It’s college application season, and with that comes many high school seniors painstakingly crafting the perfect applications and essays to get into the schools they’ve been dreaming about for years. With an ever growing hunger-games-esque competition for spots in top schools, the threat of rejection lingers over many causing much stress and worry. Whether you’re reading this to know what to do if you get rejected from your dream school or (unfortunately) you have already received a rejection letter, this article will help you make sense of it all.
Rejection sucks no matter what the situation is - dating, applying to schools, jobs, etc. - and it can sometimes be hard to figure out what to do next, especially when it applies to something you’ve been working towards for a while. Academically motivated and gifted children are the most likely to view rejection as a personal failure and experience extreme stress from the situation.
It’s important to remember that rejection from your dream school does not mean that everything you have done doesn’t matter - it wasn’t all for no reason. Rather, rejection from a school simply means that you were not a good fit (and that the school was not a good fit for you). One of the most important things in education is making sure you go somewhere where you are valued and are able to grow and thrive the way you are supposed to - a place that rejects you is not that place.
Secondly, don’t beat yourself up because you feel that you “could’ve done more” or “done things differently” in high school. Chances are you were already doing as much as you could have and exploring stuff you were genuinely interested in and adding another calculus class or another club could have taken away from unique experiences that were best for your growth.
With thinking you could have done more comes comparing yourself to your peers, seeing what they did to get in, etc. Two words for this: Stop. It. This was one of my biggest issues all throughout high school and still now in college. Comparing yourself to others is almost if not completely useless to do as you aren’t that person - you have completely different lives and experiences even if they are a family member or close friend. At the end of the day it is best to recognize your own accomplishments and to be proud of them regardless of if they get you the prize you wanted.
Lastly, even if you get rejected from your dream school chances are the school you go to will be equally as fun and fascinating - and ultimately a better fit for you. It might be hard to imagine it now, especially if you haven’t had any college experiences, but the friends you make and experiences you have will be just as worthwhile as any other school. Additionally, attending a school that values you and wants what you have to offer is a million times better than any school that rejected you. It is always important to strive for great things and rejection is not a sign to stop trying, in fact it is a sign that you are going in the right direction - that you are figuring out where you fit in and where you belong.
By Sallie
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