The deadline for early decision applications is quickly applying, which means its nearly time to sign over the next four years of your life to (hopefully) the college of your dreams. Applying ED is a big decision for anyone, and as cliché as it seems, I was told it’s as if you were deciding who to marry. Tufts was my first choice and it still is, that being said, many do not feel this way about one specific school. How do you narrow down all your choices when you like so many?
Looking at websites or remembering visits may be helpful, but more than anything I knew in my gut where I wanted to be. Sure I took notes about each school that I visited, but by the time application season came around, I could barely tell the difference between so many of the schools. Many of them had similar programs and ideologies, thus creating nearly identical resumes on paper. However, upon reflecting on my experience of the school and how each made me feel, it was clear where I wanted to go. Not everyone has the chance to visit schools, and that’s okay. It’s possible to gain the feeling of a school from talking to current students, checking out blog posts, or researching as much as possible about the place. Regardless of the approach, a feeling is garnered from each school, and that feeling is what should be most important.
So many bystanders can try to tell you where you’ll fit best, but ultimately it’s your decision and the next four years of your life, so make the decision that feels right. Maybe this choice can’t be made yet, and you’ll have to wait for regular decision to come back or maybe you’re known since last March. Either way, don’t feel pressured to pick a certain school, or even pick an ED school at all! Everyone arrives at these points differently, and while the feeling in my gut about Tufts was too hard to ignore, make sure you feel that too before applying. Sign that early decision agreement if you can feel it, if not, wait it out, and I can assure you, you’ll find it over the next couple of months. After all, you don’t want to end up marrying the wrong person.
Photo Credit: Sebastien Wiertz (Flickr Creative Commons)