Admissions Decisions: Life is like a box of chocolates…

Decisions for early action, early decision, and rolling admissions applications are currently coming out. The decisions may be: accepted, deferred, or denied. Here are my thoughts on each of these outcomes.

Accepted
Congratulations! If you’re admitted to a college, that’s great news. If you applied early decision (the binding one!) to this college, you’ll need to withdraw your other applications from consideration. If not, you have until May 1 to make your final decision. Keep an eye on emails for scholarship opportunities and housing information.

Deferred
This is not a denial. Deferred can mean many things, including, you may get into this college come March. Colleges defer for a number of reasons, including:

*They’ve received too many applications in the early action period and cannot physically get through them all
*A student has a promising record, but most of their rigor courses are stacked in the latter half of their education (junior and senior year); the college wants to see first-term grades.
*They need an overall picture of applications from the regular decision to make final choices.
*They want to protect their acceptance rate and accept students they’re sure will attend, i.e., who sticks it out with them to the end.

If you are deferred at an institution, be sure to follow their instructions. They may have a form in their portal for you to fill out, or they may want updates to your self-reported academic record. Some colleges will accept a letter of continued interest in which you reiterate your interest in their college along with updates to your resume.

Denied
This is where the chocolate box analogy comes in. It’s one of my favorites for understanding selective admissions. Since it’s gift-giving season, imagine you want to buy a nice box of chocolate truffles from your favorite local chocolatier. At the display case, you’re weighing your options for your eventual box of 16 chocolates. They all look delicious, but you want to ensure a variety for your recipient, thus you choose: one dark chocolate, one with nuts, one with a fruit, one with caramel, a white chocolate, a milk chocolate, etc., until you’ve filled the 16 spots. You had to make some really tough choices because, like I said, the entire display case looks amazing. It turns out, colleges are just shopping for a chocolate gift box.

I hope this helps, go eat some chocolate while you await your decisions!