TakeMyCoffeeBlack

I feel the same way... Speaking for myself, I think it's because last year I was chock full of naivete and unfounded confidence. This year, however, it's more like humility and fear bordering on paranoia. I know that silence early in the cycle translates to depressing notifications later on.
 
That said, it's still too early for any of us to be worried (about most schools, anyway). One or two more weeks, and the silence will start to take on more significance. Because I have wayyyyy too much time on my hands right now, I looked at the notifications over the last two cycles and made a weekly coding system (intentionally skewed to better reflect the schools to which I applied). Anxious anal-retention follows:
 
1/16 - 1/22: roaring success
1/23 - 1/29: fairly early
1/30 - 2/5: ramping up
2/6 - 2/12: critical mass
2/13 - 2/19: nearing danger
2/20 - 2/26: likely failure
2/27 - 3/5: epic failure
 
So, basically, I'm wigging out this year, and it helps tremendously to talk to other folks in similar straits.

Umm... Alrighty then. 
 
I rather think that feminism makes it okay for women not to want that, not to have to conform to an image of femininity created by men, and to pursue that which will help to fulfill them as an individual as well as a woman. I don't think it has anything to do with chivalry, other than to say (and as a man I appreciate this): "Although we don't need you, we appreciate you and want you to continue doing this." 
 
If women are freer and more independent (even if that means only that they can choose to be stay at home moms), then so are men. It's a matter of basic human equality, not the destruction of traditional values (read: except where those values are ethically questionable or have the effect of restraining, discriminating against or oppressing a certain segment of society).

When the snail mail finally arrived at 12:30, there was nothing but address labels from the March of Dimes, a rabies shot reminder from the vet, and a very premature solicitation from the AARP.

"Oh, come on!"
- Gob Bluth

Umm... Alrighty then. 
 
I rather think that feminism makes it okay for women not to want that, not to have to conform to an image of femininity created by men, and to pursue that which will help to fulfill them as an individual as well as a woman. I don't think it has anything to do with chivalry, other than to say (and as a man I appreciate this): "Although we don't need you, we appreciate you and want you to continue doing this." 
 
If women are freer and more independent (even if that means only that they can choose to be stay at home moms), then so are men. It's a matter of basic human equality, not the destruction of traditional values (read: except where those values are ethically questionable or have the effect of restraining, discriminating against or oppressing a certain segment of society).

I think what you're thinking of has more to do with major changes to our economic system, and less to do with the empowerment of half of the population. Feminism would hold that if you want to be a stay at home mom or a housewife, you should be able to make that decision. The decision should not belong to your father, brother(s), boyfriend or husband.

In the 1940s my great-grandfather drove his daughter, my "Oma," to Bell-Aerospace, where she became the lead mathematician under Werner von Braun for that location. She met my grandfather there, a young engineer helping to develop the technology that brought us to the moon. When she gave birth to my father some years later, she stayed home to raise him and, eventually, her daughter. Thank God, though, that her father had permitted empowerment and not required her to fulfill the traditional feminine ideal. When my grandfather became very ill, she became financially responsible for the family - which she did as a professional musician.
 
This is feminism. It's about choices, and it's about discovering who you are intellectually, professionally, and emotionally. 

In the 1940s my great-grandfather drove his daughter, my "Oma," to Bell-Aerospace, where she became the lead mathematician under Werner von Braun for that location. She met my grandfather there, a young engineer helping to develop the technology that brought us to the moon. When she gave birth to my father some years later, she stayed home to raise him and, eventually, her daughter. Thank God, though, that her father had permitted empowerment and not required her to fulfill the traditional feminine ideal. When my grandfather became very ill, she became financially responsible for the family - which she did as a professional musician.
 
This is feminism. It's about choices, and it's about discovering who you are intellectually, professionally, and emotionally. 

Haha. Although, I believe that 33% number is specifically referring to undergraduate applications, which are on an upward trajectory nationwide (schools are spending a lot of money to be able to reject more people). From the school's newspaper: "More likely, the increase was a result of CU recruiters visiting an extra 120 high schools last fall. Plus, the university began using the Common Application, which makes it easier for prospective students to apply to more schools."

In addition to the point about applicant pools that you raised above, I want to add that I wouldn't use that email as an indicator that it's time to worry about your Quant score.   My own quant was decent, but nothing to roll the red carpet out over.  
 
You/ your advisors/  the results of frenzied pre-application internet searches concluded that the score you had in December was good enough for your applications. That Columbia is looking to pad their revenue stream shouldn't undermine your confidence in two-months-ago you! 
 
For what it's worth, I did opt-in to the ETS search.

I have a wine map of France that's designed to look like a NYC subway map. It makes me ridiculously happy.

(P.S. My bottle count is .5 for today. My husband thought Prosecco would take my mind off Wisconsin)

I think the reason I've enjoyed it so much recently is because it's very simple. It's known for being less aromatic than, say, a Pinot Noir (by the way, a German Spätburgunder, particularly from the vineyards of Baden, comes highly recommended from this novice oenophile), but it's a very old grape with a rich heritage (its name comes from the Latin for blood of Jove, which I think is really cool).

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

Both literally and figuratively Couldn't resist

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

It depends on whether you're viewing higher education from a human capital perspective or a status-conflict perspective. For the majority of college applicants, their application to baccalaureate programs is an exercise in instrumental rationality (i.e., a means to another end). The tired argument that you can get just as good of an education at a less selective school as you can at an elite school is moot if students are ultimately being hired and admitted to graduate school due to factors other than the quality of the education itself. Our current system of rankings rewards those who enroll top students and makes little if any effort to assess the quality of the education itself.
 
 
 
 
I would push back a bit against this narrative of personal merit and individualistic competition. Your SAT and GPA are near perfect (perhaps even above the 75th percentile at the institution you applied to); you have significant extracurriculars and strong letters. When you don't get in, it wasn't necessarily because you didn't try enough or because other people were better. It often means that you just didn't have enough of what the dominant subgroup values: financial capital (and correlates thereof), cultural capital, social capital, etc.
 
Learning how to accept rejection is positive, but it doesn't follow from that premise that schools ought to be excused from their participation in replicating inequality from one generation to the next.

Congratulations to everyone whose last night was filled with excitement! I'm in at Boulder. Like so many of us, I'm on round 2. 

Just a friendly reminder: If you are rejected by one school, it does not mean you will be rejected from schools X, Y, and Z. If you go and look at the SOP/Profile Thread from the 2011-2012 cycle, you will see what I mean. 

Also, to make myself feel better, I will be telling myself that all the schools that reject me just could not handle my awesomeness. 

POI: "You know, I've had second thoughts about Smith."
 
DGS: "Uhhhhhh...."

I didn't think you meant ill by it, or anything. I think we're all so tense. These next two (and four) weeks are going to be awful.

Boy howdy. I'm a complete train wreck waiting for Wisconsin... and then there are thirteen more. I'd like to speak with my doctor about whether or not a three-week medically induced coma is right for me

I was even checking on my phone during a lull in my seminar today. Granted, our discussion of border regimes turned to digital borders, and I don't think anyone in the class had read (I was assigned another reading, in my defense)... But still, it's pretty terrible.