Ah, good luck! (I haven’t even finished any of my applications yet, much less sent them in. The one for the University of Chicago is due January 1st. Argh!)
Soooo…perhaps you should feel happy that you aren’t a procrastinating bum like me? Just chant “I could’ve waited until November to start working on my applications and ended up waiting until May for my decision, but I didn’t so I am a good person.” It’s a bit long for a chant, though, so perhaps you could turn it into a song?
This isn’t helping, is it? (It’s amusing me, if that helps. :)) Ah, well, I can offer no distractions beyond handing over my English paper and letting you finish it for me. But best of luck anyway.
I’ve applied early-action (the one where they tell you early, but you don’t commit) to Worcester Polytechnic Institute and MIT (ambitious, aren’t I?) and am also fidgetting around. University of Kentucky has accepted me, but they’re my “safety” school, so I’m not overawed. WPI should have sent out replies by now, and MIT say they will in “mid-December”…
You are not alone in your impatience. I wish they’d just send you a scratch-off ticket with your application. Scratch it off to reveal the decision, and then send in the application.
Best of luck to you, HerMajestyLorna! You too, JessEnigma!
Thanks for well-wishes…and good luck to you too, DarkMika. I know someone applying to MIT also (and Harvard!). He doesn’t seem too terribly optimistic about either, though.
Sometimes it seems like half the people I know are going Ivy League. In addition to MIT-Harvard-Carnegie Mellon guy, there’s a classmate of mine applying to Princeton and apparently every other remotely prestigious college in the known universe if you listen to him talk. Then I remember that everyone else in my class is discussing roommates at UTK or Clemson, so obviously, not everyone is even going prestigious here. It just feels that way when you get that supercompetitive tension in the air. Calculus class is fun, I tell you…everyone sits around and compares GPAs and ACT scores.
I’m just distracting myself from my English paper again by vaguely ranting, so off I go again. Soon to be done…
My school is very noncompetitive in the academics arena. In my Calculus class, we help each other with physics or chemistry homework, or play chess. Very low-pressure.
The guy that intimidates everyone else with his brilliance (you know the type-- he’s terribly bright, but doesn’t seem to care–Apparently I’m that type of person, too, because I got voted “most studious”) was going to apply to MIT, but he chickened out. We compare ACT and SAT scores the day we get them back, but no one lords them over anyone else.
I’m not applying to many schools… just three. I figure I’ve got my bases covered. UK is affordable, WPI is expensive, but where my dad went, and MIT is, well, MIT.
ultrafilter, my mother won’t let me have that worry. She’s promised to hand me that letter, opened, with either a smile or a beer. I hope it’s a smile-- I don’t drink.
Well, okay, I was exaggerating a bit. My calculus class tends to sit around and complain about English homework more than anything. The test scores only emerge when it’s useful to tease MIT-Harvard-Carnegie Mellon guy and Drew, General Boy Wonder, and grades only show up when discussing class rank (thankfully, a topic that doesn’t come up too terribly much) and finals.
Well, test scores do come up a bit more often. Two students in the past three years have gotten a 36 on their ACT and people wonder who will be the next one. So that comes up in conversation…things can get a bit heated in those situations (long-standing rivalries and ingrained reputations to uphold and all). But it’s not so bad. It was worse last year, but now everybody seems to be just coasting on sheer reputation alone. We’re all tired.
How big is your school? We have a graduating class of about 308 students, last I checked.
There’s one Junior that I know is terribly competitive-- he’s on the football team, president of JSA, something else, and is trying to get into West Point. He takes senior-level classes, and is in my Chem II class. He’s set himself up in a one-sided competition with the senior Wonder Boy I mentioned. SWB either hasn’t noticed or doesn’t care. All us seniors think it’s funny.
Uhm… Nuh-uh. I’m sure we’ve all seen that tension-filled moment when our favorite television character opens the envelope to read his future, but that’s not the way it works in the real world.
You know as soon as you see the envelope: Big envelope = admittance. Small envelope = denial. Cause, see, they won’t bother sending you housing information and other things if you don’t get accepted, and there’s no reason to send the acceptance and the extra information in separate mailings.
Actually, unless you get home early or your parents have a good poker face, you know as soon as you walk in the door.
Actually, one of the admissions letter I received came in a small envelope. UF decided to send me a small envelope to tell me I was accepted. Which I sort of suspected since the envelopes for housing and scholarhips arrived before the acceptance letter.
The grad school acceptance also came in a small envelope - housing info and financial aid came later, so I got the letter and was stressing a little (since I only applied to one program) before I opened it.
Best of luck to everyone who is waiting to hear from schools (I still think you should all have applied to Colby up in Maine).
My UK acceptance letter was small, but it didn’t stress me out. UK was my gimmee school.
What’s weird is that I sent my UK application out about a week after my MIT and WPI applications. My WPI application was at least 15 days early… I guess I’m just impatient.
I used to work in admissions and we sent out a very nice, very individualized letter to our admittees. All the other crap came later, so yes the envelope was thin. I heard a few applicants heard it freaked them out.
Well. It could be worse. You could be orthodox jew and the letter arrives on a Saturday, when you can’t open the envelope!!
(I served as a Shabbat goy for an orthodox friend who got notice of her article’s acceptance for publication on a Saturday…)
My calculus class tends to sit around and complain about English homework more than anything. The test scores only emerge when it’s useful to tease MIT-Harvard-Carnegie Mellon guy and Drew, General Boy Wonder, and grades only show up when discussing class rank (thankfully, a topic that doesn’t come up too terribly much) and finals.