Long time no blog! Phew! It has been a busy inaugural college application season at Long Island Scholars.
I am thrilled to announce that so far in the 2019-2020 cycle, our Scholars have heard good news from Boston University, New York University, The Ohio State University, Siena College, Stony Brook University, the University at Buffalo, the University of Delaware, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, among other colleges! And more good news will doubtless be arriving in inboxes in the days and weeks to come.
All the kids and families we have supported through college admissions and financial aid processes so far this season have worked hard and overcome significant challenges to arrive this week at the welcome, well deserved reward of acceptance at institutions of their choosing. Congratulations to all!
At the same time, I hesitate to contribute to college admissions anxiety among other students, especially at this busy and often stressful time of the year. I worry about the pressure we adults (often unknowingly) place on kids to achieve results (and broadcasting those results on social media, as I'm doing now, only exacerbates matters!). I wonder, too, about the kinds of achievements we value most...
Early acceptances are no more deserving of kudos than those that will happen later, for example, or the gap year choices, or the interesting entry-level job offers, or the kids who are going on tour with their band...
At Long Island Scholars, we want to work with all kinds of motivated Long Island public school kids, whether they have applied to colleges early or will do later this year, or won't at all (or at least, not yet!). So hearty congratulations to those who have received gratifying messages from colleges this week, and are breathing well-deserved sighs of relief.
And to those public school sophomores, juniors, or seniors on LI who are still figuring out what your strengths are, what you want to do with your life, and what your future might hold, we say: please get in touch! We'd love to help you realize your dreams.
