Denied admission, two tiger hopefuls move on

It was the day after the Ivies were supposed to send out their decision letters. Thomas Cheung anxiously approached the mailboxes in his apartment complex in New York City. He excitedly pulled out two large envelopes — one of which he desperately hoped would contain an acceptance letter to Princeton, the school he had pined over since he was in third grade.

But it wasn't to be.

"I see these two, huge, thick envelopes — the acceptance packages supposedly. So I'm in the elevator smiling, 'Oh my God, maybe there's a chance.' It turned out to be our Met Life insurance packages. I was like, 'Oh, darn it,' " Cheung said.

He put the packages aside and peered at a smaller envelope with the Princeton logo conspicuously in the top left-hand corner.

And that moment was the end of a dream.

"Because I've applied to so many other colleges, you know that you got in by the envelope size. Business size, you know you got rejected," said Cheung, articulating the 'bigger is better' principle familiar to many college hopefuls.

For nine years, Cheung had pictured himself claiming his place among the orange and black.

..."You applied early decision for a reason. Every night that's the only thing I could think about. Every morning when I woke up, 'Princeton.' Nothing else mattered. It was burned into me," he said. "Every time I heard or I hear the word 'Princeton,' I get the shivers. I had this affinity for the school that's unexplainable. I just had this love for that school. I tried not to get psyched about it," Cheung said.

But the strong-willed senior at Brooklyn Technical High School refused to get depressed about Princeton's decision.

"Someone told me it was the kiss of death if you got the deferral letter, so I wasn't expecting to get in," Cheung said. "I wasn't breaking down or anything. Because I received the deferral letter, I was pretty stable. I was like, 'Oh well. Princeton? No biggie.' "

"There's no point in being depressed or anything . . . I went through that whole trip back then [after the deferral] and it was depressing," he said.

Instead, Cheung focused his attention on another school he felt he could call his own — Dartmouth College, "The Big Green."

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"Dartmouth has always been my second choice. I was in the chemistry lab. We were discussing courses . . . this other kid who got into Harvard said, 'You have to apply to Dartmouth. It's such a great school,' " Cheung said.

So Cheung visited Dartmouth, spoke to current students and decided he could picture himself spending four years on the quiet New Hampshire campus.

"I loved everything about the school. I don't remember a bad moment when I was there. They're the most friendly people you could find," he said.

He also visited the school's website and downloaded music from its a capella groups.

"It intrigued me," said Cheung, who has sung in the chamber chorus for four years. "Wow, they offer so much. It's like Princeton – they focus on the undergraduates. They hold your hand. It's not a cold environment."

Though Cheung had high hopes for Dartmouth, he wanted to ensure he would have a variety of viable college options.

After the deferral letter came in December, Cheung spent hours reading students' college commentaries on the Princeton Review website and agonizing over how many more applications he should complete. His school's guidance department recommended seven. But each person he asked offered a different 'magic' number.

Through his extensive research, Cheung composed a list of eight schools, all of which had outstanding academic reputations.

Cheung recalled, "This one guidance counselor gave me this dirty look like, 'Who do you think you are? What if you don't make it into any of them?' "

By the time Cheung sent off the last application, the number had reached 18. Many of his classmates mailed a similar amount.

"I originally had 26 colleges. We were all thinking 'We're not gonna make it anywhere.' We had this feeling. We made ourselves feel better by applying to all these colleges. As a last resort, to redeem ourselves," he said.

And Cheung waited again.

A few weeks before the Ivy League notification date, Cheung received a Dartmouth likely letter, indicating the school's admissions officers were impressed with his application and hoped Cheung would enroll there in the fall.

"Receiving a likely letter is better than receiving an acceptance letter because it means you were chosen as one of the ones that they definitely want. So that was pretty cool. Dartmouth seems pretty reasonable to me," Cheung said.

But the final decision wouldn't come until later, and as Cheung had learned the hard way, nothing in the college admissions process is a certainty.

Eventually, though, the big green envelope arrived, stuffed tightly in Cheung's mailbox. He immediately knew what it meant.

"The Dartmouth letter came later than the rest of the schools, so I was starting to panic, are they playing tricks on me?" he said.

Now that the waiting game is over, Cheung is more than pleased with the outcome, and is planning another visit to Dartmouth.

"I'm gonna buy every single t-shirt they have, every single sweatshirt," he said. "I have so much school pride."

Andrew Baldwin

For Andrew Baldwin, Princeton's final answer appeared in the same small envelope as Cheung's, but this time in the absence of any deceptive last-minute hopes for finding a golden "Yes!" printed inside.

Since Baldwin had been deferred a few months before, he knew his chances of being accepted to the University were small.

So the day the final letter came, Baldwin's spirit wasn't knocked down in the process.

"I wasn't really upset," he said. "After the deferral letter, I really shifted my focus to Cornell. I didn't forget about Princeton. I just wasn't into it as much."

But the admissions process wasn't over yet.

The Princeton waiting game had ended, but Cornell University and Dartmouth still had to make their final plays.

"Princeton was the first news I got, so I was kind of worried that Cornell or Dartmouth wouldn't come through," he said.

Within 24 hours, though, the first of the two schools clocked in — good news at last.

That afternoon, Baldwin was at a friend's house when his mother, Karin, called.

"It's a big envelope," she said into the receiver, beaming about the large package hailing from Cornell.

Her excitement was contagious.

"I was just really happy," Baldwin said. "I don't think I started jumping up and down. I know I stood up immediately. I was energized. As soon as I got home, I looked through the stuff immediately."

An aspiring physicist, Baldwin had researched Cornell's particle physics program and was impressed with "how easy it is to do research" at the school — even for freshmen. Cornell's quiet campus — set peacefully in Ithaca, N.Y., a three-and-a-half-hour drive from his home in Doylestown — also fit in nicely with his desire to attend college in the Northeast.

"I visited in the fall. It's by far my favorite campus," he said. "I think I might be a little happier at a bigger school [like Cornell]."

The choice seemed clear.

But the big green envelope that soon arrived forced Baldwin to assume a role familiar to admissions officers, yet one he had yet to play — decision maker.

"When I got the Dartmouth acceptance, I wasn't upset but I thought 'Man, I have to make a choice now,' " he said. "It was a tough choice because I had stayed at Dartmouth and had a great time."

In the final equation, Baldwin had to balance academics, location and the size of each school's student body. But in the end, his passionate interest in music tipped the scales in favor of Cornell.

Baldwin — an avid musician who plays three instruments and hopes to start his own band in college — liked the sound of Cornell's unique 'Just about Music' dormitory, which offers features such as practice rooms equipped with drum sets and mixers.

"Music is my primary interest aside from academics," he said. " 'Just about Music' had a lot to do with it [his decision]."

Only 50 incoming freshmen will receive housing assignments in this dorm. Baldwin is, once again, waiting to see if he will be selected.

In the meantime, his mother, Karin, is content with her son's decision to accept the admissions offer from Cornell — the college she attended for a year, but was forced to leave for financial reasons.

"I think he made the right choice," she said. "He's going to finish where I started. All in all, I think it worked out great."

Baldwin, too, is looking forward to beginning his undergraduate studies — and to leaving the formidable college admissions process behind.

Though the response deadline is not until the beginning of May, Baldwin plans to mail his acceptance card back to Cornell in the next couple days.

"I don't think [the application process] has changed me. Being accepted has changed me because I'm just a lot more relaxed. I was just worried I'd be going to a school that I didn't really want to be going to," he said.

And even if Baldwin doesn't land a room in the 'Just about Music' dorm, he's happy to know that he can now call 'The Big Red' his home.