@52balletvieta Woah that was incredible. 
You’re an amazing dancer!
One thing that I’d like to say about the financial aid office is that they started asking me for my forms back in October (October 20th, more specifically)
They said: “We received your email with the attached documents however pages 1 and 2 of your parent’s tax return where not included can you please send again?”
So I sent them the forms again, but they kept insisting that I did not have anything for the first two pages, which made both me and my parents very confused. Our correspondence with the Financial Aid office was between that October and November 17th. That’s when we sent them the W-2 forms that we initially forgot to give them.
Then, I get the email many of you received from the Financial Aid office that says, yet again:
“We received your 2016-17 Princeton Financial Aid Application; however, we have not yet received a copy of your parents’ 2014 federal tax return and W-2 statements.”
So I sent them everything again, and again they say that I’m missing two pages. My parents then realized that there actually were two pages missing that our tax return place still had and hadn’t given to us. We sent them all that stuff on December 8th - and now I assume everything is good with the Financial Aid office since they didn’t say afterwards that I was still missing anything.
Anyways, I’m really so worried about getting my decision from Princeton, it’s been my dream since I started high school. It was the first college I visited, and I’m absolutely enthralled by all the support my classmates and family have given me. My parents are refugees from Africa, and I want nothing more than to see a smile on their face if I get in. But now that I look at all the stats, I’m just trying to stop myself from daydreaming about Princeton and go into the 16th with knowledge of a deferral…
Double post, but let me just say I don’t think that poll meant anything, which means the confirmation email doesn’t mean anything. So @azwu331 and everyone else don’t worry!!
@52balletvieta you were who I thought you were!!! I met you at the WashU fly-in in September.
@cinnamonwings @meaa7130 @jordanh16 Thanks you guys!! That means a lot!! 
@APrincetonian Really? PM me!!
@52balletvieta you are a beautiful dancer! Princeton will be lucky to have you attend 
@greeny8 thanks pal! I really hope they recognize that haha jk but I would love to have the opportunity to go!
@52balletvieta Yeah I did, even 1 point can make a difference and I want to improve.
I am on the west coast, but I stay up too late for my own good lol.
@neptunepaw Well I hope your test went smoothly this morning! Best wishes to you!
I do also by watching college acceptance reactions on Youtube haha
"Let me start another poll
LIKE: Received confirmation for FA email (not included if you asked)
HELPFUL: Did not receive confirmation"
Poll results so far: 15 “helpful” and 2 “likes”
And one of the likes is from an applicant who had extensive correspondence with the FA office previously (so probably doesn’t count since they kind of “asked”)
I made myself a count down to add to the stress http://■■■■■■■■■■/#princetondecisions It’s getting so real.
So my S did not receive any email regards financial forms, but also he did not check the box saying that he was applying for financial aid. So I am hoping that whatever correlation there is, he is not part of it…?
Also have had a tough few days of deferrals for his friends. These kids are amazing–tons of AP’s, 4.0 GPAs. perfect or near-perfect SAT’s, and amazing ECs and recs. If they are getting deferred (from CalTech, Stanford, Harvard), I just don’t hold out much hope for my VERY hard-working son. He also has great stats and good ECs but did not cure cancer or win any national championships…
I’m sorry if my previous post caused a commotion or something. I’m trying to follow my friend’s advice of keeping my expectations as low as possible, and searching for potential hints toward my deferral spreads the disappointment out over a period of many days instead of one moment (it also helps calm down my anxiety a bit and incentivizes me to finish up my RD apps before my decision). I’d rather look down at my chances for several days and receive a pleasant surprise than maintain hope and have all of my dreams crushed in the seconds after I view my decision. I have several exams next week, and I don’t want the nervousness prior to the decision to impact what happens next week. I guess you could say that this is my coping method.
I very well know that my emails don’t have much to do with the decision, but it’s really for my peace of mind. It’s just comforting to receive updates every once in awhile from the school, especially if the admissions officers are currently deciding who they want out of a pile of thousands of qualified students. At some moments I just want to be on the same level as everyone else; when I see Princeton giving other applicants preferential treatment, I fear for my outcome. There must be a reason why they’re ignoring me… is it because they forgot that I exist? Is it because I’m already out of the pool? Is it because I’m not special enough?
I think that all you guys who had late interviews know this feeling very well. When you see other people receiving interviews while you wait anxiously for your invitation, you ask the same questions to yourself. I received my interview invitation in mid-November, but even then I was kind of apprehensive when I saw other people talking about how successful their interviews were. We, as humans, don’t like uncertainty, and will grasp at anything to obtain some sort of definite answer for the things we don’t know. It’s psychological too, so I can’t really get it out of my mind.
