You Survived the New York City High School Admissions Process. Now what?
“Get a hobby,” and other sound advice.
Take a shower. Wash away the stink of regret for ever having decided to live in New York City.
Cease all daydreaming about living in an airy multi-level house like the house of cards that you — uh, I mean your kid — built for the LaGuardia tech audition. Your apartment may be small but at least it can stand on its own without glue!
Gather your nearest and dearest for a cozy evening around a house of cards/diorama/art portfolio bonfire. You already have a thousand photos of all of these items anyway!
Accept that years from now you still won’t be able to listen to your child’s audition songs without breaking into a cold sweat. Those songs are dead to you. Sorry!
Forget that you ever knew what Ed Opt stands for. Except hang on…what does it stand for?
Scrap your plans to write a book called “When Bad RANs Happen to Good People.” The market is too niche.
Reclaim “RAN” as a word that is the past tense of “run” by listening to “Ran (So Far Away)” by A Flock of Seagulls, and have a good long cry about how you were young once — when that song came out — but now you have a kid going to high school…even if you don’t know what borough that high school is in, or what APs (if any) they offer, or even what the inside of the building looks like.
Stop telling people that your kid missed tier 1 by .000000005 percent.
Unbookmark the webpage with the consortium essay rubric.
Talk to your therapist about the emotions you’re having about maybe having missed your calling as a sailor or pilot. Just because you loved the Harbor School and Aviation open houses doesn’t mean that all of your life choices were bad ones.
Send Amelie flowers.
Stop ranking things (restaurants, TV shows, your children) in true order of preference. You can enjoy them all equally!
Trust that applying to colleges in four years is going to feel like a walk in the park. Seriously! So do not, under any circumstances, join the Applying to College from NYC Facebook group for at least three full calendar years. And when you finally do join, for the love of god, please please please read the Featured posts!! Stella is there and she will find you!
Try to get at least one good night’s sleep between now and March 6th. Which happens to be your kid’s birthday but hey it’s all gonna work out fine. Right? RIGHT?!?!! (Or maybe pick a different birthday this year? Just sayin.’)
Disconnect from the Applying to High School in New York Facebook group hive mind, which we all know is The Matrix, and get a hobby. You can do it!!
Seriously. Leave the group!
This is not a test! (And no you don’t get SHSAT scores until March 6th!)
You ready?
(Sorry if this has been asked and answered but…)
In 5…
(Can I still change my list at 11:59 pm tonight?)
4…
(But how will I know if waitlists are moving…)
3…
(Anybody hear from Bard and if so, what borough?)
2…
(What’s this? An urgent email from the DOE???)
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