It's College Acceptance Season (Try to be Cool About It!)

[Prairie Gates]

Tomorrow, December 15, is one of the big days in the college application season, with many schools sending out their acceptances (and rejections) for students who sought Early Decisions (ED). Many students who applied early under Early Action (EA) have also been receiving answers over the last few weeks, with more coming out before Christmas and into January.

So, if you have high school seniors or other possible applicants in your life (or their parents!), be nice. Be chiil. Even if you're down on college, as so many here seem to be, be encouraging and congratulate and mirror their joy. These kids work incredibly hard these days, and many manage a colege application process almost infiinitely more difficult than the one you undertook. Top schools and even mid-range schools are way more difficult to get into now - yes, they are. These kids work their butts off.

It might also be a time of sadness for some, as their dream schools say no, or their parents say, yes, well, you got into X, but we really can't make that happen. Be supportive!

This is an exciting time! For students who ED'd, they are pretty much making their decision NOW. If they ED'd to UPenn, and they get in, they're pretty much pledged to UPenn. be happy for them. If they really want to go to Middle Tennessee (a good school!), be chill! Congratulate.

There will be a time for your opinions about this or that college, or college in general. But this isn't really it. This is a time to celebrate accomplishments.

[Xolodno]

1. Heh...I got acceptance's where I shouldn't. Or at least I thought so at the time.

I applied to a number "lower" tiered schools and got rejected by all of them (even had a contingency plan for a few JC's). But the schools with a higher reputation all wanted to take me in. In my third year I was surrounded by classmates that went to Dartmouth, Harvard, etc. for a couple of years, they came back "home" because their parents couldn't afford ivy league tuition (in my case, there were times I would open the fridge and wonder why it was even on as there was nothing in it). My father didn't even know I was at a university and a hard one to get into until one of his customers told him...a couple of years later.

Looking back, maybe I should have applied to Yale (didn't because I had to be shrewd with some application fee's, many were waived but not all). Hell, while in college, I was talking with other classmates who were looking to go to the IMF to work and some others from the Mid-East asking me to work for their respective governments/companies (I turned them down, ah yes...hindsight).

But I still did well. Less than a month ago I got back from a vacation in Egypt. And I'm typing this from a resort near Yosemite and not from our family place also nearby since the septic is backed up (we had a party).

[Prairie Gates]

4. Well done!

[petronius]

2. My school stopped doing early decision 7-8 years ago because

lower-income students--who wouldn't know the extent of their financial aid by ED time--couldn't take advantage of it. We had two subsequent outcomes: a much more diverse freshman class than previously, but we also apparently made some incorrect assumptions about commitment rates and ended up with ~1000 more freshmen than expected. Bit of a pig-in-the-python issue that probably gave the schedulers some sleepless nights...

[Prairie Gates]

3. I think ED actually cuts out more middle income people than lower income

At the top end and bottom end of the spectrum, you can be fairly well assured of the kind of resources you have or aid you'll get, so you can roll the dice on an ED pledge. ED schools are also increasingly giving aid "reads" that will allow you to switch to EA if you're not going to be able to swing it. But it's really the people in the middle - income too high to get much aid, too low to fully commit to full freight costs - that are avoiding EDs.

Just as added fun, the FAFSA is completely reconfigured this year, and is not due until January! So the aid situation is really up in the air for many families.