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<p>In a few days you all going to be going online to find out your EA results, and unfortunately for most of you the news won't be good. If the news is good, my warmest congratulations on a job well done. But if the news is disappointing, well, go ahead and mourn for a day, maybe two at the most. But after that it's time to think about the future. And what I'm really here to tell you is that in spite of what you will be feeling at that point, the future is actually VERY bright.</p>
<p>You see last year at this time my daughter was in your shoes. In spite of excellent stats and other qualifications, she was REJECTED outright by Yale in the EA round. She didn't cry. She didn't say much of anything. She just stared and the screen for a few minutes and then silently got up and went back to her calculus homework. And at that moment she also became convinced that she wasn't going to get into any colleges at all.</p>
<p>But of course that turned out not to be the case. Fast forward to the RD round in April and Yale turns out to have been the only school to reject her outright. What had been worry over getting into any school turned into worry over which wonderful school to attend. What a difference a few months makes. She was accepted by Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Wellesley, Pomona, and a bunch of UC safeties. She is now thoroughly enjoying her freshman year at Harvard.</p>
<p>So the moral of the story is, regardless of the results next week, your future is very bright. YOU ARE GOING TO GET IN SOMEWHERE GREAT! And if you work hard and make the most of it and are a decent person, you are going to have a wonderful life.
<p>Like Coureur, I'm a Mom. It's obvious that you are all a collective bundle of nerves right now, and you all need a big hug. You'll probably need lots of reassuring hugs until decisions come out, and, yes, some of you will need hugs after you get your decisions.</p>
<p>Just please keep reading this post. The three main points are that 1) EA decisions from Yale are a really random process; 2) a EA rejection is in NO WAY a personal rejection of you and your accomplishments; and 2) your life will not be over if you get deferred or rejected. Really.</p>
<p>Over the next few days you'll probably get a lot of posts with the message that you're ALL a bunch of amazing and wonderful kids. This sentiment may sound like over-simplified hyperbole, but it's true. As an adult reading posts from kids, I have seen an amazing amount of personality, insight, intelligence, talent, and warmth coming from you all. Don't let the fact that you have essentially entered a random lottery make you feel badly about yourself if your number doesn't end up getting picked.</p>
<p>I'm old enough to have experienced rejection and disappointment in my life, especially as a teenager. I'm also now far enough removed from that age to know that, although the silver lining might not always be immediately obvious, things do have a way of working themselves out for the best.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Big hug<< And hang in there, everybody.
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