Submitting that first application is accomplished with a click of a button, yet that final, simple act is the culmination of a years-long process.

 Students often think of an application as comprising those things which are still in their control. Essays, supplemental questions, last-minute testing, the order of the activities list, etc. While these components are important, the bulk of the application has already been set in stone: three years of grades on the transcript; commitments and accomplishments outside the classroom; the impact made on the community, and so on. Human beings are the products of their experiences. As a result, the totality of what comprises an application is far greater than what the student does after creating an account with the Common Application. While all of that work should be acknowledged, let us not lose sight of the fact that students have spent their entire lives becoming who they are.

Seniors - now that applications have been submitted, celebrate and enjoy that the weight has been lifted from your shoulders...but don't forget that you do not attend a college admissions preparatory school. You attend a college and life preparatory school. Severn is committed to giving graduates the skills, experiences, attitudes, and mindsets they need to lead successful and fulfilling lives wherever their paths take them. Submitting an application is not the finish line, nor is being admitted to college. These are milestones that mark moments of progress, but you are not yet at the end. The grades yet to be earned and the experiences waiting for you belong to you, not to any college. This is not a time to check out of Severn thinking that you are done. Do not shortchange yourself or each other by being anything less than fully present in the community. Give Severn and your classmates the gift of your intentionality.

On cloud nine since submitting your first application? Use that stratospheric feeling as an aura of sustaining nimbus lifting yourself into the balance of a meaningful and memorable senior year.