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If My Early Decision College Says Yes, Will I Ever Know What Yale Might Have Said?

Written by Sally Rubenstone | Aug. 31, 2010

Question: I love my Early Decision school, however I want to know if I am capable of being at least waitlisted at Yale. But I cannot apply to Yale Early Action and to my ED school. If I get into my ED school I will have to withdraw all my apps :(. Is there anything I can do?

If you ever read the Robert Frost poem called "The Road Not Taken" you'll understand that we are all often forced to choose between two disparate paths, realizing that once we have made our selection, we will never know where the other might have led. One of life's great pleasures-- but also among its frustrations--is reflecting on what might have been.

As you are already aware, your Early Decision application will mean that you, too, may spend the rest of your years wondering about your Yale admission verdict. The only way you will know if you might have been admitted--or at least wait-listed--is if you don't get good news in December from your ED school. If that's the case, then you are free to apply to Yale and to hope that their admission folks see something in your application folder that the ED admissions committee may have missed (and this happens all the time).

Of course, if your ED school accepts you in the fall, you can always aim for grad school in New Haven later on ... so the first road that you chose may some day circle back to the one that you passed by. :-)

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.