No friends to whine to? Try the Internet

Most Yalies can recall in detail the fateful day their acceptance letters arrived. For the roughly 2,000 applicants that Yale has accepted to the Class of 2005, that moment has arrived or is imminent. This has been the most competitive application process the University has seen. Only 13.5 percent of 14,809 applicants received acceptances. Over the past week, several apprehensive applicants have turned to a message board at www.usnews.com to find sympathy.

EUGENE WONG/YH

The message board, known as "Wanna Be a Yalie?" was created on Wed., Mar. 28 when Erin Pettigrew, an applicant from Kentucky, reached into the cyber world and asked if anyone was "aching to be a Yalie? Do you find Yale unavoidably magnetic?" Immediately, responses from as far away as Saudi Arabia came back.

Pettigrew described growing up in a world where few students venture out of state. Where she comes from, she explained, many people associate Yale and the Ivy League with "fantastical images of bespectacled nerds or just superfluous amounts of snobbery." The message board has provided Pettigrew with a way to communicate with students more like her.

"Online," she wrote, "I have found people who both meet and surpass my level of academic prowess, and they understand the entire process. This sort of community is what I hope to find at Yale." Miles away in Florida, Adam Harris found by using the message board that "speak[ing] to fellow students about their inquiries is healthy." He added that each time a student mentions an acceptance, "it feels good to know that the kids are supportive and excited for you [even though] none of us know each other."

The message board has also given Harris and others a chance to vent their nervousness and anxiety. One student wrote, "Everything just seems so competitive lately. So far I got nice fat letters from Washington University, Brandeis, and Emory. But I want to hear from the big ones! I literally feel like the waiting has become torture, and all my friends complain that I'm irritable."

Harris has found that the site has been "the perfect outlet to release all application horror stories" and has helped him with his constant battle of facing his lack of confidence in his application process.

Numerous students on the site have expressed their fear of rejection, one writing, "If rejected, I will successively gasp, hyper-ventilate horribly, sob uncontrollably, scream shrilly, thud to the ground, and remain motionless on the floor for at least four years."

Some major points of discussion have also involved how large a factor geography is in admissions, which was a large concern for Southerners. Arguments erupted over how Yale could have admitted George W. Bush, DC '68. For Michael Asoulin, a sophomore at Queens College who dreams of continuing at Yale Law School, Bush symbolizes students he believes are accepted because they are legacies and have a lot of money. As one student posted, "[Yale's] history is drenched with oppression towards those who did not win the lottery when they pushed their way out of their mother's womb. For every Bill Clinton, [LAW '73], who came from nothing by using education as a road to a better life, there are a thousand other Yalies like Dubya, who rode the coattails of their daddy's fortune and acted as if they were entitled to it."

Other students have used the board to discuss questions ranging from SAT scores to myths surrounding Skull and Bones. Some students prefer to use the board to read the thoughts of other applicants. Lucas Tate, an applicant from Arizona, has chosen not to participate in most of the discussions, but nonetheless found the message board helpful in helping him to connect with other applicants.

Yale Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw finds it "interesting that the kids are talking to each other." He added, "None of what they are discussing is a surprise." Shaw describes dispelling myths in the South about Yale taking "98 percent of their students" from the Northeast. This year, 200 students were admitted from the South. Shaw also explained that in the case of Bush, "whenever you have celebrities, people always try to second-guess decisions. The sons and daughters of Yale graduates tend to come from great educational backgrounds and are very competitive."

Shaw sees the great passion for Yale that some of the students expressed as something to be "celebrated." However, he cautioned that at times, such passion is only momentary and fades after the letters are sent out. He cites one applicant who was rejected from Yale and then wrote such a convincing letter in response to her rejection letter that Shaw decided to admit her. But despite her claim that she would "crawl through glass to get into Yale" and her extra efforts in securing admittance, the student chose to attend Stanford after all.

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