Hit the Submit Button, Not the Panic Button

We Admit It! Right now it’s easier to sit in our seats.  While we certainly have a lot of work in front of us come Sunday (as the Early Decision deadline is Saturday), we’re not the ones who have to finish our applications.  We were certainly all in your seats at one point in time (some of us longer ago than others) so we empathize.  And we hope this blog eases some of those deadline-approaching tensions.

We’re here to say DON’T PANIC.  If you don’t click submit until November 2 (or even November 3 or 4), DON’T PANIC.  If your transcript or recommendations or test scores (or maybe all three) aren’t submitted until sometime the week after the deadline, DON’T PANIC.  If, despite your best proofreading efforts, there’s a small typo in your essay, DON’T PANIC.  Mistakes happen.  You’re human.  We’re human.  We get it.  We’ve all been there.  None of the above scenarios are cause for panic.  If you submit your application an hour or a day (or even a couple of days) past the deadline, we’ll still gladly accept it.  If some component of your application isn’t submitted until next week, no worries.  We’ll still gladly accept it.  So you typed their instead of there, hakuna matata.  This blog has certainly had its fair share of typos over the years.  We promise that the delayed submission or the late receipt of a transcript or a small typo will in no way impact the decision we make on your application.

On a more philosophical note, DON’T PANIC.  Even if you clicked submit with 100% certainty that everything was in on time and done properly, you may now start to panic about the decision that awaits you in early December.  Don’t.  It’s all out of your hands now, and it rests in ours.  We promise that we will conduct a very substantive and holistic review of your application.  We as a committee will evaluate, debate and assess the applicants before us and do our best to render thoughtful decisions.  And in the end, even if that decision isn’t the one you hoped for, DON’T PANIC.  This process will work itself out in the end, and a year from now, when you’re living it up at W&M or whichever college you enroll at, you’ll reflect on how unnecessary all that panicking really was.

Second verse, same as the first. DON’T PANIC.  We’ve got it from here.

Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Associate Dean of Admission

PS: If you swap out November for January, this blog also very much applies to those applying Regular Decision.

Categories: Admission, Faculty & Staff Blogs Tags: ,
19 Comments
  1. L
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