<p>Have not received yet and I'm in NJ.
We're not concerned , D is passing on Muhlenberg since she was accepted to Villanova.</p>
<p>Good luck to all!</p>
<p>We rec'd the letter last week and an email today. The email was from an intern in the Office of Admissions and was an offer to answer any questions we might have. It would be very possible that the students are divided amongst several interns. And due to the varying schedules of an interns the emails could be sent out over several weeks. I would not read any bad indications to not rec'ing an email. As per the question above about 'why do some get an email and others snail mail?" I would guess that all will get a letter, the letter to the international student is just taking longer to get there. And that most will get a follow up email from an intern.</p>
<p>Hi,
WE are still waiting for a letter and applied early and our last name begins with B. So there goes all theory's out the window. We do however live in New Jersey... Must be the Jersey mail.</p>
<p>But actually I called last week and they told me they send them in batches in no particular order between March 16 - April 1. But then again they also told me they never call and never e-mail acceptances that its against their policy... So who knows, very confusing!! I don't like their method!!!</p>
<p>Mamamia1007 - I take that policy to mean they don't make the first notification via email or phone. Once you've received that acceptance via snail mail, then they probably do make some contact with you via email and/or phone.</p>
<p>Im getting very scared since I have not heard anything. Im even more nervous now that I got wait listed at dickinson</p>
<p>Don't assume it is bad news until it arrives. Life is too short and you are too young for an ulcer.</p>
<p>In my case, my son doesn't really care at this point. He liked Muhlenberg when we first saw it, but prefers the much larger state U's and he's already been accepted to UConn and UDel which are his top 2 choices. Also, after reading through the threads here, the artsy/theater-y aspect is not his cup of tea either. </p>
<p>This being said, if he is waitlisted he will choose not to stay on the list. At this point he's just curious.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>If my D picks Penn State-University Park, the decision will likely turn on money. She doesn't favor either public or private. She's smart. She knows the quality of the education at the college level depends on the institution itself not whether it's public or private. But cost is a reality.</p>
<p>My D applied as a Theatre major (in October) and is still waiting to hear. We live in CT and our last name starts with B. D's school mate was accepted last week--she applied later, her last name also starts with B and she applied as a Theatre major as well. I'm hoping that the "sent out in random batches" explanation is what's going on (but it's difficult to sell that to D).</p>
<p>LOL- plainsmans your d is chosing between Penn State vs Muhlenberg. Could you have a bigger difference in environments. </p>
<p>Late last Fall I spent a weekend at Penn State, after having attended the ND vs Penn State ( son is junior at ND) football game earlier in the season.
I really loved it I returned for a weekend visit, relishing the lovely 'college town', all the activities and interesting things going on.
From the Penn State campus, we drove straight to Muhlenberg for Parent's Weekend visit with D. </p>
<p>I truly see the best of both those worlds!
Good luck with that decision. </p>
<p>(My husband and I both think a Penn State campus looks exciting, because we know what it is like to "outgrow" those smaller LACs. On the other hand, we don't know what it is like to be more a 'number' at a large school. )</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom: So true! The two schools couldn't be more different. We're not rich and I already have another child in college, so the final decision will be influenced to some degree by money. If D can get enough grant money/scholarship to bring the cost down close to the 24k tab at PSU, that's when the decision will be really difficult.</p>
<p>Waitlisted today but not heartbroken. My son lost interest and never bothered to interview. I know they do put decent weight on the interview so he basically blew any chance he may have had.</p>
<p>Things are getting complicated. My D received three more decisions today. One accept, one waitlist, and one rejection:</p>
<p>Oberlin College: Accepted! A REACH! A Top 20 LAC!
Lehigh U.: Waitlisted! She doesn’t care. She’s decided Lehigh is too culturally conservative. SHE GOT INTO OBERLIN!
Wesleyan U.: Rejected! She doesn’t care. SHE GOT INTO OBERLIN!</p>
<p>Her list so far:</p>
<p>Ursinus College (match): Accepted; only 10K in grant money for year one only; forget about it
Penn State-University Park (match): Accepted; candidate for four-year, full-ride fellowship; holding our breath and crossing our fingers
Muhlenberg College (match): Accepted; financial aid decision pending–will there be a miracle?