Speaking of apprehension, I just received news that none of my school’s Penn applicants got in ED on Friday. It’s kind of scary to think about it… sure, my school is just a random public in a relatively isolated location, but we do manage to send 1 or 2 kids to ivies every year. The early season is pretty much the only chance for that to happen though, since all the top-tier schools downright refuse to accept any kids from our district during the regular season (I don’t even know why). Now that we’re on a losing streak (5 ivies released, 0 acceptances for normal applicants), the Yale applicant and I are the only ones left. The tension is really high right now, since the two of us are pretty much the only chances left for someone from our school to get in early. To make everything worse, both Yale and Princeton probably have some sort of disdain for my school as well, since Yale has accepted no one from my district in its entire history, and Princeton has only admitted 1. Even Harvard has admitted more than Y and P combined in the past. I wish that I could be the second student from my district to get into Princeton over the last few years, but that hope isn’t looking so bright at the moment. It seems that everyone here is destined for the state school, no matter how good they are. 
@elk1819 You said that you have friends who got into Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Brown, Amherst, and Penn. It’s the other way around for me. I know no one who was accepted anywhere, and I fear that I will just follow my peers’ footsteps. Hopefully, I’ll be wrong, but ivy admits from my school occur every once in a blue moon. Perhaps this is because my high school is underfunded and not as competitive. You are truly really lucky to attend such a wonderful and competitive institution, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you joined your friends on your school’s list of ivy-admits next Wednesday!
I’m sorry if this post sounds awfully cynical or something. I’m just trying to get out some of my anxiety before the big day next week. I’ll come back on this forum some time tonight after I finish editing my UChicago unique essay, and hopefully I’ll be back to my normal self. I hope that we can have another conversation like the one we had last night! I don’t really have any emergency ice cream in the freezer to prepare for my deferral, but I think that it is wise that I do not (eating a bowl of ice cream in the wintertime up North isn’t really the best idea…) 
I do have to give you guys credit though… you guys give me the comfort I need when I really need it. This is why I’m so glad to a part of this community. I don’t really mind when I give all of you guys encouragement and advice because I’m sure that all of you guys will return the favor! You guys are a wonderful group of people, and these 83 pages have been filled with nothing but generosity and empathy. Hopefully we’ll break 100 by Wednesday, but if not, I’m certain that the friendliness and helpfulness of this thread will impact many generations of Princeton applicants to come.
@squeakywheel Don’t worry! I didn’t cure cancer either, so we’re on the same boat. I’m just a normal guy with big dreams, and I’m sure your son is as well. Hopefully, that is all that’s needed for Princeton.
@azwu331 i think most of us feel that way (ik i am lol) but let’s just hope for the best. hoping u get in!
@52balletvieta that was awesome!!! I love love love Le Corsaire ~:>
@azwu331 Well, I also just heard that one of my best friends, an absolute genius who is just adored by teachers and students alike (and who started his own nonprofit!), got deferred from Penn. I don’t want to give away too many details about his record, but I can assure you that it was absolutely tailor-made for Wharton. His being deferred essentially confirms my hypothesis that Ivy admissions are NOT, in any way, an adequate judge of a student’s intellectual potential. It’s frustrating, I know, and it won’t stop the tears at a deferral or rejection, but it’s 100% true.
One’s character is best judged in other ways, especially the manner in which one interacts with others (no matter the context or the setting of that interaction!). By that measure, you are a resounding success, and I know that no matter what decision comes from Princeton, you will use your humor, helpfulness, and genuine compassion for others to do good in the world!!
Also, I don’t think my classmates’ results have any bearing on the likelihood of my being accepted… just as your classmates’ decisions don’t have any bearing on the likelihood of your being accepted. Try not to read too much into things over which you have no control! Instead, throw yourself into studying for exams, working on other apps, or just watching Netflix. I’m doing a combination of all the above
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE! I will probs be creating a “Princeton Deferred Students” thread on Wednesday so we can all hatch our evil plans to wiggle our way into the Class of 2020 through the RD round!
@azwu331 No worries - I totally understand where you are coming from; I similarly am trying to keep my expectations low so I am not totally crushed when I get deferred on Wednesday. I also understand the feeling of no one getting into their dream school - a lot of my friends have been getting denied this past week. Additionally, only 5 people have ever applied to any of the Ivies in my school’s history, an no one has gotten in. I feel such immense pressure to be the first in my school’s history to get into a university like Princeton!
In the future though, I think we all need to be careful not to turn this forum into a petri dish of anxiety (lol). We are all so ambitious, our anxiety just begins to feed off of everyone else’s! Let’s just move forward with the acknowledgement that we don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but we ALL have amazing things in store for us!
Also, just to paraphrase something I posted in the Harvard thread on D-Day:
I’m currently in the UK for a British admissions interview, and let me tell you, we are very lucky in the USA. Over here, you can only apply to Oxford OR Cambridge; you have to choose one, and if it doesn’t work out, too bad! In America I feel that we truly have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to other options. Even calling them “other options” doesn’t give them the respect they deserve as time-honored and truly intellectual places of learning. So it really isn’t the end of the world if Princeton doesn’t end up being the perfect match, and we’re certainly very lucky among our peer applicants around the world to have such great chances at other universities.