Not completely! Don’t give up on the last leg of the race!

After the application has been mailed or the “send” button has been hit, you can start to rejoice that you've come a long way toward your building your college future! But don’t get too comfy, you still need to make sure that college admissions officers know you are still interested!

Truth: Colleges are into accepting students that will actually enroll and attend.

According to Jackie Burrell, colleges often base their final acceptance decisions on how a student demonstrates interest in actually attending the college. You see, no one likes rejection and colleges want to extend acceptance letters to students who will likely enroll in their college. The percentage of accepted students who end up matriculating is called “yield”, and this affects everything from a school's public image to its rankings. If you were a college admissions officer trying to do decide between two applicants with similar strengths and qualifications, how would you decide?

Tips for what to do after you apply:

• Schedule a visit to the college with an admissions officer. In addition to displaying your level of interest to the admissions folks, you are also getting another opportunity to gather information before you make your final enrollment decision.
• Call or email with informed questions and proactively respond to any emails or phone calls that you receive from them. Remember, no one likes a stalker! You should think of questions that will show your interest in some unique area of the college and send a brief email. Just like in other relationships, you need to wait for the college to respond to your question before following up.  Demonstrate your interest with confidence and develop communication plans for touching base for more information about the college. Resist the temptation to ask about your application status or acceptance odds! Just show that you are serious about learning more about their college and pursuing your educational future.