There’s nothing like bringing in the mail and finding that large envelope between the Victoria’s Secret catalog and some random bills addressed to your parents. Your heart pounds as you tear it open and find out that you’ve been accepted to the school of your dreams. You can barely sleep that night, excited to run into school the next day sporting the shirt you bought during your campus tour, telling every one of your peers, teachers, and even the lunch ladies where you’ll be headed next year while your parents are at home preparing your deposit and sending e-mails notifying the other universities you were accepted to that they can suck it you won’t be attending.

But what if, some time later, you found out that THEY TOOK IT BACK!? (Cue the tears, hair pulling, “I can’t show my face at graduation!” etc.)

Luckily, most of us don’t have to experience that sort of shame and disappointment, but that was a very real scenario for 30 high school seniors with their hearts set on Georgetown. Recently, the biology department accidentally sent congratulatory e-mails to thirty students that had not actually been accepted, but were flagged by the admissions department as “likely.” Noticing their error, the department later sent another e-mail explaining the mistake and giving their heartfelt apologies.

Because an “I’m sorry” email can make up for the cruel “Welcome to Georgetown…oh wait…SIIIKE!”

The good news is that those pegged as a “likely” applicant means they have a very good chance of acceptance unless they run into a disciplinary problem or their grades decline. The bad news is that, unlike every other high school senior out there, they’ll actually have to do their schoolwork during their senior year.

Even though my days of filling out college applications are long gone, I can still remember the frustration of trying to set myself apart from my classmates. AP classes. National Honor Society. Varsity Soccer. Spanish Club. The list goes on.

The trouble is, nowadays, colleges across the country receive thousands of applications from students with exceptional grades, tons of extra-curriculars, volunteer work, and a stellar essay (even if it’s BS).

So how does one prove themselves more worthy than their peers?
Tufts University thinks that YouTube is the way to go.

Ever since Legally Blonde came out, I’ve always thought a college application video was a great idea! And apparently, so do a lot of other people. So far this reading season, Tufts has received about 1,000 1-minute long vids showcasing everything from weird talents to remote-control elephants to DJing at a rave (yes, really).

While videos may not be the best way for a high school senior to choose their dream school (may I suggest a campus tour?), they just might be the new best way for colleges to choose their incoming student body! Wouldn’t you want your school to see who you REALLY are, rather than just a list of your (totally exaggerated) accomplishments typed out in size 12 Times New Roman? After all, we’re so much more than that! Our friends and family love us for our quirks, why shouldn’t the Dean of Admissions?

Even though I didn’t have the chance to do this back in ’07, I think it would be cool if other schools followed in Tufts’ footsteps and gave students another way to set themselves apart. After all, college admissions is one of the most important times in a young person’s life – if they’re gonna do it, they should be able to do it right.

What do you guys think?

As the majority of the readers on this site will know, college admissions are a painful and infuriating process. Nowadays our society puts so much pressure on us to attend good schools that many of us begin to feel that, should we not get into college, we’ll be living in refrigerator boxes on the street. (Although it was brought to my attention that, if you’re lucky, you could end up being one of the slightly more fortunate homeless people of California that get one of these cool portable shelters. Doesn’t really make you feel better, but good to know.)

Statistically, my class (2009) is due for the worst admissions season yet.

The root of the problem lies in “boom and bust” population demographics. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the baby boomers generation began to have children and thus created another wave of growth. As this new generation began to enter high school and apply to college, the number of applications began to increase and the number of students admitted decrease.

Basically, if you were born during the latter half of 1990 or in 1991, you’re screwed.

It has also become common for kids to apply to more than six schools, whereas a decade ago it was still rare. Since the introduction of the Common Application students are able to send one application to any of the 350 or so schools that accept it, making applying to multiple universities much easier. The more applications teenagers send out the smaller their chances of getting into some schools. And because admittance into these specific schools is not certain, kids will send out even more applications just to have some backups. (There is some hope, however – after this year, admissions are expected to gradually become easier. It won’t be noticeable for a long time, but it’s some consolation.)

Makes that movie Accepted seem even more realistic and frightening, doesn’t it? Playing on your worst fears? Yeah, well that was a couple years ago, and things have changed – for the worse. Again, the number of applicants is absurdly high, and, to make it worse, our economy is completely down the toilet.

Most high school seniors right now are absolutely terrified. And our college counselors aren’t really helping things. When asked what to do if we don’t get in anywhere, mine told us that there’s community college, but that she’s sure that won’t happen. Then she followed up by telling us that, especially this year, we cannot let ourselves fall prey to the dreadful Senioritis; “there are so many other kids that would want your spots at a school and a college would have no problem just giving yours away to them.”

So, I have a more difficult application process and I don’t get to enjoy the freedom of my senior year? Awesome.

So, to all you college girls out there: thank your lucky stars you are already into your school.

And to the high school ladies reading this blog: good luck! You are not alone.

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Um…this place is real?

It’s now the most dangerous web site for your future. Not only do many employers admit to looking at facebook profiles for potential hires, but it may have had an influence on where you were accepted to college.

Are you one of those people who can’t figure out why they didn’t get into their dream school, even though you wrote a kick a** essay, aced the ACTs/SATs, did about 1,235 extracurricular activities, started a volunteer organization, and help the homeless in your spare time?

Well, maybe you should check the inappropriate quotes on your profile or all of those pictures tagged of you underage drinking in your friend’s basement while her parents were out of town.

Yes, sadly enough, it’s true. Admissions officers at a particular Ivy league college now admit to checking facebook for potential applicants. Ugh, this makes me sick.

Brown University officials said in a NY Times article that “there is a limit to what we can appropriately judge people on…But, you have to remember (Facebook) is a public place.”

Also in the article, it said that “Sometimes admission officers receive friend requests on Facebook from applicants, noting that accepting the requests ‘would appear weird.’

The real question here is: Why on earth are middle aged admissions officers on Facebook?

If they want us to set a positive example with our facebook profiles that would be deemed college applicant friendly, then I don’t think the actual officers should take part in the somewhat juvenile web site. That seems, somehow…hypocritical.

Maybe others don’t see this as a very big deal, but I know that during my college years, the last people I wanted checking out my profile are school officials, much less admissions officers.

Bottom Line: Clean, clean, clean up your profile. Untag, untag, untag your pics!