the Sam Jackson College Experience

Congratulations to those of you who were admitted; I hope that you will matriculate and join me here in New Haven. To those of you who were waitlisted: take a breath, consider your other options. Along with those who were rejected this afternoon, it is important to remember that the dirty secret of college admissions is that almost universally, everyone is happy wherever they end up, and the choice of college neither defines life course nor undergraduate happiness in most respects. You make the experience your own, and it doesn’t matter where you do it so much as how ready you are to take the opportunities before you.

I would especially appreciate it if you many lurking readers who have been reading my blog at one or another time during your application process – to Yale or elsewhere – came forward and said hello. If you got into Yale and have more questions, please comment or e-mail me — one wonderful reader just did, and will get an adoring mention in an upcoming post as a prize. Whether you are Emma Watson or just some other person who was accepted, I am happy to answer questions.

And, just because you didn’t get into the college of your choice, be it Yale or somewhere else, please don’t log off and stop reading – I really appreciate more voices in the conversation about college admissions in general, so please stay and share your thoughts, experiences, and feelings.

[See also what I wrote last year, essentially the same but with a quote from another Yale '11]