By Danny Nessim

The first early decisions came out last Thursday. Many rolling decision schools such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana have been informing students of their decision for the last month, but most seniors are still waiting for their early decisions on Friday, Dec. 15. Their feelings are a mix of anxiety, excitement and a desire to get it over with.

Melanie expects to hear from Stanford with her early decision on Friday. Although she’s nervous for herself, she’s also scared for her friends and classmates.

“It’s going to be such a high­-strung and emotional experience,” she said. “When we were in 10th and 11th grade, we would see the older kids getting in and see people crying and upset, we wouldn’t really understand it, but when it’s our own friends and people in our grade and the morale is so low when nobody gets in anywhere, it’s going to be so depressing.”

If she is accepted to Stanford, she will not be bound to attend and will still apply to the University of Pennsylvania under regular decision. She could also be deferred, in which case her application will be reconsidered along with regular decision applicants, or rejected, in which case she will no longer be considered in the Stanford applicant pool. If she is either deferred or rejected, she will also apply to Emory, Cornell and Northwestern.
She has already heard back from the University of Wisconsin, her safety school. She was accepted four weeks after she sent in the application.

Judy has changed her mind several times. She is applying to seven schools—Villanova (outside of Philadelphia), Rice (in Houston), Boston College, Southern Methodist University (in Dallas), the University of San Diego and the University of Connecticut and is not applying early to any school.

Judy has used a private college counselor for help since October.

“My dean at school is great, but he physically doesn’t have enough time in the day for me,” she said.

She sent the bulk of her applications out last weekend.

Eli has heard back from his first rolling school. An admissions officer from Indiana University telephoned him with a $24,000 scholarship offer for his work on an independent study.

“It’s good to know I’m in somewhere. If all else fails, that acceptance is still there,” he said.
He expects to hear from the four schools to which he applied—Boston University, Emerson College and Northeastern (all three of which are in Boston) and the University of Miami by Friday.

Rick will find out his decision from Yale on Friday.

“I’m a little more nervous than I hoped to be,” he said. “But I think I’ll be satisfied if I get deferred.”

While his parents were relaxed throughout most of the process, tempers are flaring as the decision nears. He got into a heated argument with his mother when he considered dropping Duke from his college list but was accused by his Southern mother as being prejudiced against the region.

“There’s just a perpetual bad mood at home now,” he said.

He is still applying to Duke but missed a deadline that would have ensured him an alumni interview by one minute.