If you are in the process of enrolling your first teenager into their freshman year of college, then you have probably either hit, or are just about to, a disturbing lull in the admissions process. Don't worry, this is very normal.
For months you have been hurried and worried along to meet early deadlines - applying for financial aid clear back in October, submitting "priority" applications no later than December 1st (or some other arbitrary, but premature date), getting in early "discounted" deposits to secure space in classes and the best possible dormitory rooms, being hounded relentlessly by admission counselors and their ilk, rushing insanely about to gather immunization records, high school transcripts, or whatever other small form or document that might possibly have been required. Now with the forms in, decisions made, and deposits paid, but with your student as yet unregistered for fall classes (that you have been assured for months would fill up in an instant), your student's school of choice is very likely to go silent.
The first time you experience this with a child, it can be disconcerting. Before you go all alpha-mom and storm the admissions building demanding "the next step" (not that I've ever, ahem, done such a thing), know that a late spring silence is a normal part of the college admission process. In most cases, college freshmen will not be able to register for fall classes until sometime in the summer (despite the fact that they started their enrollment process last fall). Once schools have secured them, they can seem to forget about them until after their current classes have ended, and they are through the commencement season.
That does not mean there won't still be additional paper-work required, or forms missing. It just means you're not likely to hear about them for a while. Relax and enjoy what remains of your teen's senior year. Have them check-in with their school in a month or so. Professors and advisors will be harder to get ahold of in the summer, but the admissions officials will still be around, and by August it should all be sorted out.
After the fall of freshmen year, registration works almost on auto-pilot, and all the admissions rush and stress of these days become strange and distant memories.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
For months you have been hurried and worried along to meet early deadlines - applying for financial aid clear back in October, submitting "priority" applications no later than December 1st (or some other arbitrary, but premature date), getting in early "discounted" deposits to secure space in classes and the best possible dormitory rooms, being hounded relentlessly by admission counselors and their ilk, rushing insanely about to gather immunization records, high school transcripts, or whatever other small form or document that might possibly have been required. Now with the forms in, decisions made, and deposits paid, but with your student as yet unregistered for fall classes (that you have been assured for months would fill up in an instant), your student's school of choice is very likely to go silent.
The first time you experience this with a child, it can be disconcerting. Before you go all alpha-mom and storm the admissions building demanding "the next step" (not that I've ever, ahem, done such a thing), know that a late spring silence is a normal part of the college admission process. In most cases, college freshmen will not be able to register for fall classes until sometime in the summer (despite the fact that they started their enrollment process last fall). Once schools have secured them, they can seem to forget about them until after their current classes have ended, and they are through the commencement season.
That does not mean there won't still be additional paper-work required, or forms missing. It just means you're not likely to hear about them for a while. Relax and enjoy what remains of your teen's senior year. Have them check-in with their school in a month or so. Professors and advisors will be harder to get ahold of in the summer, but the admissions officials will still be around, and by August it should all be sorted out.
After the fall of freshmen year, registration works almost on auto-pilot, and all the admissions rush and stress of these days become strange and distant memories.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
The hurry up and wait game is frustrating, but you're right.
ReplyDelete