It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

Many of you worked hard early this year on applications that were due the first week of November. Congrats! Pulling together a college application at the beginning of your first semester senior year can be tough. College can seem kind of abstract and far away. Having the maturity to think about your future before it’s looking you straight in the face is something that makes you stand out in the crowd.

But it’s not quite time to exhale. Not yet.

While the admissions officers at your EA or ED colleges are busy reading your essays, checking out your transcripts, and seeing how you might fit into their next freshman class, give yourself a few days to rest. Go to the movies with a friend. Stay up late reading a fun book. Take a long drive. Do whatever you love to do to relax and reward yourself.

Then take a deep breath. It ain’t over ’til it’s over.

Lots of colleges have deadlines in the next few weeks. They might be EA or ED or they might be regular decision dates. Regardless, your college application process isn’t finished yet. It’s tempting to want to wait and see what the colleges decide. After all, if you get in to your first choice school through an early app schedule, you’re done! You’ve made your choice. You can easily answer the question people are going to keep asking you all year: “Where are you going to college?”

But what if the decision comes back: “Denied”?

Or “Deferred”?

If you don’t keep working on your other applications, not only will you be super bummed that you didn’t get in to a college early, you’ll also have to motivate yourself to keep working in the shadow of that denial or deferral. That’s a really tough thing to do.

Instead, put that early app out of your mind. It’s out of your hands for the next few weeks, anyway. What is in your control, however, is how you approach the next applications.

P.S. This advice applies to my students who applied and were accepted into schools that offer rolling admissions. Relax, the pressure’s off – you got in SOMEWHERE. But keep up your motivation. You want to give yourself as many choices as possible next spring.