It’s time to choose. Monday is the Candidate’s Reply Date (the capital letters signal something “official"). It is. My 2020 friends, it’s time to pick a seat in the freshman class of your choice.
For Regular Decision applicants mulling an enrollment decision—and more of you cling to this “pending” status than one might suspect at this increasingly late date—here’s my best advice: don’t over-think your decision. You’ve spent the better part of the past year in analytical mode. You've assessed the various colleges on your list and the things that can be measured have been measured. A college couldn’t (shouldn’t!) be in your final round if it lacks the majors, programs, faculty and resources you seek. If cost is a determining factor of your decision-making, the numbers you need to make a decision should be available. In other words, you have all the data you can collect.
That means the more subjective part of the decision-making process awaits you: which option feels right? That’s a very personal perspective. While those who know and love you will have opinions, no one else can answer the question for you. Numbers cannot quantify the campus “vibe” or its comfort level for you. You have to follow your instincts.
Over the past two weeks, more than 1,100 accepted students and their parents joined us for of our three Jumbo Day programs. As I chatted with our visitors, most students with a choice to make were wrestling between two or three options that were more similar than not, at least in terms of academic quality. And that makes sense: students with strong academic credentials were considering colleges and universities with strong academic reputations and opportunities. As the old saying goes, each was comparing an apple to an apple. There's not really an incorrect choice.
Sometimes, differences in scale (Tufts versus a small liberal arts college or maybe a big state university versus Tufts) or geography ("Boston or Chicago…?” or “California or New England…?”) framed the final choice. Those characteristics represent truly different undergraduate experiences, like choosing between an apple and a kiwi: both are tasty but each is a decidedly different kind of fruit. Neither is “better” than the other; each has a different taste, color, texture, skin (shiny versus fuzzy!) and varying nutritional elements.
Honor your own tastes as you make your choice. Follow that logic as you assess the subjective, very personal dimension of your college choice. Trust yourself. What’s your inner voice advising you to do? Listen to it. Push the button.
And—either way—please let us know where you decide to enroll.