All the advice you’ll need for the next twelve hours by CJ Q. '23

1. It’s okay to feel anxious or excited or nervous. But if you can, please breathe, relax, and ground yourself. If the emotions become too much to handle, there’s no shame in distracting yourself with things to do.
2. Right now, it can feel like the most important thing in the world is what you’ll hear in the next few hours. Your mental and emotional health are more important.
3. In a few hours from now, you’ll read the decision letter. That moment, you will split into two versions of yourself: the you who got the result you wanted, and the you who did not. Up until that moment, these two yous are the same person, sharing the same memories, thoughts, and personality. Your decision won’t change you; only you can do that.
4. It’s unfortunate that your application cannot capture all the facets of who you are. Neither can the words “accepted” and “rejected”.
5. In hindsight, it’s tempting to be black-and-white, and say that you were accepted because your essays were well-written, or say that you were rejected because your extracurriculars weren’t good enough. The complicated truth is that there are uncountably many factors that go into a decision. It’s impossible to tell, from the outside, which of these factors mattered.
6. Embracing the unknown is always hard. But it’s good to practice: you just get stronger.

The blogs have many posts about decisions, and many bloggers past have written their own words of encouragement. They are all great posts, but here are a handful of my favorites:

• Into the Unknown by Danny and Allan G. ’20
• here comes a thought by Joonho K. ’20
• Folding by Elizabeth C. ’13
• In Anticipation of Pi Day 2017 by Yuliya K. ’18
• Let’s Go Fly A Kite by Joel G. ’18

Good luck. I’ll be thinking of you all.