Ep.13/ Ivy Day was 3/30: My Thoughts on Next Steps after Receiving Your College Admission Decision
In this episode of the Admittedly Podcast, Thomas shares his thoughts on the next steps after receiving a college admission decision.
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Ivy Day is when all the Ivy League schools release their admissions decisions. It’s an important day for students, but also a very stressful one. After all, it’s the day when the student sees the result of 4 years of hard work, and it can be positive or negative. Whatever the results are, it’s time to be smart and strategic.
In this episode of the Admittedly Podcast, Thomas shares his thoughts on the next steps after receiving a college admission decision.
If the results are positive, it’s time to celebrate while being sensitive about your colleagues. If the result is not what you wanted, there are things you can do to minimize the loss, process the pain, and prepare for the future. In the end, it’s not about being competitive; it’s about finding the right place for you.
Key Highlights
What are the next steps after receiving your college admission decision?
There are three possible outcomes: positive, negative, or waitlist.
Don’t take it personally.
Be sensitive about the results involving your colleagues.
Evaluate your next steps with strategy.
You might want to take some time and be involved in your local schools activities.
A “gap year” can be taken during this time to travel, work, research, or volunteer.
About Thomas
Thomas is a parent and alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his MBA at the Wharton School in 2003, he moved to Silicon Valley. For three years, he was director of admissions and financial aid at Wharton School. He worked closely with admissions professionals, students, alumni, and professors to create the best possible MBA class.
Thomas has been an entrepreneur his entire life in the fields of finance, agriculture, wellness, and sporting goods. As the founder of Global Education Opportunities, he works with diverse and underserved communities to help them become successful college students. Thomas started the podcast Admittedly because he is passionate about demystifying the application process for parents and applicants.
Related Links
Apply to be a guest: www.thomascaleel.com/apply-for-podcast
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Instagram: @admittedlypodcast
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Hello, and welcome to the admittedly podcast. My name is Thomas Caleel. I'm the former director of MBA admissions and financial aid for my alma mater, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In this podcast, I don't promise easy answers or quick fixes. But I will use my decades of experience to help you achieve your education goals. Now, let's get started.
With Ivy Day approaching, I wanted to address the issue of being admitted or not being admitted. This is a very, very stressful time for students, for parents for families, decisions are starting to come out, you're seeing the results of four years or more of very hard work, you're seeing the fruits of your labor, flourish, or fall. And this is a time I think that we need to be aware of we need to be sensitive, and we need to be smart and strategic, as well. For those of you who may not know, Ivy Day is the day when all of the Ivy League universities released their admissions decisions for regular decisions. This year, it's March 30. And it varies from year to year, but they try and all release at the same time. And then they shut their phones off and go take a well-deserved break.
So let's look at three different scenarios. As decisions come out. The first scenario is positive news, you get into, let's say many different schools or your top choice schools. Celebrate, you've earned it. You know, I've had students who get into just their top choice school, I've had students who get into multiple schools, I've had students who get into, for example, all the ivy plus schools, and all the top MBA programs, all the top prep schools. And that's an amazing feeling. And a lot of students gun for that. Remember, though, that you can only attend one school. And so if you have your heart set on one school, and that one school admits you, even if every other school denies you, you be happy, this is not a contest of how many admissions letters you can get. This is about you finding the right place for you to be.
So, celebrate, I would say and this is common sense. But celebrate judiciously, and be aware that some of your very dear friends may not have received the good news that you did. So I don't want to take away or dampen your celebration, but also be sensitive that everybody's going to be going through their own journey here. And showing up the next day in your college sweatshirt and celebrating in the halls of school may not resonate particularly well.
The next option is you've been placed on the waitlist at your top or one of your top schools. This is frustrating, I've addressed this in a previous podcast, there are a lot of strategies that go into this, and there's a lot of luck that goes into this. So I would urge you to go and listen to that episode, and get some very helpful tips on how to maximize your chances of success. If and when you're on the waitlist. The third and final option here is our kind of doomsday scenario.
Let's say that you don't get into your top choices. Let's say that it just was not your year, it didn't work out for you, for whatever reason. Families will always ask me well, can I appeal the decision? And certainly, the answer is yes, you can appeal. Will that appeal be successful? Highly unlikely. The schools are very diligent their processes are very thorough. And unless there is something, you know, of course, it didn't happen. Let's say one of your recommenders did not send in a recommendation or accidentally send in a blank recommendation. There are a lot of things that can happen. Maybe your counselor didn't send in your latest set of grades for whatever reason. We had an example a few years ago, a student from China, a fantastic student from China, whose counselor quit, fled the country halfway through the school year, the school counselor and failed to do any of the necessary updates.
And so when she received her admissions decisions, she was crushed and she couldn't figure out why she didn't get into any of her schools. And so we reached out to the schools to realize what happened. We explained what happened. We got a letter from the school explaining what happened and we're able to affect her admissions outcomes, but in most cases, the appeal will likely be unsuccessful. And so now what do we do?
