As the college admission season officially concluded for the 2017-2018 school year, with most schools having released their final decisions by April 1, high school seniors around the globe are now reflecting on their successes and losses. Admitted students have until May 1 to officially accept an admission offer from the school they’ll call home for the next four years.

Across the board, students applying to the class of 2022 broke records not only in the number of students seeking admission but in the strength of applications. For instance, at Harvard, 42,729 students applied for admission, with only 1,962 students receiving admission to the college. From such a large applicant pool, Dean of Admissions at Harvard, William Fitzsimmons, commented that “We had to make difficult decisions this year given the strength and depth of the applicant pool… of the applicants, 14,273 had a 4.0 grade point average, and 17,692 had scores of 1,400 or higher on the two sections of the SAT. The applicant pool included students from among 11,126 high schools from 170 countries.”

For students waitlisted, they will have to endure an even longer waiting period for their decisions and are expected to receive final notice, if they accepted a spot on the waitlist, by late June.

Despite the dramatic decrease in acceptance rates this admissions season, OCSA students received great news from top-tier institutions such as Cornell, Yale, Emory, Boston University, Dartmouth, Berklee, and NYU. Additionally, many OCSA seniors received admission to UF and FSU, where financial assistance from Bright Futures is expected to cover the cost of tuition.

Ultimately, whether a student is headed off to their local community college or an Ivy-League institution, it is great relief for high school seniors that the college application period is finally over. No matter the institution students choose to attend, their aspirations and drive will allow them to effect the change they seek in the world; success is imminent for the incoming class of 2022.