5 Things To Do While Waiting For Admission Decisions
For prospective international students, admission application have ended and the long wait for a decision have begun earnestly. This is usually a disturbing period, especially, if your scheduled plans for the year have been built around getting admission. I am an optimistic person, so I will stay positive throughout this article, but realistically, life do not always turn out the way you imagined. Let’s go!
Credits: Simon Paulin/imagebank.sweden.se
Written by Amaraizu Genius
1. Keep Track
This is foremost and important. You need to know every schedule that has to do with your admission, and keep track. Are there additional documents you are meant to submit? How about announcements that are peculiar to your program? You have to follow up and mark your calendar with dates and planned actions. At Södertörn University, and in Sweden generally, study activities don’t just happen, they are planned and scheduled ahead. There is a date already published for every announcement- there’s a date for the announcement of the final decision. Do you know this date and where the decision will be published?
2. Think Like a Winner
Someone who is sure of admission will have no reason to worry or overthink, or have any issues with anxiety or fear. Think as if you are sure that you will gain admission. Remember, at this time, you can do nothing to influence the admission decision, so, why not think like a winner. You have nothing to lose! Distract yourself from thoughts of what you didn’t do right or could have done better in the application, and rather focus your thoughts on the beauty of moving to a new country, or the adventure of starting a new course in a new university, and meeting new friends.
Photo credit: Amaraizu Genius
3. Act Like a Winner
Once the admission decision is published and you made it to the final list, you may not have time for other activities aside immigration, packing, visiting family and friends and such engagements. So, this is the best time to engage in other productive ventures that will improve you further and make your arrival experience worthwhile. For example, a winner would apply for accommodation; a winner would have a student/faculty contact in the university; a winner would know things to do if moving to a new country. This is the time for such research. Research more, learn more, and engage more with your prospective university.
4. Be busy improving
Even though you are acting like a winner, don’t get carried away. Remember, the result can also come negative. What you have to do is to keep up with personal improvements. Don’t quit your job yet or stop looking for a new job. Remain busy, or get busy. You can volunteer for some community organizations around you, or you can learn a new skill. Do you know how to cook? How about how to fix a bulb? Lol. Now, you can go and update your national ID documents? You may also need to perfect your driving skills and obtain a drivers license.
5. Prepare for a Rejection
I know you would not want to read this part, but it is a ‘necessary’ evil that should be discussed. Yeah, and nobody loves a rejection, not in anything. Moreover, it is difficult to ‘think and act like a winner’ and at the same time prepare for a rejection. Therefore, this is the first thing to do: ‘Prepare for a rejection’, after which you can now think and act like a winner. How to prepare is simply to assure yourself that you trust the process, and truly do. With this trust to the process, you will easily understand that the admission committee receives thousands of applications and whoever they choose isn’t personal, and you should never take it personal. Finally, have a family or friend who knows about your application, the processes you have undertaken and how you are progressing. In any case of acceptance or rejection, the family or friend is usually a necessary partner for celebration or otherwise.
Amaraizu Genius is an International Student Ambassador at Södertörn University
Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amaraizugenius
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Page updated
23-03-2021