<p>Discussing the January to March stress period, especial for the HS class of '08</p>
<p>a few excerpts....</p>
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...you understand that though senior year should be an upbeat, optimistic time of life, for many tis truly the winter of their discontent or at least high anxiety as they wait to hear from the colleges to which they applied. In mid-December, they rejoiced or commiserated with classmates who had applied for early decision or early action. And now the long wait for the regular and the deferred-until-spring decisions sets in.</p>
<p>What you may not know is that January through mid-March are the cruelest of months worse this year because seniors face an unusual demographic convergence. The majority of the class of 2008 was born in its generations peak birth year, 1990, making them the largest graduating class in two decades. They are also going on to higher education in record numbers.
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Folks on both sides of the application process are praying for a miracle. Some of the states busiest admissions offices are in overdrive and runnin on Dunkin, having worked through the holiday break, which brought massive mail dumps of applications. They are hiring extra experienced reviewers and putting in overtime on evenings and weekends. </p>
<p>Oh, if you could see what I see, said Joan Mohr, vice president and dean of admissions at Quinnipiac University, where applications rose 20 percent over last year. All this paper. Its a tactical nightmare.
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Just how jittery are students and parents? Karen Pellegrino, director of undergraduate admissions at Fairfield University, who has 22 years experience in the field, the last four at Fairfield, called the anxiety level this season extraordinary. </p>
<p>Case in point: One parent desperate for information called the university mail room and asked workers to locate the schools reply to an early-action application. They wanted to know whether the envelope was fat or thin, Ms. Pellegrino said.
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I can certainly understand why students are applying to more places, because its much harder to predict who will get in anywhere these days. What has he been hearing from high school counselors on the front lines? My sense is that they tend to be a bit frustrated by publications that rank schools, he said. The same institutions appear on all the lists, and students overlook hundreds of excellent schools.</p>
<p>Ms. Pellegrino of Fairfield has also noticed distressing signs at the secondary level: I have heard from students, counselors and teachers that heightened levels of anxiety are at the point of being destructive in the high school environment. I think they feel less collegial and more competitive with fellow students. And as theres more hype about this mysterious process, they feel theyre being evaluated based on who else is applying rather than who they are. At this level of competition, their place, their sense of self-worth is being taken from them.
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None of the admissions officers interviewed expressed much hope that the situation would improve anytime soon, though birth statistics show that next years senior class will be smaller. Ms. Mohr of Quinnipiac said she dispensed a small bromide when addressing prospective applicants. I ask them, Who do you think goes through the most stress: You or your parents? Wrong, she said. The answer is neither. We go through this every year. And in the end, youll reject far more of us.
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