Please help, important waitlist question.

sammielue21 · 04-19-2008, 04:38 PM

I was waitlisted at two of my top choice schools and I'm writing my letter with updates and such to send to them... Since my application I've had an article that I wrote published in the paper and I thought it would be a good idea to send it with my letter but now that I think about it, the subject matter is a little "iffy."

It's about senioritis -- the main point is that senioritis is not about suddenly becoming lazy but about realigning priorities. Some of the stuff in it is kind of audacious though. Like "after three years of balancing schoolwork with extracurricular activities and attempting social lives, we seniors deserve a break." I think the overall tone is less bold, though... I don't know.

The article is something important to me, and I think it's an important update. But I don't know if I should send it... Would it make me look as though I don't care about school anymore? I could also send my most recent report card with my upward grade trend -- since the transcript I sent every class average has come up.

If you need the entire article to form an opinion, PM me. Please, please give me your imput!

sammielue21 · 04-19-2008, 06:21 PM

Bump -- please?

jmmom · 04-19-2008, 06:23 PM

What kind of newspaper was it published in? Small local weekly? Local daily? Metro daily? One of the biggies? (NYT, Washington Post or similar)

ellemenope · 04-19-2008, 08:49 PM

You seniors do get a break--the summer between high school and college. The article would have to be pretty good before I'd send it--like a laugh riot. The topic is iffy.

sammielue21 · 04-19-2008, 11:19 PM

Jmmom -- local daily.

tli83 · 04-19-2008, 11:27 PM

I would just write in your update that you had an article published in a local daily newspaper. Then they know you wrote something good enough to be published but you are not risking them reading it and potentially disagreeing or thinking you are lazy or critical of how they run their admissions (since presumably they don't encourage senioritis)

Grande Antilles · 04-19-2008, 11:49 PM

Sammie, I already posted this somewhere but I thought that it might hepl .

I do not know if anyone else besides my friends did that but this is what happened to a friend (X) of mine who will be attending an Ivy ( Z university) next year. X was rejected by most of the school she applied to and waitlisted by Zuniversity she also needed full aid to attend. Our HS counselor as everyone to send a rejection letter to extra schools after we chose where we wanted to go so those who were on the waiting list could have a better chance. Even after that my friend did not receive an acceptance letter.

All our friends who rejected Z university sent a second individual letter saying that they chose to go to another school but thought that X will be a good match for their school therefore they asked the admission office to recosider X application. They wrote about him as a person and how bad it will be if he does not get in. Their letters were not dramatic nor did they praise X's quality as a God. It was a really nice gesture but we graduated without hearing anything from the school. Someday in the middle of summer, X sent a mass email telling us that she received a letter from Z university, telling her that she was offered a place for the 2012 class. Z happily took a GAP year and will start school in the fall. If you have a lot of friends who rejected Grinell, they can maybe do the same for you. Even if some of the students are not your friend, you can still ask them to do that for you. I know that you might have your pride and might not one people tell you later that you get into Grinell because of them but I think that it's worth it. I wish you the best.