Posted: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:33 AM - 11,451 Readers

By: Brett Ferdinand

Applying to college has been nerve-wracking enough, but I inadvertently made my own admissions process even worse. On my very first application I missed an important deadline — to the school I considered my safety, the University of Texas at Austin. And now I worry I may not get in anywhere else. Allow me to explain.

Earlier this month, I received my first and only college decision letter. It was from U.T. Austin, informing me that since my complete application had not been received by the deadline, I could not be admitted into the fall semester. This was not the response I had been hoping for. The reason they gave? While I sent in the actual application on time, I forgot to submit my SAT and ACT test scores by the deadline. As soon as I realized this omission I had those scores sent, but it was too late.

I even filed a letter of appeal to the board of admissions, asking them to please accept my application as on time, but it was denied. All of this means that since I had relied on Texas as my safety school, I essentially don’t have one now, at least not if I want to attend school this fall. (One note: In its letter, U.T. Austin did say I was guaranteed admission, in spring 2011, to its schools of liberal arts, natural sciences or undergraduate studies. However, I had applied to the university’s McCombs School of Business, and if I wish to pursue that further I was told I will have to reapply.)

As to the other colleges to which I applied, each is considered pretty elite. In other words, I’m not assured admittance into any of them. Considering that I was fifth in my class, U.T. should have been a slam dunk. Under the “Top 10 Percent Rule,” the state guarantees admission to any of its public universities to high school students ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

So, basically, now it’s time to play the waiting game with my other schools. I await letters from Rice University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Duke University, the University of Virginia, Princeton University, and Stanford University, my six schools remaining.

This may seem like a pretty crazy mix, but these are all schools I could see myself at for one reason or another. I honestly do not have a front-runner at this point. All l I know so far is that I plan to major in business or economics, and even that is shaky.

Now that I’ve swamped you with all this drama, I’d like to take a quick second to tell you a bit more about myself. I was born in New Jersey where I spent the first seven years of my life. From there my family moved to Virginia, where we lived close to Richmond until my eighth grade year. My last move brought me to where I currently reside in Cedar Park, Tex., right outside of Austin.

I attend Cedar Park High School, where I’ve spent a lot of my time the last four years on the varsity wrestling team. I also enjoy doing outdoor activities with friends, especially on Lake Travis, a great recreational lake about 10 minutes away.

It’s really hard to look at the bright side of my admissions situation, but at least my college decision is made that much easier with one less school to consider.

*  Story Contributed by: Brett Ferdinand