Dickinson College (slight reach): Accepted; $21,500 in grant aid for year one only; thinking about it
Lehigh University (Reach): Waitlisted; forget about it. She can’t even remember why she applied to this school
Oberlin College (Reach): Accepted. Miracles DO happen! YES!!! And four-year scholarship for 12K per year; other financial aid still pending.</p>
<p>Pending:
Cornell U.: (Reach)
Swarthmore (Super Reach)
Brown (Super Reach)
Amherst (Super Reach)</p>
<p>Keep hope alive everyone! It is possible to be admitted to a real reach. My daughter just did it. :)</p>
<p>Plainsman - Congratulations to you, your daughter and your family. We are very happy for her.</p>
<p>Plainsman congratulations ! Such great, amazing news!!! Love it when the college process goes so well. Keep the good news coming</p>
<p>waitlisted but not terribly disappointed</p>
<p>My daughter got wait listed for Frannklin and Marshall. Not too disappointed. I am happy for all the students who are getting accetped where they want to go. I just have a question about reach schools. Aren’t the students concerned that it will be really tough to keep up the grades since you are on the lower end of the scale? That is one of the reasons we didn’t apply to Swarthmore. Happy about getting into Muhlenberg!!!</p>
<p>S got Waitlisted…he’s very disappointed…that was his first choice,probably should have applied ED but that didn’t like the best way to go in the Fall…he sent in the Keep me on your Waitlist card…you never know!</p>
<p>Soozi1: I think you’re assuming that grades in college will fall neatly into an order based on standardized test scores before applying. Real life doesn’t work that way. It’s like assuming football (or any other team sport) team A will always beat football team B because football team A is much more impressive on paper. But there’s an expression in sports: “This is why you have to play the game.” It often doesn’t work out the way it looks on paper. </p>
<p>OBerlin was a reach for my D because of test scores (below the 50% range) but not grades. Her GPA is higher than the average GPA for admittees at Oberlin. So which is more important, if any? Grades or test scores? Probably neither one because you have to include motivation, initiative, heart, and other factors that have nothing to do with high school stats and can’t be quantified. I think the admissions committee at Oberlin saw those intangibles in my D’s essays and ECs.</p>
<p>On paper, my D had no business applying to Swarthmore, Cornell, Brown, Wesleyan, Amherst, Oberlin or Lehigh. But she did anyway. Why not? So she was rejected by Wesleyan? No surprise, right? And she was waitlisted by Lehigh. She’s already tossed the “stay on the waitlist” card into the trash. She’s decided Lehigh is just too doggone conservative for her. Yet, she got waitlisted at a school that one would think would reject her out right. Then she got in to Oberlin. All of this happened today. </p>
<p>I look at the application process as akin to Prez Obama’s 50 state strategy during he campaign. The old paradigm was “don’t spend resources campaigning in states that traditionally shun members of your party in presidential elections. Stay out of the red states. Only campaign where it’s “safe,” i.e., the Blue States.” Well, Obama didn’t listen, and wound up flipping NINE red states—turning them blue in 2008. He won where he wasn’t supposed to win, and still hung on to every state where it was believed he should win.</p>
<p>That’s the strategy I got my daughter to follow in the college application process. Apply to the schools where you have a high level of confidence that you’re going to get in: Penn State-University Park, Muhlenberg, Ursinus, and Dickinson. She got into all of them. But also have the “Audacity of Hope” (to steal an Obama line) and go after schools where one of your stats (grades or test scores) is not competitive–below the 50% range of admittees, but try to position yourself favorably through your essays. </p>
<p>It has worked. Out of seven reaches, she’s gotten four decisions: one accept, one reject, one waitlist. You would think she would’ve gotten three outright rejections, but that didn’t happen.</p>
<p>Enjoytheadventur and SouthJerseyChessMom: Thank you, I’ll pass it on to my D. And good luck to you and your teenagers. I hope they each get their first choice.</p>