I’ve written before that no matter how disappointed a student may be when a dream college says no, that feeling will be long gone four months later when the student moves into a dorm somewhere else. Students almost always find a way to eventually fall in collegiate love with a school that had the good sense to say, “YES!”
Last week, Breanne in our Irvine, California office received an email from one of her former student’s mothers with a glowing update on college life. The school her daughter is attending was once a distant second to her dream school. But as is often the case, a college that says yes has a wonderful way of turning that disappointment around.
Senior families, if bad admissions news arrives later this spring, remember that the disappointment will be temporary. Treat it like a romantic breakup, a real—but temporary—disappointment that will fade as fast as you are willing to move on to another fish in the collegiate sea. You’ll fall in love with a school that said yes even if it feels like you’ve just lost your soulmate.
Here’s the email, shared with the parent’s permission:
“We just got back from Boulder Family Weekend. Leah is doing great and I think she is very glad she is at Boulder. There is so much to do, the facilities are gorgeous, not to mention the views. The first two weeks she hiked to a lake in the nearby snow-dappled mountains and took an overnight field trip with one of her classes to a mountain retreat. None of that would have been possible at her original first choice school in California. She gets along with her suitemates, has made a lot of friends on her floor (one of them bakes in the dorm kitchen and brings everyone muffins), and is playing fall ball with the club lacrosse team. She went to a football game in Denver with the guys in her hall. She placed out of math, science, and language and she’s helping her friends with calculus and physics. So Collegewise is right. Once you get to the school that wants you, the others just fade away.”
Lynn
Mother of Leah
University of Colorado – Boulder