Hey everyone! It’s me, stargirl. This is my third application cycle. My third time anxiously waiting for March 10. I know what these next few weeks will feel like. You’re not going to like my unsolicited advice, but here it is: stay off CC.
Yeah. Surrounding yourself with other kids going through the same thing sounds like a coping mechanism, but as someone who’s been on here for two seasons, I can tell you that it’s exactly the opposite. Boarding school becomes an obsession. You log on to CC and see kids with stats you’ve only dreamed of who are worrying about every little thing, and it shatters your confidence. Instead, focus on what you love. Spend your time studying your notes, not old threads on here.
My next thing is to not read your essays. You will find a typo, and you will hate yourself. Feel free to look them over after March 10, but not now.
I hate a hypocrite as much as the next person, so I won’t be on much in the next few weeks. I’ll be checking my PMs, so feel free to message me (they get sent to my email). Before I go on my next hiatus, let me make one request: please let me do my spreadsheet again, and this year I want to put up the outline for applicant stats because there are a few fields I want to add. I’ll probably do that on March 8 to avoid cluttering up the thread with anxious chatter.
Good luck, guys. In two months, some of your dreams will have come true, while some of yours will have been broken.
I knew that rereading my essays would be a problem. I hide them away deep in my computer after submitting because I know that if I even saw like one tiny mistake I would freak out. But great advice! I need to stop lurking on CC…
Btw, is this spreadsheet of people who were accepted/waitlisted/denied?
And good luck to both of you! It seems you both care very much about this and I wish all of you the best of luck
I texted this to @historygeek40 just now and thought it was too good to pass up posting.
My two cents: These next few weeks (yes, it’s only a few) are going to be torture. There’s nothing we can do about it. We can spend them telling ourselves we’re doomed, or we can get our hopes up and enjoy that option while it lasts. I’m going to get my hopes up; I’ve always been a dreamer.
Then again, what happens if we’re rejected? Nothing. Nothing happens. We’re still extremely fortunate to live in a country where education is a given, to have food on the table, and to go to bed knowing that our houses will be intact when we wake up in the morning.
I could tell you that you’re definitely going to get in, blah blah blah, but I won’t. Because I don’t believe in giving others false hope. I don’t want anyone to tell me that I have a great shot when the reality is that it’s a crapshoot.
Put it into perspective. Maybe our dreams will come true and we’ll be classmates at insert dream school here. Maybe you’ll stay at ______ and I’ll stay at _____. That doesn’t mean that you can’t become ambassador to whatever country it is that you want to ambassadorize; it doesn’t mean I can’t go to Wellesley, get a degree in creative writing and Spanish and heck, even math, and get published and be a teacher.
My ultimate goal isn’t prep school. My ultimate goal is to teach a student just like me and inspire her the way my favorite teachers have inspired me. If boarding school comes through, that’s fantastic. If not, it’s okay.
@Stargirl3 and I have become very close these past couple days. It’s incredibly nice to have a friend in the process (even if we are in the same applicant pool ;)) These days will either be the slowest you’ve ever endured, or they will fly by in the blink of an eye. It will be hard. That’s undeniable. But now, we just have to wait. Nothing you can do about it now (except send in a letter of recommendation or materials of your musical talents, athletic scores, etc)
You young people never cease to impress me. I hope that whatever outcome each of you has come 3/10 that you are as phenomenally happy and successful as you deserve to be. Que sera sera
Good luck folks. If anyone needs a shoulder to cry on or if you have anything you want to get off your mind, shoot me a PM. I won’t be on much for the next week or so, finals and such, but I’ll log on occasionally.
