With the finish line in sight…(or, cue Churchill voice, the end of the beginning)…some thoughts on the final lap.
Props to Deerfield for eschewing the portal hullabaloo. Every one else is sending the “here’s how to reset your password for a ‘portal’ which you might have accessed once before; it will have the information we could have conveyed via email” email. This gives Big Green a nudge up the Big color power rankings for being demonstratively less bureaucratic. What is the logic of having the vast majority of applicants jump through a log in hoop only to be told ooh sorry?
Assuming that places that admit you are also going to send glossy packets in the mail, maybe it would be a good Stoic exercise to just wait for the snail mail next week. Who’s with me? Portal boycott!! Let’s do it…
I thought the barrage of marketing emails would have died down. No dice. “Here’s What You Missed from the Asian History Department at Grottlesex” “Watch Devon’s JV water polo team live on Facebook at 3 on Thursday!” “Alumni Profile: an Anesthesiologist from the class of '02 learned life long skills at St. Eugenia’s wood shop”…I already want you baby, don’t tease me. I already know you’re awesome. If admitted, OK, unleash your Constant Contact hounds on me.
A month ago I was pretty eager for March 9/10, but now, meh - I’m feeling a bit more like cogs in a machine and if the machine wants different parts, that’s feels fine. (Except for you, noble and perfect school that my daughter was predestined to go to. We would have been devastated and rest assured we’ll help your yield stats.)
Our 1st choice school sent me an email about a spring preview day in April for my 6th grader! That would be really cruel if they didn’t take my 8th graders!
@DevonAultOrBust Love Big Green, but we got the same portal email login stuff from it as we did from the other schools.
Longing for the old days of the big fat college envelope delivered to the front door…under the mat, dirty, soggy, partly torn, randomly discovered after a couple of days of panic…
Doh, you’re right @BordDuLac , double checked and saw that. et tu Deerfield?
One of these days a disgruntled hacker is going to get into these systems at 4 AM eastern (noon Moscow) and flip all the decisions and the portal era will come to a close. 10,000 acceptances to Exeter, weeeee!
I should also note the “early college” programs by contrast have been super personalized. Maybe they’re just not as deluged? Their AOs clearly read everything about her in advance of interviews, which of course made for a better interviewing experience (this I’m sure is relative a weakness for her), and have made subsequent custom efforts to follow up. Whatever happens that is much appreciated.
A day school my youngest (in 2nd grade, applying to 3rd) really wants to go to had an admissions event last weekend that was an open skate. She loves ice skating, and really wants to go to this school, but I have no idea of our chances… they didn’t seem thrilled with our other kids (and I agree that the oldest wouldn’t have been a great fit for this school… but my youngest is), and we need financial aid. I wanted to bring her, but it just seemed mean! To go to an admissions event and then be told a week later that she would be rejected? Who does an admissions event after the applications are due but a week before they tell you their decisions?