Don’t Stress While You Wait for Your College Admissions Decision

March 23rd, 2010

While some of the schools on your list might have already sent out their admissions decisions, April 1 is still typically D-Day for many colleges. So what do you do during the last few harrowing days of waiting? As always, we’re here to help, which is why we’ve taken a page from Letterman (sorta) and compiled a list of five speedy suggestions for making it through these final days of the tortuous college waiting game:

5. Watch an episode of “Jersey Shore.” Your brain will be so numb from all those fake tans and fist-pumping that you’ll actually crave adult conversation in a college classroom—even if it’s not at your first-choice school.

4. Go to bed early. It sounds like something you’d do as a kid the day before Christmas or your birthday, but it does work: The quicker you fall asleep, the quicker morning will come, and you’ll be one day closer to an admissions decision. Plus, all those good nights of sleep will give you the energy you need to tackle the next step after your admissions decision—positive or negative.

3. Shut off the computer, cell phone, etc. Finish your assignments first, of course, but then unplug for a while to get away from the stress-laden texts, Facebook updates, and tweets that are being launched into cyberspace from friends and other college-bound students in the same boat as you.

2. Hang out with people younger/older than you. Yes, this includes bratty younger siblings and those oh-so-embarrassing older folks who keep insisting that you are related to them. Why? Because they are not applying to college like you are and have plenty of other things to talk about besides SAT scores and dorm rooms. Enjoy their company and a very welcome change of subject.

1. Go green. Recycle all the leftover paperwork, viewbooks, business cards, essay drafts, and crumpled tissues from stress-related colds and sleepless, teary nights. Perhaps your old admission essay drafts will get recycled into new paper that a sleep-deprived college-bound student will reach for next year.

Got any suggestions for the list? Follow us on Twitter @CollegeBoundNet, where we’ll spend the week tweeting with the hashtag #collegesuspense. Join us—the more the merrier, and it could WIN YOU a $25 Amazon gift card. We’ll choose one random #collegesuspense Tweet and one random #collegesuspense Facebook post to CB’s Fan Page to each win a gift card to spend at Amazon however you wish… college-related, or not!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Michael Brindle, a.k.a. @younata on Twitter, for winning a $25 Amazon gift card as part of our #collegesuspense contest. Good luck at school!

–The CollegeBound Network

Entry Filed under: Advice,College Admissions