. It’s so cheesy but it’s really true: believe in yourself, don’t over think, and you will stay in control of your senior year, and eventually, your future.

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