6 Things You Need in Your College Decision Day Survival Kit

This post was written by Alexis Zimmer, a freshman in college. It was originally published on The Prospect, the world's largest student-run college access organization. You can follow The Prospect on Facebook and Twitter.



College decisions are coming out, and it's a super exciting (albeit stressful) time to be a senior. After months of hard work and waiting, these envelopes -- fat, skinny, and electronic -- are headed your way, and there's a whole myriad of things you could be facing. It's a whirlwind time of a senior's life, and there's a lot of things to forget in the madness of last-semester studying, internships, clubs, and finishing that last episode on Netflix. Here's six things you need to get through it all.



1. Login Information



The passwords needed to secure college application accounts are crazy nowadays. Four special symbols, a mixture of upper and lower case letters, and the sacrifice of your first-born seem to do the trick. If you're constantly resetting your passwords (because who can remember all of these school-specific ones anyways?), compile a list of your login information, so you have it ready for decisions day.



2. Camera



College acceptances can be really precious moments. You've worked hard for years to get into the school(s) of your dreams, and it's great to record and take photos of the moment. If you're camera shy like I was, let your family record and take photos anyways. Half of my decision photos are of me covering my face, and I regret it now, since they're all I have for physical memories of the stress and loveliness that was my decisions day.



3. Food



Almost every senior waiting for decisions had ice cream or chocolate during my senior year. They had it stockpiled and at the ready in case of both acceptance and rejection. You're probably going to be nervous, so go ahead and treat yourself.



4. Movie/Book



Waiting for decisions seems to make the clock go by so much slower. Keep a book or favorite movie ready to go to keep you busy while you wait for decisions to be released. Any distraction will be welcome over refreshing the decisions portal in agony.



5. Journal



Journaling is a great thing to get started, and I'm not talking about flowery and ultra descriptive "dear diary" journaling. It's an awesome and fast way to get down your thoughts and initial reactions to your decisions. You're probably on the fence between a few schools, so writing down what you're thinking in the moment can really help you later on in the decision making process.



6. Small Gifts



This might not apply to everyone out there, but my friends and I actually exchanged survival kits before the EA/ED decisions came out, so we included small gifts in our baskets. They were things like hand-written notes, comfy socks, more food, and picture collages of high school memories. You might just be making a kit for yourself, and that's okay! You can totally include small things that you've had your eye on as a way to keep your spirits up during the onslaught of decisions.



BONUS: Positive Attitude



As cheesy and overused (...and impossible to physically place into a kit) as this is, it really is important to go into your decisions announcements with an open mind and a positive attitude. College admissions isn't an exact science, and while we can try and try to figure out the perfect student profile for admissions, it just doesn't exist. You are absolutely lovely and will end up at the school that you're meant to go to. Have faith.



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