Enduring the suspense of March can feel like waiting for the final rose as a contestant on the Bachelor/Bachelorette. You’ve been posing in your evening finery for hours, just waiting to know if you’ll be picked by a suitor.

You may already have some acceptances in hand from rolling, early action, or early decision applications, or you may be waiting for your very first acceptance as colleges release their decisions for the regular round. 

Where Have CTK Students Been Admitted this Year?

We are still waiting on outcomes for many– fingers crossed– but are thrilled for our students accepted to their top-choice schools so far, including Northwestern, Wellesley, Brandeis, Emory, Smith, Oberlin, Tulane, Case Western, George Washington, U Vermont, and Berklee College of Music. 

What if I Am Admitted to my Dream School (and I plan to attend)? 

Wonderful! Marvelous! Good for you, and lucky for that school to have a chance to welcome you to its campus. Now do yourself a favor and create a schedule to tackle the following items: 

Accepted Student Checklist:

• Read the fine print: Do you understand the aid package, have a plan in place to pay for school, and are you prepared to sign on to all loan and scholarship terms? See our advice below about reading the aid letter and appealing offers. 

• If you want to visit campus before accepting, schools have in-person and virtual visit opportunities designed especially for you. I urge you to participate, and at many schools some online programming is required. It’s a great way to confirm your decision and start to meet your future campus community

• Create a student/net ID if you have not already. You’ll need it for completing the paperwork to enroll as a student. 

• Check for upcoming deadlines. Many schools require a tuition deposit, food service contract, and housing application and deposit ASAP.

• The same goes for health and immunization forms. You will need to make a decision about enrolling in a campus-provided health insurance plan or staying on your existing one. 

Make a list of any other academic submissions and send them in a timely manner: many schools require an official transcript and official SAT/ACT and AP test scores reported by the testing agency (if you applied and were accepted with unofficial scores).

How Do I Read My Financial Aid Letter? What if my Financial Aid Offer isn’t Enough, Can I Appeal?

See our advice on reading your award letter.
Here are our tips for appealing financial and merit aid.

How Do I Decide Which School to Attend if I Have Multiple Offers?

If you are in the enviable position of having offers to multiple schools, you have a matter of weeks to make your final decision. Don’t let schools pressure you– some will call every day– take as much time as you need before deposit deadlines to make sure of your decision. Ask yourself the following questions as you visit campus, speak to current students and alumni, and attend info sessions: 

• Financial fit: Do I understand the financial aid/merit aid offer, and can I afford it? Do I know by how much costs will rise each year? 

• Personal fit: Do I see myself on campus here for four years? Do I have any concerns about the culture?

• Academic fit: How do I feel about my academic options on campus? Am I accepting an offer to a program that is less than ideal, even if it is at the “right” university? 

• Career services fit: Does what the school offers fit my career goals? Does it have the five-year Masters/co-op/internship support I want? 

You Must Release Other Offers After You Accept at a School. 

Once you have accepted an offer, you must let your other schools know you don’t plan to accept their offers. Once you have accepted your offer, please notify all the schools that have offered you a spot in their class. Typically this will be as simple as checking a box in the portal for each school. If not, you can send an email to the admissions office.

It is a courtesy to the school and to other students, as it allows the school to release your spot to others.

Finally, and importantly, don’t even think about putting down a deposit at more than one school. It’s unethical and unfair to everyone else involved in the process. You can even damage the reputation of your guidance counselor and high school if you do this. 

Waitlisted– Now What? 

Placement on a waitlist can be a huge disappointment, but it is not a rejection, and if the school is still of interest to you, you have options. This is the one circumstance in which you can accept an offer and then turn it down later– when you have been admitted from a waitlist to another school. That said, please be careful. With popular schools oversubscribed and managing over-enrollment problems even more this year than ever, we expect to see wait lists as long as or longer than last year. For example, the University of Michigan placed more than 17,000 students on its waitlist in 2021, just over 13,000 accepted a spot on the list, and Michigan ultimately made offers of admission to only 68 prospective students. (For the data heads among you, you can find this in a school’s Common Data Set). Read more about what to do if you are waitlisted.

CTK pro tip: Dig deeper than the surface level. Attend those admitted student programs and negotiate for the aid you need if you have competing offers. Reach out to current students and alumni to understand the pros and cons of each school beyond what you read on the page.