<p>I now look back and wonder what I would have done if I knew I'd get rejections and waitlists.
I'd probably still continue my art, to national level competitions, instead of taking evening lessons with 30 year old people trying to get a diploma in a foreign language. I would have probably joined a sporting school and tried playing football, which I didn't do because the academics of that boarding school is just terrible. I would have pursued my rock band more, instead of keeping it to a pretty small local underground level because it took a lot of time and practice. I would have finished grade 8 theory of music exam instead of studying of exams. I would have read 4 times the number of books I have read until now, because I wouldn't have had to study for SATs. I could have worked full-time at my youth organization, instead of having to leave it sporadically because of academics. I'd probably even leave school and college, drop formal education off completely, do minimum wage jobs, and read up on things that interest me.</p>
<p>I could have been anything. I could have been a contender (okay sorry this is from a movie). Instead, I'm just a bum. :/ I just wish I knew it sooner so that I didn't waste my time.</p>
<p>Don’t feel so down. College rejection doesn’t mean that you will be a failure. From your post, it seems that you have been very determined, and hard-working over the last few years. Just keep it up, and you will end up somewhere great. The college that you go to won’t really stop you from accomplishing great things in life!</p>
<p>Also don’t forget that you can apply as a transfer student, or take a gap year.</p>
<p>Albeit disappointing, turn it around and see it as an opportunity. Go to comm college or a school that your did get into & spend more time investigating, then apply to another school as a transfer. </p>
<p>What you thought were good choices as a 17/18 year old next year you’ll come up with schools that you never considered in the first round. It’s not the name of the school you go to that matters- it’s what you do once you’re there.</p>
<p>If I get the same thing as someone who worked 1/4th of what I did during my high school life, and did not lose out on the many things, I do not see the point of doing anything.</p>
<p>If I have to go to flipping burgers, might as well be someone who has fun and indulges in his hobbies, and gets high…instead of being someone who was a class topper once upon a time, had SAT score that was above the 60th percentile of almost all colleges, and had “potential to make it somewhere in life”…because the latter hurts more.</p>
<p>You are an international looking for a lot of aid. You should have known how hard it would be. Like most intnls you needed a good backup plan in your country.</p>
<p>I do have back up plans in my country as well as in Canada.</p>
<p>It just would have been easier if people from my country, asking for almost the same amount of aid, did not get accepted to the colleges that I was rejected from even though they had lower SATs, No Sat IIs, Much lower GPA, No extracurriculars to talk about. The only explanation is that my essays, which showed my character as clearly as possible, made me look like like an a$$hole. If I knew that actually working hard would lead me nowhere, and people who did not achieve what I did academically got in.</p>
<p>It’s not a feeling of entitlement really. It’s like I train really hard for months, come to the Cup final, play a hard fought game, score a goal. Win 1-0. And the ref tells me I get a -2 goal because I’m not a nice person.</p>
<p>A big part of this process is being aware of your realistic chances of getting into the schools you applied to and being prepared for rejection. You got rejected from Colgate, northwestern, and duke, all extremely competitive schools particularly duke and northwestern. Don’t feel bad about not getting in, they reject plenty of valedictorians and salutatorians a year. </p>
<p>And all the hard work you put in to maximize your chances of getting into those schools isnt for naught. You still learned a lot and progressed mentally from all that work.</p>
<p>I saw you also got full tuition at Clark. That is something to be really proud about. Many international applicants don’t receive that kind of financial aid here in the u.s, if any at all.</p>