<p>MAthmom~Well said :D</p>
<p>Pretty much what mathmom said.</p>
<p>Preparation begins w-a-a-ayy before these nerve-wracking waiting days.</p>
<ol>
<li>Apply to one or more schools that you would love to attend, which are highly likely or sure to accept you.</li>
<li>Preferably have one or more of those schools be non-binding EA or rolling admissions, so you have positive news in hand early in the process.</li>
<li>Never EVER get yourself in the mindset that there is one “dream” school. There isn’t, unless you create that self-destructive fantasy in your own head. There still isn’t even if you do that… you just think there is.</li>
<li>As parents, our job is to act excited (hopefully be excited) about all of the possible schools; never focusing on one as better than the other.</li>
</ol>
<p>It still hurts to be rejected somewhere. But if you follow the above, that hurt will be short-lived. My S moped for, literally, about 15 minutes over his 1 rejection. He already had such good options in hand.</p>
<p>It can be a tough wait. Hard to give advice about it since it’s so very personal how people anticipate things. We have been more concerned this year because my son did not apply to anything on a rolling or early basis so, we are hanging in there to the very end. It’s been tough on him that so many of his friends and classmates already know where they want to go or have some acceptances, and unnerving to hear of rejections when he has nothing on his plate at all. We knew this would be a risk doing it this way and now we are living the reality of it. </p>
<p>The saving grace is that he does have some schools that are certainly going to accept him. But anything other than a firm offer does not give a lot of comfort. It’ll feel good when he gets those offers of admissions. It’s a tough time for college kids.</p>
<p>OP, one thing you could do between now and when you get the letter is to spend a little quality time with your match schools. Explore every corner of their websites, look at the pictures of happy students, dig into what made you apply to those schools in the first place, pull up the course catalog and “plan” your first semester schedule. In other words, take your focus off of the dream school and try to fall a little more in love with a school where you’re more likely to end up.</p>
<p>To understand why rejection might not have so much to do with the one rejected, but rather more with the other applicants, have a look at [Admissions</a> Messages vs. Admissions Realities](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html]Admissions”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html). It’s a general piece, not about any particular school.</p>
<p>Excerpt from the above:
</p>
<p>@Putturani:</p>
<p>It’s okay, I find myself creeping on the Parents Forum as well, hehe. :)</p>
<p>@Everyone: Thanks for all the replies! The advice is really great, and I hope others reading found help, as well.</p>
<p>I’m not as fortunate as Putturani, however, in terms liking my safety school. I’m not too fond of the safeties I chose.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s the cheapest in the nation (at under $6,000 for instate tuition, it better be! Lol.), and has great academics, the fact that one of the safety schools I chose (it runs under my city’s college system) is a 5-10 minute ride from my house irks me. Not only that, I’m not too happy about staying home where freedom and self-expression are like pulling teeth. Also, the social aspect of the school might turn me off. A majority of people who attend these schools are either from the city, came with friends from high school, or a small percentage are non-traditional students. Basically, I feel like I’ll just be going to school for an education, and just that. Meh… Not bothering with the whole socializing thing makes my parents happy, I guess…</p>
<p>As far as my parents are concerned, unless I’m talking about a school in the city college system, they could give a rat’s tail about any other school. I didn’t even tell my parents that the schools I did get accepted too (so far, all of them are private schools), I can’t attend because of the money offered. :(</p>
<p>But, alas, if I do receive a rejection, I have the state schools I’m applying to fall back on. If admissions and financial aid don’t work out there, then I guess I’m saying Hello to the four off-white painted walls of my room, lol. I did speak to my parents about maybe redecorating my room for college. If I can’t go to the dorms, why not bring the fun of dorms to me? (There’s that optimism!)</p>
