…and if you know what EA (early action, which is non-binding early decision) and ED (early decision) are, you probably also have a child who is a senior in high school and is applying to college.
Anyway, CairoSon went Early Action at a school he absolutely adored, dreamed of, deeply, deeply, deeply wanted to attend. And just got rejected. Not accepted, not even deferred, REJECTED.
Life goes on in our household. Dealing with rejection is not a bad thing, and there are still 9 other schools out there that he’s applying to. He’ll do fine, even though at the moment all of us feel a little on the weepy side.
Other kids and parents are dealing with happy and sad news now too. Cheers and hurrays for those of you hearing happy news, and a sympathetic hug if the news isn’t what you were hoping for.
Sorry to hear that. It feels like the end of the world, but sometimes it’s for the best. Same thing happened to me way back when; I applied ED for my dream school - DREAM SCHOOL - and got flat-out rejected. I honestly thought I had a decent chance at getting in, but I was so wrong that I didn’t even get deferred. I was so embarrassed, however, that I told everyone I had. I think I was the only kid rejected in the early cycle in my class.
Anyway, I decided to go to a different college and then later transfer into dream school. I got accepted the second time around, but by then I had a better idea of what I wanted out of college, and I actually turned them down to go elsewhere.
I thought something completely different when I saw “ED disappointment” (not that I have any experience with that), and was trying to figure out what “EA” stood for. Absence? Abatement? Atrophy? Apathy?
LOL. For a young man entering his prime years, I suspect that Early Decision disappointment, however much a slap in the face it might seem, is FAR better than a permanent case of the other kind of ED.
Yep, we’re living the dream, too. WordBoy just got rejected from his early school. Rats. Some of his friends have gotten word from Ivys and other target schools. He feels like things have ratcheted up and I feel for him. He has a bunch more - likely 8 or 9, with some he’s really interested in.
It is hard, but sharing helps I have two friends here who also have sons who are seniors in high school and we are supporting each other (no one has heard any great news yet, although there was one deferral to a dream school, so there is a spark of hope still in that family).
Months ago when this process started I was very philosophical, knew perfectly well that that rejection was the most likely outcome, and I’ve been saying all along that if CairoSon attends one of his safety schools, it will still be fantastic. In the greater scheme of things, a few college rejections are nothing. If that’s the biggest disappointment he ever has, what a charmed life he’ll lead.
But despite weeks of reminding ourselves that statistically speaking rejection was highly likely, it still stings!
Fortunately CairoSon seems okay, though he’s definitely bummed. Wordman, I’m sorry Wordboy got unwanted news as well.
I’m not sure I get the meaning of this comment, though it sounds like good advice. If you care to elaborate, please do.
(As for us, we started an education fund for our son when he was a baby. It will see him through college, not grad school. We are happy to keep him from starvation in grad school by helping out, but do view the majority of the responsibility as his at that point.)
Thanks and best of luck sent your and CairoSon’s way, too.
I feel for my son about having to deal with the stress over a longer decision period, but am okay with this Early rejection. It felt very much at risk for a Small Fish/Huge Pond situation for him. I’d rather he was a Medium-to-Big Fish in a Small-to-Medium Pond, if you follow.
Hey, he just got a rejection from MIT this morning. (They go “live” with EA decisions at 6:28, because that’s the value of tau.)
I feel obliged to specifically point this out in part because I got derided for sneak-bragging in a different thread about the fact CairoSon was applying. Honestly, I found that odd, because anyone can apply. It’s GETTING IN that is worth bragging about. Well, CairoSon did NOT get in. And I am not a braggart. So there
Living outside the states means that my usual clueless state is magnified from “slightly out of it” to “monumentally ignorant at times.”
Urbanredneck, you’ve got the right idea. It annoys me that we are on this whole selective-school treadmill in the first place. Frankly, I blame US News & World Report. And I’m only partly tongue in cheek when I say that - I felt immediately hostile the first time I saw one of their college rankings. It was such an obvious ploy to sell magazines, and yet the whole f-ing system has gotten caught up in it, to the detriment of almost everyone involved.
Yes, it is very delicate, which is why I am not naming schools if I can avoid it - when there is something tangible, it will be worth mentioning. Even while the specific schools have implications on the process and stress our kids our working through. Sorry to hear about MIT.
A student can pick 1 school to apply for Early Decision/Early Action to. Sometimes more than one if, say, one is private and one is a state college. Clearly CairoSon had MIT as an Early, but yes, all applicants have a number schools that are respected in the same areas, etc., but the deadline is the start of 2016.
Well, not “just MIT.” He’s applying to a bunch of other schools, after all.
But MIT (which incidentally wasn’t his first choice anyway - though it was a high #2) has special significance to us. Without going into detail, let’s just say that both his mom and dad have close ties to the school, and CairoSon made his first visit there well before the college stuff started. He genuinely knew the school culture and loved it. Hell, the kid grew up hearing MIT hack stories which his parents witnessed first hand.
As an only child of people who were DINKs for years before he was born, CairoSon is not a candidate for most scholarships/financial aid. (And by the way, I fully support need-blind admissions: if he lost a place to some kid who needs a full scholarship, that’s terrific and I’m glad for the other kid.)
You are quite right about “where you went to school doesn’t matter” for the most part. Unfortunately my son is a single-minded lover of theoretical physics: that (and animal welfare) are practically the ONLY things he cares about. He aspires to being a physics professor somewhere where he can teach students who are passionate about physics the way he is, at the same time he has access to great research opportunities (of course, being at CERN or SURF would be even better, but he realizes that’s even less likely than getting into MIT). If that’s what you want out of life (and not money/job prestige in the business world) … then yeah, you probably have to position yourself as an undergraduate to end up doing great Ph.D work someday. Does that mean you should probably go to MIT rather than UH if you can? Yeah, maybe.
I have two friends here who also have sons who are seniors in high school and we are supporting each other (no one has heard any great news yet, although there was one deferral to a dream school, so there is a spark of hope still in that family).
