<p data-block-key="0gerd">Most admissions results have been released, and in the coming weeks, you'll be making a final decision about where you'll enroll next fall. So, we want to share with you the important steps for seniors this spring. We apologize for the length of this email, but, there is a lot we need to make sure to tell you.</p><p data-block-key="4727m"><b>PLEASE enter ALL of your application results in Naviance this spring.</b> Use the edit (pencil icon) for each college on the “colleges I’m applying to” page and select the correct <b>Result</b> for each college through the dropdown list, then select <b>Save College Application</b>. This information is essential; it helps us to identify students who may not yet have been admitted somewhere, and the historical data helps us to guide future classes. </p><p data-block-key="9da30"><b>Carefully review your financial aid packages with your family. </b> Compare the total costs of attendance (tuition, room, board, fees and other expenses like books, travel, etc.) with what you were offered in grants and scholarships, work study, student loans, and out of pocket contributions. Assess how much you will need to borrow and/or pay out of pocket over not just your freshman year, but, what that will look like over the course of four years. If you applied for financial aid and did not receive a financial aid offer with or soon after your acceptance notification, contact the college or university’s financial aid office.</p><p data-block-key="1olai"><b>You may commit/submit a deposit to only one institution</b>. Sending multiple deposits is considered unethical and will not be supported by Stuyvesant High School. We will send your final transcript to the one college you plan on attending at the end of June. Once you have decided where you'll enroll next fall, <b>inform other colleges to which you were admitted that you have chosen to enroll elsewhere</b>. This can be done via the colleges’ applicant portal or a short email to the admissions offices. This small but important step helps not only the colleges and universities, but other applicants.</p><p data-block-key="ah2"><b>May 1 has been the traditional commitment deadline for admitted students. Make sure to follow the commitment deadline your college communicates to you.</b> If, after you commit, you are admitted to an institution that wait- listed you, you are free to change your plans regarding where you will enroll in the fall. You can submit a deposit to the institution that admitted you from the wait list and inform the college where you originally intended to enroll that your plans have changed. Unfortunately, you will likely lose your original deposit; deposits are typically not refundable after May 1 (or the stated commitment deadline).</p><p data-block-key="2qua9"><b>***ADVICE FOR WAIT-LISTED STUDENTS***</b></p><p data-block-key="8mf7o">Many students and families have questions regarding what to do when wait-listed. It is important to remember that selective colleges and universities use wait -lists primarily to control for enrollment needs that arise after May 1, when they know which of their admitted students will actually enroll. If the institution needs more boys, or students from the south or the mid-west, or soccer players, or clarinet players, or students who can pay the full costs of attendance, etc., they pull such students from the wait- list. These are institutional needs over which individual applicants have absolutely no control. </p><p data-block-key="81i3b"><i>You cannot assume that you will be admitted from a wait- list.</i> While it happens from time to time, the reality is that highly selective institutions admit very few students from the wait -list from year to year. <b><i>Some admit none at all.</i></b> Make sure to commit to one of the colleges that admitted you, the one that you believe to be the best fit, and plan on enrolling there in the fall.</p><p data-block-key="5lmd7"><b>So what can you do if you're wait listed?</b></p><p data-block-key="aal9u"><b>-Commit to staying on the wait -list</b> (use their portal, submit their reply form, etc.) </p><p data-block-key="1btp9"><b>-Reaffirm your interest & update the college</b> via a concise but informative statement uploaded to your portal or email to the admissions office. Let them know that the institution remains a top choice, and why. If you would DEFINITELY enroll if admitted from the wait list, you can let them know that. Notify the admissions office of any new and noteworthy accomplishments about which they are currently unaware, whether they be inside or outside of the classroom. If the institution allows for the submission of new materials (many do not), feel free to do so…so long as you are sending <i>something new and significant that is not replicating something already within your file. </i></p><p data-block-key="cm0fs"><b>-Don’t pester the admissions office.</b> Frequent communication, superfluous documents, etc., can actually be counterproductive. Reaffirm your interest, share anything new and important, but then leave things to play out as they will. If the college instructs you not to do anything other than accepting your place on the waitlist, then that’s all you can and should do.</p><p data-block-key="cdd3v"><b>Please remember that we cannot call a college to which you've been waitlisted to advocate for your admission. </b> There are several reasons why we can't do this. First, there are simply too many of you (we have over 800 seniors) and too many of you are waitlisted at the same schools. Advocating for some students, but not others, is unfair. Also, this kind of advocacy is ineffective, particularly at highly selective institutions; they don’t pull students from wait lists just because counselors ask them to. Their enrollment needs will dictate who, <i>if anyone</i>, will be offered admission from the wait list, and any attempts to convince or pressure them to admit specific students are not only pointless, but potentially seen as amateurish, and may jeopardize our professional relationships with our admissions contacts…relationships that are important for the sake of our current and future students.</p><p data-block-key="78e6g">We wish you the best of luck as you make your final decisions…remember, this process is about <i>finding the right fit</i>. Choose the institution that suits you best given all of the factors that may be important to you and your family. </p><p data-block-key="6381s">Please contact your assigned college counselor if you need assistance! </p>
