At some point, all students have to endure the stress-inducing admissions process. Millions of high school students across the world pour their blood, sweat and tears into their applications in hopes of making it into the college of their choice. After months of essay writing, editing, and interviews, students all across the country are anxiously awaiting their college decisions.
The sad truth is that most deserving applicants will be denied admission, while a lucky few are accepted. But whatever outcome is, be it a screen with a bland background and a polite letter of denial or a confetti-filled screen of admission, know that college admissions represents a tiny sliver of your life, and you aren’t defined by it. Besides, you should rest assured knowing that college admission officers are methodically checking every application to ensure the best fit (or playing rock-scissors when they come across an especially tough call). But either way, the college admissions process is understandably very stressful for many students. This article will give tips on how to handle the process and outcome of college admissions.
When applying:
DO: stalk all of the social media accounts of your interviewer (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest,etc). Make sure to use all of the information to your advantage to maximize the connection between the interviewer and you.
DO NOT: wait until the last minute to work on your college application. Even if you got through high school pushing all of your work to the last minute, it’s probably for the best that you get started on your applications early.
DO: take a bunch of AP’s, this is a surefire way to boost your chances of acceptance. In addition, it’s absolutely imperative that you take AP Lunch, as many top tier colleges look for this class in your transcript.
DO NOT: not have a parent that went to the school that you applied for—this is very important if you want to increase your chances. If this isn’t possible, donating a tidy sum toward a building may work as a substitute.
When decisions roll in:
When the fateful day arrives, it’s extremely important that you gather as many people into your residence as humanly possible. This includes your family, friends, schoolmates, colleagues, neighbors, and the mailman. The more people, the more drama. Then, you want to film your reaction in the case that you are admitted. This step is of utmost importance, so if you see rainbow confetti peppering your screen, you and your loved ones can jump and scream in excitement. A couple emotional hugs, thirty seconds of screaming “I GOT IN, I GOT IN!” and a parent giving a speech on how proud they are of their brilliant child is best to have. Bonus points if you're able to push out a few tears, or even faint.
The reason you want to have all of this drama on video is so that later you can upload the video to YouTube, and hopefully get a couple thousand views. This will help to cushion the financial damage to your family's wallet. Not by much, but hey, every penny counts.
And if the lottery system college admissions process didn’t provide you with an acceptance letter to the college you wanted, don’t worry—it doesn’t mean anything. You can make any school your perfect fit by being true to yourself as a student, and you still have the rest of your life to pursue all your dreams and passions.