What to do during the wait? Fall in love.

Applying to College
1

<p>So all of you have either sent off your apps, or are about to. Besides making sure your teacher recommendations and school reports got there, there's nothing you can do to increase your chances to get in. It's just a waiting game now, right?</p>

<p>I'm sure almost all of you have one or two "dream schools" that you'd love to go to, such as MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. Whatever your dream may be, the fact is, you applied to several other schools, just in case you don't get into your first choice. Many of these would be local state schools or slightly smaller institutions. Of course, you don't want to go to these schools, you want to go to your dream school, the place you've longed to go to since you were three years old. But what if the inevitable happens? What if... this school rejects you?</p>

<p>Fall in love. </p>

<p>The only thing you can do during this time is to fall in love with all of your choices, reaches, matches and safeties. You have to be ecstatic about an admission from ANY SINGLE ONE of your schools. If you were rejected from every other school but accepted to only your last choice, you should still be overjoyed.</p>

<p>You may be wondering, how can I do this? Do more research about the school, find out everything. There's bound to be one unique aspect of this school that appeals to you. Once you find it, reflect on it. Build on this passion. Make it so that you'd even turn down your number one choice to go to this school. Then repeat for every other school on your list.</p>

<p>Example:
My list is as follows:
MIT - Dream school
Caltech - Same here
Stanford - Same here
Cornell - Amazing academics, college-town atmosphere
Carnegie Mellon - Amazing academics, very technologically based environment
Rice - Residential college system is amazing
UCB - Top class academics + CALIFORNIA
UCLA - Same as UCB
Texas at Austin - Very prestigious engineering program, Austin is an amazing city
Texas A&M - Very patriotic school about their alma mater
Waterloo University - One of the best engineering programs in Canada, Microsoft hires directly from graduates
U of Toronto - Huge University, in Toronto
Queens - Party school, 24/7</p>

<p>Well, I've fallen in love with my schools. Now, I challenge you to do the same. I hope this post has given some of you something to do besides sit around and worry.</p>

2

<p>How about, not thinking about it until you get in :P</p>

<p>Fall in love in real life and you’ll forget about college altogether. THen april hits, and BANG! Oh yahhhh, hahahah.</p>

3

<p>Well… What if i don’t want to fall in love with my non-dream schools? Not that I don’t think I’d like it there (I think I’d be happy pretty much anywhere) but I feel like I’d kind of be cushioning the impact. And jinxing my own chances. I don’t know. (: I think I’d rather fall 110% in love with one school now and be really devastated than pick things about other schools out. I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t like them somewhat, anyway. </p>

<p>Still it’s great that you’re in love with all your schools!!!</p>

4

<p>Well, just looking through your old posts, you’re applying to harvard, which i’m sure is your #1 choice. However, regardless of how qualified you are, it still only accepts 10% of applicants. If you really love this school, you’re obviously going to be insanely happy if you get in. However, given the very real chance that they overlook your application, what will you do? It may just be cushioning the impact, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It can potentially make you look a lot more positively on the next four years of your life. Instead of thinking how you’re going into a second-rate and second-choice school, you can think of how happy you are to be where you are.</p>

<p>Just a suggestion though. If you’re extremely confident of your acceptance into a particular college, you should be as excited as you want.</p>

5

<p>I totally agree with the second-rate thing, but well there have been times that I haven’t gotten what I really wanted and I got over it. There are a couple of months between admission decisions and the beginning of term; I think I’d be excited enough by then! Honestly I love my school - all the schools I’ve been to in fact - and I’m pretty sure I’d love wherever I go to. But I don’t know, maybe I just want to keep the dream going for a little longer. (Yeah, you’re a lot more rational than me)</p>

<p>Btw Harvard isn’t my #1 choice :)</p>

6

<p>

Hmmmm…</p>

7

<p>Good idea. I agree with your outlook. But do I love all of my apps right now? Not at all. I’m going to work to learn more about them and think of life with the glass half full perspective…</p>

