And the winner is...

First off, I am so sorry to have not posted for a month! Actually, over a month. The last month has been a whirlwind of class, crew, spring break and of course...boarding school revisits! Here's the low-down on what happened to me.
School A: Waitlisted. I was, in all honesty, not too disappointed. It's a great school, but so big. I go to a huge school now, but alas, I wanted something smaller.
School L: Waitlisted. I was pretty upset, but I got over it pretty quickly.
School D: Waitlisted. I won't lie. I cried. Hard. However, D's story is not quite over...
School M: ACCEPTED! My mom texted me in the middle of Chemistry. I started squealing-thankfully not loud enough for my teacher to hear. I think my lab partner thought I was having a heart attack :) It was also the first school I heard from. I had been wrong about posting online- both School M and School L did it! (If you're an international student, almost any school will e-mail you).

Now, I was thrilled to get into school M. Really, I was. I was also a little disappointed though. I may be older than most students applying, and there may be less available spots for my grade, but only one acceptance? Really?? However, I was fortunate to get NO rejections!

Still, I wanted action. I called School A and got my name off of the waitlist. I just really didn't care. However, I called schools L and D and asked WHY I was waitlisted. I figured I would at least know what to work on for college applications and whatnot. School L just said that I made the final cut but, alas, I did not play the cello or dance. This was a perfectly acceptable answer. It made me feel much better about myself. So, I didn't have the EXACT talent they were looking for. No big deal!
My phone call with School D was exciting. They decided that I could have a revisit, even though I was waitlisted! My interviewer wanted to talk to me again.
Now, I did some research during the next three weeks (I suggest prepreview.com by the way) and suddenly realized that School M was a much better school than I'd realized. It is not "prestigious", but to me it was starting to sound better than some "prestigious" schools. It was more...me....I guess. However, I still had my heart set on School D.
So, off I flew, first to school M and then to school D. I couldn't make D's actual revisit day, but they let me come on Wednesday, so first was M's day.

M was great. At a revisit day, they match you up with a host. You'll go to lunch, chapel, and class with them. The classes were really interesting. I, the girl who despises math, found myself engaged in AP Calculus BC! I'm only slotted to take AP Calc AB next year, but now I wish I was more mathematically inclined so I could have the fantastic teacher. My host was really sweet too. We had a pizza party in her dorm room with her friends. Then we went to the main room of the admissions building. They had food and Rachel (remember her? my good friend from M?) introduced me to all of her friends. Then people got up on stage to sing or play instruments. It was impromptu and really cool. I actually wanted to get up there too. Then I realized how WEIRD that was. I'm usually pretty reserved. I think that might have been the moment. There I was, surrounded by people who really acted like they wanted me to come to their school, including Rachel's friends, and I was in my element. I stayed around all afternoon, and took Rachel and her good friend out to dinner. Then, I went to a concert they were putting on. It was finally time for me to leave at 9:30(actually, most revisiters left at around 1 or 2, but Rachel asked me to stay). I said my goodbyes to my new and old friends, one guy told me to keep in touch because he'd be there during orientation to rescue me from the freshmen (no offense to the freshmen, it is nice to see people my own age though!). That was really sweet of him. We've already talked a couple of times since then.


Then it was time for my revisit at D. My host there was really sweet as well. I went to one class- pre-calculus. This school is considered small, but I felt overwhelmed and lost. It's an amazing school, don't get me wrong, but I found myself thinking of school M the entire time. I called that afternoon to confirm my spot at school M.

So, I'm off to school M next year! What do you guys think I should take to decorate my room? Rachel had about 10 pictures of me (along with other friends) on her walls and some posters. I'm thinking thats a good idea.

Some random things you don't think of considering about a school, but you really need to, because it's the little things that count
1. Room size. Being cramped is not good.
2. How you would stereotype the kids there. Yeah, it's okay to stand out but if you're Boho Beauty in a sea of Prep Princesses...you will feel awkward (unless you know you won't, then whatever)
3. Check out the extracurrics. If you are on newspaper, for instance, and they don't have a newspaper, you will not be happy.
4. Make sure you can do everything you want. One reason I did not apply to a school is because I couldn't act and play sports. So not cool.
5. Pay attention to your gut/heart. My head told me to go to school D. I am so glad I'm going to M instead. D is more prestigious. M is more me.