Applied early decision to Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences. The decisions were to be released December 19th at 5:00 pm. I quote the website: “Admission letters for Early Decision applicants will be mailed today, Wednesday, December 19, 2007. Students will also be able to access their decisions online starting at 5:00 PM EST”. It is now 5:44 pm (yes, eastern standard time) and I still HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET ON THE WEBSITE!!!!! In the age of laptops, Blackberries, and iPhones, I guess I just took it for granted that I would be able to access my decision when it came out. But alas, I am sitting in my school, waiting, checking every minute to see if the website is accessible.

Still nothing.

Although I am the only student from my school to apply to the College of Arts and Sciences, six other classmates of mine applied early decision to other colleges at Cornell. This has made today a very important day in my school, after all more than a tenth of the class (we are 67 strong) has made the decision to apply early to the school on a hill in Ithaca.

This past week was, as they say in college basketball, “Judgment Week.” Yale, Penn, Columbia, Brown, WashU in St. Louis, and other elite colleges all made their decisions for early applicants in the past eight days. Many of my friends have received great news, while others have been less fortunate. My friends are smart. And my smart friends got deferred, and even rejected. This is NOT a biased opinion. They’re so smart! Maybe I’m biased. Nevertheless, what I have learned from this journey is that the college process is painfully fickle.

I’m still waiting. It’s 5:59 pm. One hour of misery.

Wish me luck.