Halloween wasn’t just a night of trick-or-treating or scary costumes for OVS senior Cole Zellner. It was a night of excitement and relief.
He and his and his mother were about to pick up candy for the trick-or-treaters when he opened correspondence from a college he had applied to. Inside was an acceptance letter from the University of Idaho.
“When we saw the acceptance we got so excited that we forgot to go get candy — the little trick-or-treaters didn’t get any candy from us that night,” said Cole, the first member of the Class of 2016 to earn a college acceptance. “It wasn’t until I saw I was accepted that I was able to look at my future without the fear that I wouldn’t get in to college.”
Just a week later, on November 6, Cole was sitting in the exact spot but this time with his friend Gavin Floyd when he opened his second letter, this one from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
It was his second college acceptance in less than a week, but he isn’t alone. Several students have now heard good news from colleges, including senior Sarah Sharpe who had settled in for a regular night of homework when she opened an e-mail from Whittier College.
“I was so relieved that I finally had a college acceptance letter,” said Sarah, the second OVS senior to earn college admission. “Even though it was a backup school, it’s still something and it’s still college. It’s a start of a new chapter of just an emotional roller coaster of acceptances and denials from college.”
This is just the beginning of a wave of good news certain to roll across the Upper Campus as the 21 other seniors still await their first acceptance letters.
“Every acceptance is really good news,” said college counselor Judy Oberlander, who proudly announced the first acceptances at morning meeting. “It builds the stairway to getting in and that’s why I want to share it with everyone. They’re starting to trickle in, and as they trickle they will become a flood.”