College Admissions–Pins and Needles and Proud Moms
There are times in life when being a parent can be incredibly stressful and one of those times is that period when your child is waiting to hear back from colleges he hopes to attend.
Maybe your teen has his heart is set on one school, or maybe there are several. Either way, I now know from experience you’ll be just as stressed as he is while he waits to hear from the schools where he’s applied. It’s literally that “pins and needles” feeling they always talk about.
My son is a high school senior now and decided to apply at several universities. All of them were good schools, some ranking higher for his major and others ranking higher in my heart (ahem, my alma mater for one). I sat with him as he filled out applications, read through essays and made suggestions for parts I thought could be tweaked, paid the application fee and sent everything out with high hopes.
My heart broke a little bit with rejection letters. I was angrier than he was when some of the colleges didn’t taken into consideration the tough course load he carried with Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes (after all, if you take tougher classes, and score a B when others take the easy class and score an B, shouldn’t you get some kind of credit?).
So imagine the thrill when an acceptance letter came in from one of the universities he was hoping to attend! Sheer jubilation! Again, my emotions were stronger than his, where I was literally floating on air, ready to call 30 of my friends and relatives to share the news. He smiled, wondering why I was making such a big deal of things. He said he simply felt relief.
That’s my boy.
He never was a big fan of extremes and emotions.
Of course, we’re still waiting to hear from two of the universities, and anything can happen, but he’s pretty loyal and has already said he’s pretty sure he wants to go to this school because it picked him first.
And I’m feeling relief, too, relief in knowing that my son is on his way, not just in college, but in life.
January 30, 2012 @ 3:19 am
Just getting started with a few years to go, I am hopeful for the relief that we’ll all surely feel once we walk this right of passage with our oldest soon. Thanks for posting!
January 30, 2012 @ 3:24 am
One of my biggest regrets this year is that I didn’t give it enough attention sooner. Many of the schools have application deadlines in November (and that’s for a response from the University in Feb or March!), so if you take the SAT or ACT in October, you won’t have results in time to apply in time. He took tests in September assuming that would be fine, but when he didn’t like his scores (which didn’t come in until October), he had to pay a hefty late fee to retake the test quickly and even then he didn’t have some of the results until early December. That stinks because you don’t want the schools to reject you based on a bad test score. I should have had him taking the tests in spring of his junior year but we waited to late to register and then didn’t worry, thinking we had plenty of time. Lesson learned! Good luck…we have 3 more after this one. Yikes!
January 30, 2012 @ 8:40 pm
Congrats and good luck to you! My kids aren’t old enough for the college admissions but I know it is going to come up faster than I am ready. I remember how stressful and how much work it was to apply, wait and then pick. I’m sure your son will end up at the college that he is meant to attend.
January 31, 2012 @ 5:26 pm
So funny that I came across this just as I walked back in the door from checking the mail looking for letters from any of my sons college choices. Still nothing. I had no idea how stressful this would be. Glad I am not the only one who feels this way though. Congratulations to your son and Roll Tide baby.
February 2, 2012 @ 1:27 am
My heart goes out to you…we’re still waiting to hear from a few but he doesn’t seem to care anymore. I do, of course, for financial reasons and everything else, but I do have to say it’s a huge relief to know he’s going SOMEWHERE. 🙂
February 1, 2012 @ 1:53 pm
Oh God, I can’t even imagine college yet. Not sure I want to 🙂 So glad everything worked out! He’ll have a blast and you’ll have a reason to travel more to visit him!
February 3, 2012 @ 4:47 pm
The college-bound journey is a crazy family ride, but rich in life lessons, eye-opening experiences, and yes, humor. Thanks so much for sharing. I’m glad to say I’ve “been there, done that” and it all worked out really well.
Congrats to you all!
February 4, 2012 @ 6:33 pm
Love it and Roll Tide! So stinkin’ proud of your kid, and I don’t even know the sweet thing. We’re readying ourselves for ACTs, and my Big Z is at a football combine right now hoping his freakish size will score him an athletic scholarship. Again…we live parallel lives! 🙂