<p>But, either way the decision goes, I always enjoy cruising through the Parents Forum and see the support the parents give to their children. You guys are awesome. =)</p>
<p>Nice column/pep talk by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press today:</p>
<p>The college that rejects you may do you a favor on Page 23A of Sunday, March 20, 2011 issue of The Detroit Free Press
<a href=“http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/DFREEP/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=REZQLzIwMTEvMDMvMjA.&pageno=MjM.&entity=QXIwMjMwMQ..&view=ZW50aXR5[/url]”>http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/DFREEP/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=REZQLzIwMTEvMDMvMjA.&pageno=MjM.&entity=QXIwMjMwMQ..&view=ZW50aXR5</a></p>
<p>^I like that. Thanks for sharing it. I showed it to my daughter, who is waiting on 9 reachy decisions before the month is out, but who fortunately holds an acceptance to a school she loves.</p>
<p>As for preparing for rejections, if it’s a reach, expect that it will be a rejection. Then if it isn’t, you will be pleasantly surprised. And as some wise person upthread said, learn to love your match schools. Find out all you can about them. Get excited about them.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Hey, so this thread caught my attention, and I have to say one thing- I am soo glad I don’t have one DREAM school. I mean, I don’t say it’s wrong, but getting rejected from a dream school would be horrible. All these past months, people kept asking me which one’s my “dream school”, and trust me, I got a lot of weird looks like “omg she doesn’t have a dream school-she’s not focused on any one school” etc. </p>
<p>I did have two safeties on my list, and have been accepted to both! I’m glad that I have at least two of these pretty great colleges to fall back on if nothing else works out. I also got rejected at another school which was sort of like a high reach, but having been accepted at other schools, I wasn’t upset about my rejection for more than 10 minutes. However, my parents aren’t too happy with my safety schools and would rather I go to a school which was at the top of my list. (I’m an international so paying for college is real expensive for me… no aid. so they would rather spend their money on a place which is my first choice!) Any advice on how to convince them that even though the colleges are my safeties, they’re pretty good? </p>
<p>Meanwhile, waiting for the rest of the decisions!</p>
<p>Yes, having dream school can be a burden, but falling in love can sometimes not be prevented, so count yourself lucky!</p>
<p>Do you mean you’d rather attend one of your safeties than a school higher on your list to which you might be accepted?</p>
<p>No, I meant that in case I don’t get accepted to a school higher on my list.</p>
<p>Well, if you do not get accepted to a school higher on your list, you and your parents will have to take a look at what you have. If what you have are two acceptances to safeties that you like, zero acceptances to “higher up” schools, then they might lament that you didn’t apply to this-school or that-school, or that you didn’t get into this-school or that-school. </p>
<p>But at the end of the day, this is what you have to work with, and you will choose from between them.</p>
<p>Update!</p>
<p>Awesome advice, everyone!~ Definitely helped soothe my nerves while waiting for the admissions letter. Thank you!</p>
<p>I got accepted to the university in upstate NY and got the $30,000/year scholarship! 
If only you would have seen me last night (because I knew I would get the letter today), I was literally in a fetal position, trying to calm myself. I was a hot mess, lol.</p>
<p>Now what’s my biggest worry is that I have not yet heard from the city college system about the schools I applied to. I find that really unsettling: to know if one is going to their reach school is one thing (and an awesome thing), but to not hear from the safeties at all except for e-brochures seems very off to me. </p>
<p>I hope they reply soon. The sooner they reply, the sooner my parents and I can sit down and discuss options.</p>
<p>Congrats! Enjoy your success!</p>
<p>congratulations rosary!!</p>
<p>@Youdon’tsay @calimami</p>
<p>Thank you! :)</p>
<p>My daughter applied to many “match” schools, a safety school and two Ivys.<br>
We don’t know about the Ivys yet but she has gotten into all the others so far.
I tell her that only about 10% who apply get into the Ivys and that many many qualified people don’t get in…because mostly very qualified people apply and there are just so many of them. But, I tell her, you have a 0% chance of getting in if you don’t apply so I am glad she did.</p>