<h2>I've taken time from studying for finals to quickly write this short anecdote (so please ignore the its lack of elegance). I hope you can take this advice to heart as I wish I could have when I was in your shoes.</h2>
<p>One year ago today, I experienced what I thought at the time was the worst day of my life.</p>
<p>Wharton was my dream school during my entire high school career. Anxiously checking the decisions system as soon as 3:00 PM arrived, receiving a letter of deferral was tragic. </p>
<p>I spent countless hours and wrote over fifty drafts of my "Why Penn?" essay (which I hear they removed this year) and numerous revisions of the other elements of my application. I had run three companies, served as a national officer for the world's largest nonprofit student business organization, was first in my class, started an anti-genocide club at my high school, taught genocide education at a local college, etc. All the hard work had to equate to an acceptance, I thought. I simply wasn't expecting not to get in.</p>
<p>In fact, I didn't complete any other college applications before the Penn ED date. All I had was a well-revised "Why Penn?" essay and the common app completed; I hadn't even looked at essays for other colleges. On that night, not only did I realize that I might not be going to my dream school, but that I had to somehow complete all of my applications - for the schools to which I didn't know I was applying - over the weekend, because I was traveling to Mexico and couldn't complete my applications on vacation. I ended up doing 14 additional applications in 18 hours - the worst day of my life, followed by the second worst 18 hours of my life. </p>
<p>So for those of you who didn't get in tonight - whether it be a rejection or a deferral - I know how you feel. It sucks. You invest all of this time, energy, thought, emotion, and ultimately, yourself, all to find out that some 23-year-old sleep-deprived admissions slave didn't think that you were good enough.</p>
<p>If there's one thing that will console you, this it it. I know now it probably won't make you feel any better right now, but as it's been said a thousand times: Things will always work out in the end. </p>
<p>I mean it. But I understand where you're coming from. When I was deferred, I didn't believe it either. In fact, everyone kept telling me, "Don't worry, you'll get in where you belong." I half-heartedly smiled and nodded, but really thought, "You don't know me; you don't know what's best for me! But Penn is where I belong!"</p>
<p>The truth is, you will end up where you belong. In fact, my Penn deferral was one of the best things that ever happened to me. In the months following my deferral, I began to think more about what I was really looking for in my undergraduate education. I discovered that I actually wanted a liberal arts education rather than take the pre-professional track. There are so many means to the same end, and I realized that I didn't have to go to Wharton to reach my goals.</p>
<p>In the end, I ended up getting into Wharton, but I declined my spot and I'm currently a Freshman at Yale, and I couldn't be happier. Looking back on the process, I couldn't have wanted it any other way.</p>
<p>To all of you, good luck and best wishes on the crazy ride of college admissions. It's a journey unlike any other, but, in less than a year, you'll be exactly where you'll belong.</p>