RD Decision Day: Here They Come

According to Wesleyan’s admissions homepage, “for Regular Decision applicants the online decision page will be available this year from 3:00 pm EDT Friday, March 23rd.” That’s, err, in less than an hour. (Naturally, CollegeConfidential is flipping out. When else is CC worth mentioning?) As we reported a few months ago, applications to Wesleyan surged 4.52% this year—and exceeded 10,000 for only the fourth year. Good luck, prefrosh, and don’t fret too much. The college process is scary, but it all works out in the end, according to knowledgeable adults who like to use the phrase “the college process” a lot.

It’s been in use for a few years now, but nothing makes me feel old like Wesleyan’s online decision notification system. I think my class was the last to have to wait for the mailman before knowing our fate. Somehow, the fat envelope with the red Wesleyan folder felt more final. Here’s hoping Wes doesn’t pull a Vassar, where a “system error” erroneously sent acceptance notifications to about 76 rejected applicants. Most applicants were furious (just scroll through the NYT comments, many of which question what exactly would have happened if Vassar simply accepted the 76 students after all), but one offered this rare nugget of clarity: “I want to major in computer science, and Vassar doesn’t even know how to use a computer on the biggest day of our lives.” (For Tenured Radical’s shrewd take on the whole mess, click here.)

As for Wesleyan—early writes have been slowly trickling in on the 2016 Facebook group, which is already bustling with queries about planning LA meetups (“I need to check with my mom, but I think we could use her house if we wanted too… There’s a pool!”), where to buy a Wes sweatshirt online, and “how low do you think ur grades can get before wes admissions get angry at you.” (I like the way that’s phrased—it’s like a game of dare. Go as low as you can, but not too low.) The group’s about to explode, but as always, CollegeConfidential may be your destination if you’re more interested in your future classmates’ SAT scores, class ranks, teacher recommendations and “college hooks.”

On the subject of prefrosh Facebooking, here’s the advice I posted this time last year:

Enjoy the WesAdmits Facebook group, but proceed with caution. Yes, everything you post there will be scrutinized by future classmates, current students, admission officers, and Wesleying staff. Yes, your future Wes friends will one day look back on those posts and give you shit for bragging about being one of “those who spell theatre with the r before the e.” It’s okay if you don’t already know where you want to live, what you want to study, who you want to be at Wesleyan: you’re not supposed to. Be friendly, share info, but don’t feel pressured to make all your friends and find a roommate and choose an extracurricular and construct an entire post-high school identity now. It doesn’t work that way. And no, you will not have trouble finding other Wes students who share your obscure interest in Radiohead or Arrested Development or playing tennis. They’re out there, and many of them aren’t posting on the Facebook group.

Oh, and you know that one guy who friends every member of the prefrosh class before school even starts? Don’t be that guy.

But that’s all tangential. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. Choose Wesleyan. WesFest is coming soon, and we’re stupidly anxious to meet you. (And the guy who made Robot Chicken. He’s totally coming on WesFest, too.)