A puzzle in an envelope

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 24, 2005

Paul Seegert had little time to chat. He’s busy these days, buried in paper as thousands of high school seniors await their fates.

“I need to go back to reviewing applications,” said Seegert, an assistant director of admissions at the University of Washington.

This time of year, “we don’t even fit in our admissions office,” he said Wednesday from Schmitz Hall on the Seattle campus.

There, a team of about 30 people is making decisions – yes, no, maybe – that will shape the course of thousands of lives.

Meanwhile, in homes like mine, students wait. The mailbox becomes a vessel of hopes fulfilled or dreams dashed. A big fat envelope? You’re in. A skinny letter means something else, rejection or the purgatory of a waiting list.

About 16,000 prospective freshmen have applied for 4,700 spaces at the UW, Seegert said. At Western Washington University in Bellingham, about 8,600 freshman applications were received and 2,300 will be enrolled for fall, said Allison Schroeder, a student admissions representative.

“It’s an especially large number this year,” Schroeder said. “We’re hoping to have all the decisions made by April 1. We make decisions every single day.”

Every single day, my older kids check to see if another choice has arrived. I have two seniors, one graduating from high school in June, the other from college. One goes to college this fall, the other will attend law school.

Between the two of them, they’ve been accepted to seven schools in five states.

Tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship money is on the table. One rejection has arrived, from an East Coast university. My daughter might frame that rejection letter – after circling its grammatical errors. We’re awaiting word from two schools, one for each kid.

We’re edgy, not knowing for sure where everyone will be in September.

For Garrett Gladsjo, a senior at Darrington High School, money makes the decision easier. “I applied to Gonzaga, WWU, UW, Idaho and Washington State,” he said. He’s in everywhere, but WSU has offered a $6,000-a-year Regents scholarship.

Interested in engineering, Gladsjo said he’s “about 80 percent” decided.

Arlington High School senior Kenny Gunter is sitting pretty after accepting a football scholarship at Princeton University in New Jersey. The quarterback had no trouble choosing the Ivy League. Still, he called the decision process “stressful.”

Gunter’s friend Eric Huleatt, another Arlington senior, visited campuses large and small before narrowing his choice to the University of Montana in Missoula or Montana State in Bozeman.

His father, Arlington dentist Jeff Huleatt, said he advised his son to “pick a place where you’d like to live.” The UW, where Jeff went to school, was too large and urban for Eric.

“It’s kind of scary and exciting at the same time. I’m not sure yet,” Eric Huleatt said.

Gary Carrier, a senior at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, has been accepted to UW and WWU. Still undecided, he sees ups and downs at both schools. He has friends who’ve applied to several colleges and have yet to hear from any.

At the UW, Seegert said about two-thirds of applicants will have learned their status by today. Everyone should know by early April. Students have to accept offers of admission by May 1 or risk losing their slot.

“Some will be offered wait-list status, but we have no idea what their odds are going to be,” Seegert said. That depends on how many accepted students decide to come. Three years ago, Seegert said, all 700 on a waiting list gained admission. “Two years ago, it was almost no one,” he said.

For some students – my daughter may be among them – word of admission or rejection by a coveted school will arrive just days before deadlines for accepting other schools’ scholarships. Big decisions will be made in very little time.

“It is hard,” said Schroeder at WWU. “It’s definitely hard if all their friends are starting to hear back. But it’s normal not to have heard by now.”

It’s normal to be nervous, too. A month from now, nerves will settle down.

Dr. Huleatt knows that life offers more than one road, more than once chance. He started at UW in 1973, then dropped out for five years. He went back in 1979 and finished dental school in 1985.

“I try to tell kids that age not to put too much pressure on themselves,” he said.

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or | muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.