TAKE CARE
You’ve been thrust into Social Distancing, and I see all these tweets and posts and articles about the Viral Anxiety and Viral Stress that’s accompanying the CoronaVirus, and my first thought is: what’s new about Viral Stress and Anxiety? We live it everyday in the college admissions world. And that thought leads me to realize that your generation, you -- the amazing Gen Z, are absolutely equipped for this ordeal. You are resilient. You are experienced with handling your stress and many of you have been proactive in learning the mechanisms for dealing with stress and anxiety on a regular level. Nevertheless, this stress is -- no doubt -- leveling up.
You know that life can feel like it’s falling apart and that you will survive it. You know that we need a little wind in our lives to make us stronger. You know, that just like those baby trees in the biosphere that fell down when they didn’t have anything pushing on them -- we need some stress in our lives. If you aren’t familiar with my take on the trees in the biosphere, you can read my medium story about it here.
But let’s be real -- there’s stress and then there’s stress. So, I want you to be especially careful with yourselves now. It’s one thing to go through the college admissions decisions drama while in school surrounded by classmates, teachers, and friends, and a whole 'nother thing to go through it alone. But, as Brene Brown, one of my personal heroes said last week (look her up if you aren’t familiar with her), “Social distancing doesn’t have to mean social disconnection.” We can be alone in all this together. We know how to do exactly that here on A2C, and we’ve been doing it for years.
When you start to feel overwhelmed, take a minute and find stillness and just allow yourself to breathe. Ground yourself in the present moment by listing 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can feel, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.
I always recommend yoga and mindfulness and meditation because they helped me during the most stressful times of my life, so I definitely recommend you look into some online yoga classes as a way to grow comfortable with connecting your body and brain while you have some extra time on your hands in the next few weeks.
I also recommend two apps for you to help with mindfulness and meditation.

1. Breathe by Dr. Jud: it’s available on google play and the app store. FREE. This is a great app that can help you with meditation and mindfulness and in general, just being still.
2. Koru Free Un-Class and App ($3.99 charge for app): That link has links to the app and class.

And lastly, before I move on to logistics and news and updates, I want to share this letter with you from a high school teacher in Louisiana, whose words moved me. He experienced Hurricane Katrina as a high school student and has some wise words to share with you.
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• SAT, ACT, IB, AP, TRANSCRIPTS, AND INTERNET

So far, SAT and ACT have both pushed back their April and May dates. College Board notification is here. ACT is here. Here is the IB notification.
I honestly have no idea what is going to happen with testing for you juniors and seniors who need IB scores and A levels, or what’s going to happen with your transcripts if your teachers and counselors can’t easily access them. I’m hopeful that all this will be resolved before there’s a need to cause problems, but we really have no idea what’s going to happen. I do know that I follow over 500 colleges on social media and I’m seeing many of them make posts and tweets about how they will be trying to work with students however they can.
If you don’t have the Internet in your home, it can be really hard to get your school work done, not to mention your college applications. I’ve seen a few companies that are offering free intro services for students: Altice USA | Charter and Spectrum: 1-844-488-8395 | Comcast Covid Response: 855-846-8376 (English) or 855-765-6995 (Spanish). I’ve also seen that AT&T, Verizon, and T Mobile have Covid responses. You can google and see what they are offering.
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• COLLEGES EXTENDING DEPOSIT DEADLINES

Here’s a great article about how colleges are making adjustments right now: The COVID College Choice: How To Pick A College During A Global Pandemic
ACCEPT List of colleges that are extending their Deposit deadline to June 1
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I6FRnbfPFmzNzKoPwYSFgLPB23XYdDTNk7bnpp5omjM/edit
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• NACAC COLLEGE ADMISSIONS STATUS: CORONAVIRUS IMPACT

“As a service to students and families, NACAC is providing this online tool as a central resource for information about changes in college admission events, deposit dates, and more as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.” NACAC is the National Association of College Admissions Counselors.
https://www.nacacnet.org/news--publications/newsroom/college-admission-status-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR34gw3CrfhUHVtzwdR1-TZf6BlYJJuT4jinCQNugr8BcQepv93KOsnM2Io
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• LEARNING MORE ABOUT COLLEGES

Pay attention to how colleges react to the virus. Are they helping their students with housing, airfare, and lost wages? Or are they leaving them high and dry? These are great questions and ones that I think y’all should be considering as you make your final decisions as seniors or your college lists as juniors.
This NPR article, Amid Coronavirus, Some College Students Have Nowhere To Go, might be interesting to you.

