wanted to attach this to my general comments in what i posted above^ (i missed the editing window)
In all seriousness, I found college admissions seasons to be a very trying period. Like many posters here, I constantly doubted my own abilities and accomplishments (College Confidential definitely helps to fan the flame–can’t help it, I keep coming back for more 
). In the end, I’m not sure if I will be able to permanently change my perceptions of success and failure based on these experiences in the past few months, but here is my current take on things, while I am still in a state of clarity:
Getting accepted by a school like Columbia, to my understanding, has less to do with effort than it does with being in the right place at the right time. There were kids in my school who got into top-tier schools and swaggered about with a sense of entitlement to the point of ungodly unreasonableness while there were also kids–kids who worked just as hard or even harder–who were left empty handed simply because they didn’t have some crucial opportunities to help play the admissions game. That gave me a lot of discomfort. For the most part, the college admissions process simply does not exist with meritocracy in mind (which, I suppose, stems from a variety of actually legitimate reasons). Unfortunately, this leaves a lot of students sad and contemplative of where they went wrong. This appears to exist as the nature of things.
That being said, I am very thankful that I’m on the happy side of outcomes. A lot of my friends were not so fortunate, even though they full well deserved to be. To the people who were accepted to selective schools, don’t become lulled into the perception that you deserved it more than anymore else, or that you were more inherently capable then those who didn’t get in. To the guys who are down because they won’t be matriculating to their dream schools–many of you are or will become infinitely more talented and more successful (by the traditional definition) then the kids who got into those dream schools. Saying that college acceptances can measure your worth or validate your high school career is absolute b.s.; what truly matters is your contributing value in society as a decent human being–and how satisfied you are with your own internal qualities.
Back to Columbia, I do feel that I fit into its mold–and ultimately, that’s what probably matters most with picking a college to attend–a school that fits.
Good luck to everyone with everything. 
/drops mic
(honestly I really didn’t expect anything, I’ll pull through 
)