<p>We came out of our son’s interview with the same impression, itsgreg. What we told our son was that it meant that he had as good of a chance as probably 75% of the other applicants. Some will have the same strengths, others will have different or more strengths. </p>
<p>I have tried to instill in my son that these schools are in the enviable position of hand picking their students from the very best. Convincing them that he is one of the very best via the entire application package is all that he can do. Just because someone wants Cherry Garcia doesn’t mean that Chunky Monkey isn’t just as good and sometimes the vanilla is just the rich creaminess that you want to go with the fresh strawberries that you already have. I don’t know if the Ben and Jerry’s analogy will work for your son, but it helped mine understand that beyond proving you are a nice kid with something to offer beyond an above average intellect is about all you can do. You’re top shelf ice cream regardless of whether school A wanted you or not. There are a lot of flavors out there…equally ultra-premium.</p>
<p>As corny as this may sound, I think that it may help him if we end up with disappointing (not necessarily bad) news on March 10th. We’ll probably make a trip to Ben and Jerry’s either way!</p>