8

<p>Hmmm. </p>

<p>Yale- The “dream” school.
Dartmouth- The other “dream” school.
Cornell- The “Eh, I don’t really like Ithaca, but I like the idea of going to an Ivy League university, so it wouldn’t be horrible because I could end up at a local community college instead” university. I like Cornell, just not necessarily Ithaca.
Tufts- Probably the best match for me. It’s not pretentious, people are intelligent, not too many parties, great academics, tons of clubs, kind of liberal yet still moderate, lots of diversity, people like to study abroad and do double majors, etc. Plus, it’s in Boston, which is always a plus. I would be very happy just to get into Tufts.
Brandeis- According to my parents, the “Why are you applying to a Jewish university?” university. I like Brandeis because it’s small, in Boston, and has great academics. :slight_smile: Plus, it’s private, which means probably some pretty good financial aid.
UMich- The “I’m not a football fan, or any sports fan for that matter, but I’ll GO BLUE because I like Ann Arbor that much” university. I’ll be happy if I can just get into UMich too. :slight_smile: I have pretty good chances, so it’s realistic.
UC Berkeley- The “diversity” paradise. I wish I were a California resident…
University of Washington-The “I really want to get out of Arizona” university.
University of Arizona-The “at least it’s free” university. </p>

<p>Yeah, I’m pretty happy with my list. I think I have enough realistic matches with my dream schools, unless someone wants to disagree with me.</p>

9

<p>lchal, are you seriously doubting that cornell has amazing academics? cc’ers have something wrong in the head.</p>

10

<p>Yeah, I don’t think anyone can deny that Cornell has great academics, being Ivy League, and at that, one of the toughest Ivy Leagues.</p>

11

<p>fall in love, rejection letter ‘sorry’, heartbreak, tears, regrets.</p>

12

<p>Ohio State- Close enough to home, but not too close (2 hours); Great competitive Biomedical Sciences Major; Early Admissions to Medical School; Dirt cheap with my scholarships
Case Western- I can come home whenever I want; $$$ in scholarships; Mom is down there a lot, so if I need anything…; Med school chances are good.
University of Michigan- Considering I will most likely be attending OSU and I have been an OSU fan all my life, I don’t think I can actually love this school. booo!
Yale- Dreaming…
Johns Hopkins- Unbeatable in Pre-med and BME.
Duke- Good School; Good weather; Good Pre-med and BME.
University of Maryland- Can get out of state for cheap.
Vanderbilt- Good Weather
WUStL- Great pre-med and scholarships
UChicago- Intellectual
University of Washington- RAIN AND OVERCAST!! Really far away.</p>

13

<p>I’ve already gotten into my 2 top choice schools so all I have to do is visit them I guess… =/</p>

14

<p>Claremont McKenna College-I love this school. Weather, academics, atmosphere, everything.<br>
Pomona College-dream school x2. Except it doesn’t have accounting as a major, which is a tiny downer.
Georgetown University-ehh. I won’t get in anyways, my subject test scores were horrible. But it used to be my dream school! Even on the impossible chance that I get in, I’ll get $0 probably. So this is the 1 school I’m kind-of ignoring.<br>
George Washington University-I’m too lazy to apply to the honors program. But I love the fact that it’s in D.C. + possible internship opportunities.
Northeastern University-Love the co-op program. Kinda too far for me though, Boston? Still could have a good time here, i bet<br>
Michigan State University-My number 1 safety, almost number 1 choice. Decent sports w/ football team, great honors program/public policy college, will get $$, love it overall. Just not as warm as California (pretty much only downer, aside from the fact that other Asian parents keep on bothering me about how important college rankings are. please…)
University of Arizona-Love the weather. Safety<br>
University of Alaska-Anchorage-Uhh.. If I go here I won’t be broke and I’ll get to live at home with my dear mommy and daddy and mooch off their delicious food?</p>

15

<p>

Cornell and Dartmouth are known to be the joke ivies. You’ve got kids who are rejected from brown, penn, and yale, accepted to arizona state and michigan, getting accepted to cornell. Maybe they’ve got excellent academics, but I was simply doubting it because there’s so many students that are perfect matches for state schools getting accepted there. And regarding dartmouth, I know a professor who’s taught there and he STRONGLY recommended that I don’t apply, because the course level is so silly and in <em>GENERAL</em>, kids just don’t want to learn there.</p>