The end of March marks a stressful, yet exciting time for seniors all across the country. Though many decisions came out in December, January, and February, there are some students who hadn’t heard back from all of their colleges until the end of March.

The last week in March was an especially eventful week for college admissions, with many top universities releasing their regular decisions. For example, all Ivy League schools released decisions on Thursday 3/30 and Stanford University released the day after. Unfortunately, this week did not bring much good news to Hingham students hoping to get accepted into these top schools. 

As acceptance rates continue to drop, these top schools only become less attainable for wishful seniors. University of Pennsylvania saw acceptance rates fall by almost half over just the last three years, and trends like this are true beyond the Ivies. 

Now that the application and decision process is over, it’s time for seniors to figure out which school they’ll end up attending. This means visits, accepted students days, and more. Hingham student Julia O’Dwyer is spending this weekend looking at schools she got into. She said “I’m currently visiting a lot of the colleges I have heard back from and I have really gained some new perspectives from colleges I didn’t have much interest in at first.” 

As for waitlisted students, news on this won’t come until May or later. Because most schools require a deposit to be sent by May 1, schools don’t know how many spots they will have left open for waitlisted students until then. This could mean students might be offered a spot in May or June, after already committing to another school. 

International schools also follow a bit of a different schedule, with decisions still not out for some schools. Lauren Brockwell, who applied to schools in Canada and France said that “applying to international schools is a bit of a different process because a lot of them only require your transcript, an optional resume, and then personal information.” She added that she was “surprised that personal essays and supplementals weren’t of the utmost importance for their admissions process.” 

If you are interested in where specific students will be attending college next year, look at @hingham2023decisions on Instagram, where Hingham students are sharing their college and intended major.