<p>i just want this whole process to be done with... applying ED so i get be done in december (hopefully). if i don't get in to my top two choices i'm just going to my state school. =]</p>
<p>but then i remember my gpa suckss. but how many people have a 3.4 and are in the top 15% of their class?</p>
<p>Yep, you guys are worrying too much. When you take the SAT or ACT the colleges will contact you with tons of info on schools that are in your range. You really need to figure out what you want to major in before picking a school just for it's reputation. A 3.4 grade point average won't get you into top schools but there are still hundreds of colleges who want you. I think deciding on a major and checking out colleges for how well they teach that major is important.</p>
<p>A parent here:</p>
<p>You know you are all in the same boat. Every senior goes through this. My D had a rough senior year. She was deferred by her ED, did not get into any of her top choices on the decision day. At the end, she got off the waitlist from 2 top 10 ranked schools and a full ride to a LAC. She is going to a school in one week that is a much better fit for her than her ED.</p>
<p>I was her coach through out the process. When she thought she couldn't do it any more, I sent out specific tasks for her to do - professors to contact, essays to write, meeting with her GC, resume and supplementals. I know many of you do not like too much involvement from your parents. But I think it's good to enlist their help - to give you pep talk, to keep you focused. My D did all the work herself, include selecting schools, but I kept her going at the end. If your parents are not available to you, then see if you have a relative that could help you out. My whole family provided a lot of support for my D.</p>
<p>This shall pass for all of you. Just try to be realistic on schools to apply. If your stats is the bottom 25% or even 50% of a school's stat, don't dream about going there, treat it as a reach. Try not to fall in love with any school until you are accepted. </p>
<p>Good luck to you all.</p>
<p>My D had a spreadsheet of every college she was applying to. It had requirements (number of SAT IIs, supplements), and deadlines. It helped to keep her organized and not miss any deadlines. She also organized her email folder by schools, that way she could keep all correspondence with each school in one location.</p>
<p>...I am new and trying to understand...</p>
<p>old fort said--</p>
<p>You know you are all in the same boat. Every senior goes through this. My D had a rough senior year. She was deferred by her ED, did not get into any of her top choices on the decision day. At the end, she got off the waitlist from 2 top 10 ranked schools and a full ride to a LAC. She is going to a school in one week that is a much better fit for her than her ED.</p>
<p>need to know some terms:</p>
<p>1) what does 'deferred by her ED' mean here?</p>
<p>2) what is the decision day?</p>
<p>i'm freaking out. seriously. this process is going to put me in the looney bin. if i don't get in i'm going to have a nervous breakdown.</p>
<p>I consider myself fortunate in the way I'm approaching the process. My goal isn't to attend the school with the best stats; I want to find the best fit for me. I looked for schools that had the atmosphere I wanted without even looking at the stats until after I decided to apply, with one exception. Because of that, I basically ended with five safties and a match-reach. The biggest hurdle I'm facing is that I like to see to believe, so right now I'm sitting around wondering, 'Did they really re-work my GPA like they promised?' 'Will I really get my decision by that date?' and worrying about things like that rather than panicking about getting in. </p>
<p>I was freaking out while I got my apps together. Now, I'm done. The interview for my reach-match went pretty roughly, and that upsets me when I think about it. So I don't. I think about what I'm looking for. If I don't get into my top choice, it obvisouly wasn't the right one for me, not this year. Like a lot of you, I think about college constantly and have moments of great confidence and moments where I'm sitting around thinking about all the rejection letters I'm going to get. But now that I'm finished applying, I feel much better. I sent my apps (with every part of the app included) to half of my schools a few weeks ago and the rest of sitting, closed, on my desk waiting for my final rec to be mailed. I'm expecting my first decision during or before the first week of school. I'm done with the SAT. I think mailing those first few apps is what really took the weight off my shoulders.</p>
<p>JoeCD, deferred by her ED means the school she applied to Early Decision (which at any college means that an acceptance requires the student to enrol) deferred her application to RD (did not make a decision, but instead put it in a stack to be re-considered for the people who applied for the Regular Decision deadline).</p>
<p>Decision day is the date (usually end of December and beginning of May) when colleges send out their decisions. Students can often get all of their decisions within a few days of each other.</p>
<p>College admissions is the only source of anxiety in my life. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. It's not really a huge worry, I'm just overall pretty care free.</p>
<p>There are sometimes when I get pretty nervous, like when I got a 480 or something on the writing portion of a practice SAT (it turns out I skipped half of a section and was given a 0 for the essay, because I didn't write one). I guess it doesn't help that I have sort of high, unrealistic aspirations. It doesn't hurt to dream, though.</p>