<p>This thread is quite an eyeopener. Why can’t people just accept rejection and move on with their lives?</p>
<p>I think it’s because high school is designed to give a mentality that if you work hard enough and meet all the requirements, you deserve to get a given reward. College admissions and life don’t always work that way; sometimes you meet all the requirements and do everything that can really be done and it doesn’t work out. Normally, that would do the trick and people would move on except every once in a while you get a story where someone writes a brilliant appeal and gets into their dream school and become a doctor or a lawyer or the Pope. People then use that example as if it is something realistic to hope for and end up having to go through Crushing Disappointment II: The Musical.</p>
<p>That’s the problem right there. I can’t count the number of people who think they have a good chance of getting into Harvard because “like, I totally heard this story about a guy who made them just go like wow with his essays and he got in with like the same GPA as me”. Unrealistic expectations do not actually make you happier overall, even if you do get a nice rush when you happen to meet one.</p>
<p>Yeah - Like I said before, if a school didn’t want me, I don’t want them!</p>