The day that the frequenters of collegeconfidential.com live and die by has finally arrived, as Columbia's admissions letters to the class of 2012 have officially been mailed out, and online decisions were posted as of 5:05 p.m. last night. Amidst a careful navigation of the daily chaos that is the post-CC or Lit Hum reunions of friends that one might see daily in the lobby of Hamilton Hall, this bwogger witnessed yesterday Columbia's Director of Admissions Jessica Marinaccio finally at ease, with arms crossed and an unmistakeable cheshire grin on her face, as she towered over myriad hand trucks and several bins of yellow envelopes (looks like they are going with DHL this year) being hauled by burly Columbia athletes into the Admissions Office. These letters of admission it seems were to undergo a final inspection before being mailed out to nervous pre-frosh nationwide first thing this morning.

Today, current Barnard students received an emailing announcing that last weekend, admissions mailed regular decision acceptance and rejection letters to the latest batch of Terrible 12s. Barnard has yet to release statistics of this year's admission process and has not yet updated its website to reflect whether or not the class of 2012 includes any former child stars.

The 12s, however, have moved quickly, and there are already 177 of them in a Facebook group celebrating their imminent descent on Morningside. "Yay us! :D", reads the group description. When compared to the College's 2012 Facebook group, what BCs Facebook-savvy 12s lack in exclamation points, they make up for in gratuitous emoticons.

Join us in welcoming Bwog's first ever Senior Year Correspondent, St. Louis native Cindy Gao, CC'12, who says she has wanted to major in history "since the day I first laid eyes on Eric Foner." Here, Cindy recalls finding out she was accepted Early Decision.

I am a fraud.

The test scores, the transcript, the essay — yes, it's true, these are all my own. I didn't bribe anyone, didn't fake a recommendation, didn't lie about anything on my resume. I didn't have inside connections with Columbia, my parents aren't alumni, and I'm not a sports recruit. But I had an unfair advantage over all of the other 2000 or so early decision applicants.

Turtles.

One, to be specific. The number is important. I know a kid who had to set free four frogs to get into Stanford. It varies.

It all happened rather quickly. There we were, sitting at dinner with this old man I'd never met, who didn't speak a word of English but still managed to make me feel bad about taking AP Stat, and he's telling us the truth about how his son got into Yale. A month before the decisions came out, he told us, he went to the stream behind his house and released a live fish into the water. He was confident after that, he said. It was a done deal. He said it required a phone call to a fortune teller back home in China, to determine what kind of animal necessary. Before I had a chance to put down my fork, my parents had already written down my information (birthday, gender, address) on a napkin to give to this potbellied man.

Bragging rights for the talented seventh

Fixing a (near meteoric) hole where the rain got in

"Sometimes I'll try to swipe and miss [the turnstile in Lerner] and catch it right at [my] groin."

Edit: Online voting

A LINK IN HONOR OF THE FACT THAT THE BANQUET IN HONOR OF THE KING OF SPAIN WAS LISTED INCORRECTLY IN THE PRINT EDITION OF THIS ARTICLE (10:30 TONIGHT IS THE REAL TIME)

Prince Prestige kisses Alma Mater, wakes her up from five-year sleep

High schoolers reach for stars, and, uh, here

Václav Havel "changes world," fails to impress "jaded" sophomores

"Molly said I was accepted to fill the need for a public school, non-LA, non-San Francisco lesbian. And I took it to heart, because I got a B- on my Chaucer midterm."

Meanwhile, the borough begins the anxiety young...

Bwog almost didn't notice that Teacher's College Director of Admissions Tom Rock was practically nixed off of CBS's The Amazing Race 10 tonight. According to tipster Stephen Wang, "There was sweat, there were tears, and all in the middle of a rice paddy." Tom Rock is on the show with his partner Terry. Good luck, dudes.

Harvard was the first to make early action non-binding, and it's now become the first to ditch the whole policy, which has been widely derided for favoring children of the rich and deadline-savvy. But the Iviest of the Ivy League says it might not stick with the gutsy decision if other schools don't follow suit, and Columbia, at least, isn't biting. From Robert Hornsby, Columbia's Director of Media Relations:

"Columbia University's admissions policies are re-evaluated annually. To date, it has not been our experience that our early admission program has negatively impacted our ability to create a diverse class. For example, Columbia's student of color representation and representation of students from lower income brackets has consistently been one of the highest among our peers. Through a constant review of our policies, we maintain our commitment to providing a fair and equitable review process for all applicants."

Translation: Now why would we want to do a silly thing like that? Look at all the people of color we have, and that number nine on the US News College Rankings!

How inspiring.