The Delightful Agony of Transfer Decisions
It’s been well over a month since my last post, and now that I’m drawing closer to the endgame I decided now would be a good time for an update.
At this point I have heard from six colleges in total, including SCAD and Drexel back in February, and this process has been a wild ride.
On March 20, I got an acceptance email from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York. It was exciting to hear from another college, and my nerves started to heighten as I continued to wait to hear from the remaining five.
At the onset, I knew I wouldn’t get accepted to all the colleges I applied to. But that knowledge and that feeling didn’t truly sink in until I got my rejection notice from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn on March 25. Although I was initially disappointed, I felt relieved that I didn’t get in. While it is a prestigious art school, I wasn’t sure that I felt all that crazy about Pratt, and at that point it meant that I heard from half of the colleges I applied to. My disappointment and relief turned into joy because I realized that I was half way there and that it wouldn’t be long before I heard from the rest.
The afternoon of March 27 I destroyed my voice when I got news of admission to Emerson College in Boston. I remember when I had toured Emerson one month earlier, and had decided that Emerson was my dream school that wasn’t a crazy reach statistically speaking. I was beyond elated about the news and I don’t think I stopped smiling for the next few days— I’m so grateful that I can include Emerson in my list of choices for the Fall now, and I could very seriously see myself there.
The excitement never faded, but the moment I realized I was just waiting to hear back from three more colleges, the anticipation immediately returned. it’s a nerve wracking process— waiting to hear back about admission decisions— and with each passing day it grows all the more maddening. At first it was just boring to open my email and find nothing there, and equally quite as disappointing to open my house’s mailbox and find nothing from the schools I was still waiting on an answer from. The boredom carried on for about a week, and turned into irritation as the month of April began. As the title of this post suggests, this process is agonizing, and yet for me it’s also delightful. With each notification, another door opens and my pathway to the future becomes all the clearer. Regardless of denial or acceptance, there’s something so— for lack of a better word—liberating about getting answers. So naturally, waiting to hear back is both maddening and awesome, especially when a decision finally arrives.
After three weeks of essentially radio silence, yesterday, I finally heard back from another college—
I opened my email yesterday afternoon and saw two new messages from Boston University. The first one arrived around 3PM saying “There’s been an update to your application status, please sign into the portal to view your admission decision.” The second email arrived at 10AM yesterday morning and it was from BU’s Housing Office and read “Congratulations on your admission to Boston University…”
Initially I laughed, and then after signing into the portal, I celebrated. I guess this is one of those scenarios where the timing of one office sending information as opposed to another is not in sync at all, and I could’ve conceivably found out yesterday morning which only added to the hilarity of the situation.
So now here I am… I’ve got five colleges I can definitely attend this Fall, one I can’t, and two more that I still don’t know about. The “delightful agony” of waiting continues, and once I’ve heard from the remaining two I know that a far more jarring experience is ahead: making the final decision.