The following article is the fourth part of a series that follows two Phillips Academy Seniors through the college admissions process. This week Paul Kim ’05 and Laura Eddy ’05 joined other PA seniors as they eagerly checked their mailboxes for large envelopes embossed with college seals. Kim received the coveted letter from Carnegie Mellon, Duke, and the University of Southern California. Eddy earned admission to American University, UVM, Babson, and Syracuse. On or around April 1, colleges and universities across the country sent letters of decision to prospective students. For the class of 2005, this was the climax of a college application process that had lasted many months. Kim received his first decision letter on December 15 from Yale University, to which he applied early action. Yale declined Kim’s application. Kim applied to Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Duke University, the University of Southern California, the University of Chicago, New York University, and Stanford University through regular admissions. Carnegie Mellon, Duke, and the University of Southern California accepted Kim, while he was denied admission to Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. He was waitlisted at Cornell, NYU, and University of Chicago. He is still waiting to hear from Stanford. Kim said, “Overall I wasn’t that surprised by the schools that I got into and got rejected from. The schools I got rejected from were all reaches. I’m really glad that I got into Duke, though, because it was one of my first choices and was a borderline reach. That was pleasantly surprising. What was not so great was that I got waitlisted by both of my probable [schools], NYU and U Chicago.” Kim says that he is planning on attending Duke, “unless by some off-chance miracle I [get] into Stanford.” Laura Eddy applied to American University, the University of Vermont, Syracuse University, Babson College, Boston College, Georgetown University, Duke University, Dartmouth University, and Harvard University, all through regular admissions. American University, UVM, Babson, and Syracuse all accepted Eddy. Georgetown, Duke, and Dartmouth declined her application. Boston College waitlisted Eddy, and she has yet to hear from Harvard. Even though she likes all three of the schools to which she was accepted, Eddy has decided to stay on the waitlist at Boston College. Eddy said, “I liked all of my schools from the start, so I am really not disappointed in any way. I applied to a range of schools, some reaches and some safeties, and so I think that my results make a lot of sense. I loved Dartmouth, Duke, and Georgetown, but have no hard feelings about their decisions.” She added, “I think college will be great regardless of which school I choose, both academically and socially….I know that the base I’ve established socially and academically while at Andover has prepared me for whatever I am going to face during the next four years.” Eddy said that her feelings about the college application process remained much the same from beginning to end, as she “went into the process knowing that it was competitive. Kim said, “Judging from [how] I and my friends here at school have done in terms of acceptance, I feel like colleges are very by the numbers.”
