Pass the Potatoes-Balancing Your Plate
It's the time of year when we start to think about gathering with family and friends. It is also the time of year when college decisions trickle in; students hear from coaches if they have landed a spot on a team, and parents and high school seniors straddle the fence that separates waiting for college news and then celebrating it. While some students may hear news from colleges in December or January, many must wait until March to receive a notification. The holidays emit a sweet buzz of who is doing what and what to do now. Latching on to advice for navigating the final push of application essays and second-guessing if there are too many or not enough schools on a list can pop up as quickly as holiday popovers.
Second-guessing has the supernatural ability to suck the oxygen out of the room – making it even harder for seniors to breathe. And nothing feeds second-guessing like advice from a friend's kid's cousin who is not connected in any way to the particular senior, the goals they have set, and how they have pursued what has been most interesting to them in and out of the classroom.
No fall application season is complete without a student having a YOLO moment urged on by the relative seated next to them at the Thanksgiving table. Between forkfuls of sweet potatoes, you can hear the analogy that applying to one more college is like playing the lottery. But it's not the same. Although such advice is as well-intentioned as the same relative’s desire to add a bit more mashed potatoes onto the plate, saying “yes” to a late school suggestion will require due diligence and research to assess if adding a new school to a list aligns with aspirations and will produce the desired result. This requires time. For many students, Thanksgiving lands smack in a place when applying to an additional school is an option, but just like scooping up more mashed potatoes as the platter circles the table, applying to more schools means there will be more on their plate. An essential question to answer is how an additional school aligns with academic plans, strengths, and interests. As a late-season contender, reflecting on whether it is a school a student would attend above all other schools on their list is also a question to resolve. Unlike Thanksgiving dinner, where the ramifications of seconds or third slices of pie are simply a long rest on a couch, too much on a student’s college application plate in late fall may create more than indigestion. Logistically, applying to additional schools will require a second or third look at the calendar to assess how much time is available to write essays and complete applications. For a school with a November 30th or December 1st deadline, a senior will be on the clock to hit it. It is possible, but does it make sense? Creating options is a good thing. Stockpiling acceptances, not so much, and at the end of application season, a student can only attend one school. Conversely, it is not unusual to have the desire to edit down a college list as seniors dive into essays and discover what is essential to a school or receive a first acceptance, which may take precedence over other school applications that have yet to be submitted.
Just like having that long-awaited plate of turkey, stuffing, cranberry, mashed potatoes, and pie (well, maybe a few kinds of pie), a college list should be composed of schools that fit the student and are balanced, which most likely means a few likely schools, a robust helping of best-fit schools and one or two reach schools to satisfy Aunt Ethel. While holiday gatherings pull together the people who root us on, want the best for us, and share their best advice, weighing out that one extra helping, whether it's the family's favorite pie or a family's favorite school, may require a moment to pause to assess and possibly taking a pass - no matter how tempting.
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