I guess we can say that another round of college application processes has come to a successful close.

Two kids, two acceptances to their first-choice schools, two processes so completely different that I’d say I still don’t know the first thing about how this all works.

A applied to more schools than I can count or remember. G applied to two, and I forced him to submit a third one that only required his common app, because I thought he was tempting fate with only two applications to pretty competitive schools, and I wanted him to have a “safety school.”

He did apply to his main choice by their its decision deadline, and three days later, got his acceptance, so honestly, at that point, we could have called it quits.

I was the one who pushed for another application, “just in case.” “Just in case” what? That he changed his mind about the school he has wanted to go to since he knew what college was? Unlikely, and many eyes were rolled about it, but eventually he just went along with another application to shut me up.

It’s also interesting to me that even after two years at his school, A is still questioning how exactly he got accepted there and is still having “pinch me” moments.

G, on the other hand, seems to be offended when I suggest that there was any possibility of him not being accepted.

There is also the matter of him already knowing his way around the campus, from countless trips we’ve taken there over the years, as opposed to A’s first time on campus being his accepted student visit. I’m not sure if this familiarity is something that will calm my nerves, or something I should be worried about.

It’s also not lost on me that A is following a similar path that I took, knowing that Boston was a place where he wanted to spend some time, and G is following in Steve’s footsteps out to Happy Valley.

Of course, this will make E the wild card, in another two years. She currently shows no interest in either direction that the boys took and seems intent on creating her very own unique path.

Yet another difference between them, A’s accepted student activity was an entire weekend long, and consisted of me dropping him off on Friday in front of a strange dormitory to meet his weekend hosts and picking him up on Sunday afternoon.

Luckily for me, and much to G’s dismay, his accepted student day was an entire day of family friendly activities. Again, many eyes were rolled.

One thing that has been the same, though, is how ready both have been and are to move on to the next chapter of their lives.

Getting into the school that they’ve always seen themselves at has certainly helped make that transition an easier on, and in G’s case, we still have a long way to go to actually cross that threshold, but the fact that he’s motivated to get there helps immensely.

He’s already making plans for what clubs and organizations he wants to join and scoping out various living situations available to him due to his program selection.

He’s even signed up for some additional activities that are being held throughout the spring.

That’s the difference between a two-hour drive, and a five-and-a-half-hour one.

Do I have any advice or words of wisdom after surviving this process twice?

I don’t know any magic tricks to help get a kid accepted into their dream school. Sometimes, I suspect that at the end of the day, admissions officers put names in a hat and pick randomly.

I do know that both boys put themselves wholly into their applications. I could tell the differences in essays they wrote for schools they weren’t that interested in versus the ones they wrote for the schools or programs that they really wanted to go to.

At the end of the day, this is about them and their choices. One of the parents in our group asked every student panel what they thought was the “best” when it came to whatever topic we were talking about: the “best” dorm, the “best” major, the “best” extracurricular clubs, and on and on.

First, it’s time to take a backseat as a parent, and second, one very wise young scholar answered him by saying that “the best” is what you make of it.

In her opinion, every situation she found herself in or chose was “the best” for her, and she advised all the students in the audience to make “the best” out of every opportunity that comes their way.

That, I think, may be a lesson to apply outside of college life as well.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News