• VIRTUAL TOURS (AND OTHER WAYS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT A CAMPUS)

Seniors, as you begin to finalize your choices, I know you will have some tough decisions to make, and for many of you a college visit would have helped you with that decision. Juniors, as you begin to create your lists, it’s going to be tough this year with college visits and tours off the agenda more than likely at least through the spring, if not the summer.
The first place to start is the college’s own website. Many of them are working overtime to get virtual tours up for you. You can also see what kind of online programming the admissions offices are doing for you, like video chats and other online campus days. Make sure you follow their social media, especially Instagram and Twitter. I’m seeing lots of important info from many colleges everyday all day long. Many of them also have YouTube channels you can check out.
Here’s a list of some virtual tour websites.
https://www.youvisit.com/
https://www.campusreel.org/
https://www.youniversitytv.com/
These websites don’t have virtual tours necessarily, but they have lots of good info that you might find helpful.
www.niche.com
www.collegescoops.com
https://www.scoir.com/blog/youvisit-partnership
Cialfo College Fairs
https://www.zeemee.com/
Pinterest -- look for pics of colleges and see what others are saying
Reddit -- go to the individual college subreddits and ask questions of the students. There are no right or wrong answers to your questions because it’s all about what you’re interested in and what works best for you. Sample Questions: What do you like most? What do you like least? What do you do on a Saturday afternoon? What are your friends doing? What do you do on a Wednesday night? What might your friends be doing? What would you change?
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• TIRED OF BEING A COUCH POTATO YET?

Sure, you can play video games, catch up on movies, while away the hours on Twitch, or watch YouTube and TikTok for hours on end, but eventually you might find yourself getting a little bored. And juniors, this is primetime for you to take advantage of working on a personal project. I always suggest to my juniors that they use the summer before senior year to get a job and work on a personal project so this is a perfect opportunity for you to take the time to learn about and do some of the things that you just don’t have time to do during your busy year.
What to do now that we’re enmeshed in social distancing and we are working and schooling from home:
Read, Read, Read
Reread your favorite books (Harry Potter calling your name?)
Read books you haven’t had a chance to read before (Tess of the D'urbervilles, Rebecca, Fahrenheit 451, Anything by William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Ralph Ellison, or Jane Eyre or so many other amazing writers out here. I know my kids loved Robert Jordan when they were your age.
By the way, the best way to become a strong writer is to read -- a lot. Reading will improve your standardized test scores and help you in every class -- believe it or not.
Family Time
Family History Project -- Collect family stories, photos, and documents to create a scrapbook for your family to keep
Become a Chef -- Learn to follow recipes and create homemade meals
Chilling with Chores -- Do dishes and laundry without your parents asking you. These are the kind of tasks you can do with mindfulness by focusing on the task, or you can stick on some headphones or turn up the speakers and have a big ole Chore Dance Party.
Connecting with The Elderly -- Call and facetime with grandparents and the elderly in your life. They will be lonely and disconnected right now and will need you more than ever.
Family Game Night -- Bond your family and learn new games or bring out the old favorites
New Hobbies and Projects
Pursue a hobby you haven’t had time to explore before: Teach yourself Italian or another language that piques your interest, Learn an instrument like guitar and ukulele, Learn about Astronomy, Martial Arts, Gardening, or Chess. This is your chance to explore areas you haven’t given yourself time to explore or you can fine tune some skills you’ve been working on all along.
Take an Online Class: Ed X, YouTube tutorials, MOOCS, Coursera
Learn Marketable skills: Learn to code through Udacity, Learn Excel -- if you can help someone with an Excel Spreadsheet, you will forever be on their good side.
Get Creative
Find your artistic side: Draw, Sing, Cartoon, Dance, Paint, Collage, Write plays, Play and Write Music, Stories, or Operas
Be Outside (Sunshine and Green Bathing are both great ways to stay healthy!)
sit in the sun, take walks, bike rides, jogs (keep 6 feet spacing between you and others for social distancing)
Community Service and Volunteer
Childcare for people who must work
Errands for the Elderly -- make grocery store and pharmacy runs for those who shouldn’t be out and about
Help out at food banks for those who are newly unemployed and need back up food
Get a Job
Amazon and Grocery Stores are both hiring if your parents and you are comfortable with your being in that setting.
Journal/Diary
Write. Write. Write. And write some more. I encourage you to find your voice and practice with it while keeping a record of what’s happening in our world right now. These are truly historic times and your children and grandchildren will treasure your thoughts and reflections about what it was like to experience this event as a teen. Also, bonus for juniors -- these diaries and journals will help you find your voice and give you reflections and thoughts to turn to when you begin to write those essays.
LOOK FOR THE HELPERS
And of course, hang out here on A2C with us! Share your thoughts, concerns, excitement, questions, and advice. We are a community of people who are helpers. These are stressful times, and we are all worried about our futures, and we really have no idea what that will look like, but that’s really no more true today than it was last fall if you think about it. What I do know is this: We are going to be ok. You are going to be ok. And the reason I know that is because of this community of 170,000 badasses who are warriors in life. You give me hope because everyday, I see you all jumping in to help each other and it always makes me think of these wise words from Mr. Rogers: “Look for the helpers.”
You are not alone.