Tense Times at Scarsdale High

Scarsdale High School seniors who thought that the stress level during junior year was bad were surprised to find that the first semester of their senior years could be a time of even higher anxiety. Many seniors are now hearing back from colleges where they applied either Early Action or Early Decision. While in the old days students had to hunt down the mailman to find out if they had gotten in, today, rather than receiving a thick or a thin envelope in the mail, most students are finding out their fates via email or through colleges' online application portal while a very small number of schools are still relying on "snail mail."

From my observations, students who receive good news are updating their social media pages to reflect their new status. Some tweet their acceptances, but the majority of students, if they are going to post their acceptance at all, make a change to the Facebook page. Most who find that they have been deferred, or worse, rejected, are keeping that news private.

It seems to me, that at the beginning of the college process, many students were either dishonest about their "first choice school" or just refused to tell other students where they were applying. However, now that decisions have been sent out, some bold students are publicizing their rejections. The other night, as I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I saw that someone had posted a picture of his rejection letter. As I scanned through the comments underneath the post, I saw other students make sympathetic comments like this one: "Dude I feel for you, but everything always turns out great" and, my personal favorite, "Their loss man ... but when you get in somewhere you should feel free to send that school a rejection letter". Walking around school, I constantly hear students vocalizing their condolences to others who have been rejected or deferred.

By now, I know people who have gotten accepted to their first choice school, people who have been rejected from their first choice school, people who don't yet know where they want to go, and some who have not even applied to any school yet.

Why are students and parents on edge? For Scarsdale High School students, and seniors all over the country, the term "safety school" has begun to lose its meaning. Schools that used to be seen as safe acceptances are becoming target and even reach schools for even the most qualified applicants. No surprise then that there has been a large spike in the number of schools that the average student applies to over the past 20 years.

Much of the reason for this increase is related to the creation of the CommonApp. Applying to schools through this website makes the process as easy as clicking a button; literally. The ironic part of this is that as the schools become easier to apply to, they get harder to get into. "There has been an increase in the selectivity from the top on down, so kids are trying to cover all their bases," explained Dean Oren Iosepovici of Scarsdale High School. While one might assume that this fear is handled by applying to three "definites" for every "maybe", this doesn't seem to be the case in for everyone in Scarsdale. Some kids apply to large numbers of schools just to ensure acceptances. Others are applying to as many reaches as possible to see where they will get in. Iosepovici, along with the other well-trained Scarsdale deans, make sure that each student has an even spread of safety, target and reach schools. Still, it can be hard to bring kids down to earth when fear is the root of the problem."

This week many college freshmen have been visiting SHS after having completed their first semesters away at school. They have helped to put this process into perspective for their younger peers. Justine Souchak, a returning freshman from Hampshire College said, "I think the first semester of senior year is very stressful.... it's like a curveball, you never know what's coming at you. I only applied Early Decision to one school and got in, so after that, I was done. Just know that there are so many colleges and you're going to end up where you need to be."

This article was written by SHS Seniors Megan Shelton with input from Hannah Wolloch