I’m a few months into my “Gap Year” before heading to college next fall. After talking to some friends in school back East, and meeting many wonderful people here on the West Coast, I’ve come to a conclusion that has shaken up my college app process this time around. I feel the need to share this, and I hope someone like me gets the message that I couldn’t.
I decided to take the year off because I was, to be frank, mad at myself for not getting into a top college. I’m from the East Coast, I went to prep school, and I was certainly one of the most academically driven and highest achieving people in my graduating class. The way I saw it, I was a failure for not attending a school as prestigious as my classmates. Unfortunately, when decision time came around, things didn’t work in my favor. Call it bad luck, call it poor planning, but every school I applied to (save two “safeties”) rejected me. It was tough. I refused - naively, and stubbornly - to attend the more financially generous of the two safeties. I designed my gap year, and the summer before I headed West, around getting into my dream school. I had a plan, and I was determined to make it work.
Things have gone well, but the people I’ve met along the way have changed my perspective. Two of my best friends here are roommates that live a few blocks down the road from me. They are both incredibly intelligent, interesting, talented guys. One is a Dartmouth grad. The other is in his final year at the local community college. Each is going to be successful in life. The only difference is the incredible amount of student loans the Dartmouth grad has to deal with every month.
I’ve applied Early D to a selective school back east, a place that rejected me last spring, but this dawned on me the other day. I’ll be FINE if it doesn’t work out this time. No, I’ll be better than fine - I’ll get to figure out a way to make it work that doesn’t follow the path I initially thought I was on. Please, PLEASE believe me here: Your alma mater, be it Harvard or your safety school, will NOT determine how much success you have in life. That’s up to you, and the attitude you bring with you.