And I think there are three main options that we have. The first is to look at the admissions that you have in hand and say, Okay, do I truly not like these schools? Right? Is it? Or is this just, you know, is this truly a safety school? And then I would challenge you and say, Well, why would you apply to a school in any case that you wouldn't go to? For any reason, right, that's a waste of time. It's a waste of effort, it's a waste of money. And you are taking away that spot from somebody who actually does want to attend that school.
So but let's say that none of the schools you were admitted to you want to go to. So we can look at several routes we can look at. If you live in a state that has a strong community college program, you can start in your local community college, right, start to take courses, get good grades, establish an academic base, to prepare yourself for transferring into the university system. If you were admitted to a school where you say, okay, look, not my first choice, not my third choice, but certainly something school where I could go, I can be happy, I can do a year there, I can get good grades, and then transfer out. That's another option. I did a podcast episode already on transferring. And I would encourage you to go listen to that.
Because transferring is something that you should plan ahead, you should be thoughtful, you should be strategic. And we want to make sure that you're thinking about this in a longer-term arc. And I understand at this moment in time, you've, you've gotten these rejections, you're not quite there, but parents, when the time is right, let's get our focus in let's have that conversation with the student with your child. And really think about, okay, what is our plan? How do we get to where we want to be? How do we maximize our chances, and a lot of that is in that transfer episode.
Your third option, let's say it's just complete nuclear Armageddon, and you don't get in anywhere. Okay. We've, you've looked at your application, you realize nothing went awry, you probably just didn't do what you needed to do on the application, then I would tell you, you know, look, if Community College is not something that's available, it's not something that you want to do, then a gap year is absolutely a possibility. Right? What a gap year is, you take this year off, right? And starting from graduation, it's very important, it can be very tempting for you to just have fun over the summer and relax. You can't do that, right? Because applications start again in the fall.
So if you start your gap year in September, and then try and apply again, in November or January, you really are not giving the admissions committee much to work with. But if you start your gap year, immediately after graduation from high school, so let's say mid-June, give yourself a couple of days to celebrate with your classmates. And then you get right into it, you have a much longer track record.
Now what do I mean by a gap year, a gap year can be anything, it should not just be travel and self-enrichment. It needs to be something that is within your interests. So it could be work, it can be researched, it can be, there can be an academic component to it, especially now with all the remote for credit courses that are available, you can supplement what you're doing with academics, if you are looking at if you're a big person in volunteering, you can be giving back working, volunteering your time working for nonprofits working for nongovernmental organizations, whatever that looks like.
But it needs to be well planned. You need to have a clear vision so that you can talk about that in the application process. When you apply in the fall, I think it's important to say when I applied last year, I was not ready. And this is why I've taken this time to do x, y, z. And this is why and this is how it's better prepared me this year to start my studies. Okay. This is a really great opportunity for you depending on your financial situation, to go try some different things. Right, go out there, be brave, be bold, take risks you have you truly have nothing to lose, but do it in a way that is meaningful. Alright, don't just drift around and try different things.
Really engage, really think about why am I doing this? Why does this matter to me? What am I hoping to achieve? Because these are all things that you're going to have to address again in your admissions essays. Come fall. So I wish all of you luck. I wish all of you nothing but happiness and success. I hope that you are happy with this process. I hope that you've learned a lot about yourself in this process.
And as these results come in, I hope you also understand that these decisions were made quickly. They were made from the perspective of the university, they are not in any way an endorsement or indictment of you as a human of your potential of what you can and will go on to achieve in this world and with your life. I know that it feels crushing. When you receive that denial letter, I know that it seems like they weren't fair and that they didn't give you fair consideration. And you look around, it's very easy to look around and say, but my friend got in, and I'm better than they are, or they let these other people in, and I'm better than they are.
And, you know, I'd encourage you, once you've processed that pain, to step back from that and think about, you don't know what they said in their applications, you don't know what the university was looking for. Right? You did your best. And my guess is that you got some good results. And don't let the negatives overshadow you, write your accomplishments, and enjoy those accomplishments. Enjoy those acceptances, I can tell you from my experience, there is no better feeling than when you're you're sending out those decision letters.
And at Wharton, we have a tradition where the admissions committee and our MBA members the admissions committee, reach out to admitted students on decision day, and we call them oftentimes before they see the letter, and we get to have that exciting conversation with them. You know, congratulations, welcome to the school. We truly are so excited to admit you, we really hope that you will be a part of our class. We love this about your application. Because it is it's very personal. They do connect with you, they do really like you.
But also keep in mind that for every admissions decision you get there are 10, 20, 100, 1000, 5000 students who did not get that spot and not because they weren't great, not because they weren't interesting, but because at this moment in time, they didn't quite fit into what the school was trying to build for that class. And these are extremely difficult decisions. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody cares that the admissions committee suffered and sweated and struggled with these decisions, but it is the truth. So take this in stride realize that this is just one point in your life, and continue to go on do great things, pursue your passion, and make yourself and everyone around you.
Thank you for joining us today. Please take a moment to subscribe to the admittedly podcast and download this episode. I welcome you to share your thoughts and questions with me. You can find us on social media at admittedly podcast. I look forward to continuing our journey together.
