Happy D-Day everyone. And may the odds be ever in your favor

D-day.
Decision Day. Denial Day. Death Day.

Ivy Release day.

It comes once a year. And it’s stressful. You feel like your teeth are falling out until 5PM, when you feel like every second is a millennium.

While I never went through D-Day in the first person (I applied early decision to my school), I know how stressful it can be. You might be waiting on your one dream reach school. You might be waiting for that denial you know will come. It might be a success. It might crash and burn. And, more than anything, you just want this waiting to be over.

So top three tips for D-Day:

1.     Keep yourself distracted

I know that waiting is hard. Trust me. I’m terrible at it. But distract yourself. My parents took me to the bookstore (my favorite place) on my release day and had me walk around and look at books for an hour to help me release my anxiety. It helped. Do something that you love , something where you’re bound to get engrossed in something. Go for a run, see a movie, take your dog for a walk. Anything fun.

2.     Don’t compare yourself

Its very likely that some of your friends are waiting to hear back. Do yourself a favor. Stay off of facebook if you don’t have good news. Seeing others getting in is only going to depress you more.

3.     Know that the pain of rejection shall pass, and you’ll fall in love with the school you go to.

If you’re a qualified or pseudo qualified ivy applicant, even your safety schools are going to be top-notch. Everything happens for a reason, and there is a plan. So maybe you weren’t meant to go to Harvard, or maybe life didn’t mean for you to get enough financial aid to go to Cornell. You were meant to go to your state school for free, because that money saved is going to help you later on. There are always silver linings out there, find them.

Good luck everyone.