By Bethany Hutchens
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, March 26, 2007, The OG, features & in depth

[Note: This is the latest installment in a series by Bethany Hutchens and Andrea Park about the college admissions process. For an audio podcast introducing the series, click here. For Andrea's article about her experiences with the PSAT, click here. For Bethany's article about choosing colleges, click here.]

IT WAS A chilly day in January when I stuffed my last college application in the mailbox. I didn't want to trust my future to a U.S. postman (or woman) after all of my hard work.

I applied to seven colleges. For six out of the seven I applied regular decision, but for the sake of my sanity I applied early action to my safety school, Earlham College. A few weeks ago I learned that I was accepted to Earlham.

Although I had a clear idea of where I wanted to go, the application process left me shaky and nervous. After working so hard in school, any rejection seems like a personal one.

Also, for my family, any acceptance without financial aid is empty. Early in high school I promised myself I would somehow find a way to attend the college I really wanted to go to, no matter what the cost.

I recently received my financial aid decision letter from Earlham. Despite an aid package of almost $26,000, my family still can't afford to pay the tuition. Earlham is the cheapest school I applied to. I'm hoping that schools with bigger endowments, such as Wash U or Wellesley, will give me more money, but I'm still apprehensive about my prospects.

On top of it all, I'm starting to get tired of all the work. Not only were there the actual applications, but also scholarships to apply for, financial aid forms to navigate, and supplements to agonize over. Even when you have everything sent in, you're still not done since invariably something will be lost.

Everything seems to count, my SAT scores (a score of 2120, which I think is too low to get me into a good college and enable me to pay for it), my grades, what extracurricular activities I do in school, what extracurricular activities I do out of school, even what I do in my free time.

Also, I may have missed the application deadlines for Scripps and Pomona. On top of it all, a scholarship program for Scripps, Pomona, and Wellesley lost my teacher recommendations, and one of my teachers sent the replacement in late.

It may seem like I'm panicking (and I probably am), but in the back of my
mind I'm thankful that I'm almost done. Only a few more days, and good or bad, I'll finally know something about my future.

THE SERIES SO FAR

— Audio podcast: Introducing our college journey

— Article: Andrea takes the PSAT … and finds out how she did

— Article: Bethany looks for a college … and ignores the hype

— Article: Bethany finishes her applications … and waits for the results