Rejected from Top SchoolS

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>It just hit me. It's actually really weird that it's taken this long. For the past year or so, I've anticipated this moment with extreme fear and anxiety. For the past year I told myself I would either stand out and be someone who garners respect or else I will just stop trying and at least stand out, albeit in a completely different way.</p>

<p>I applied to all of the Ivies because I knew already that to a large extent, so many qualified candidates apply that any one person might have as good a chance of winning the lottery as they do to be accepted. I just improved my chances. I applied to all of them, though in reality I probably would never have gone to Brown or Cornell. I just wanted to see if I could get in, to see if I could prove my worth, if that makes sense. Though I applied to all 8, in the past year I really fell in love with both Princeton and Yale. I toured both, and quickly I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else. </p>

<p>I applied to Princeton EA and was deferred. And that sucked. But I consoled myself with the knowledge that the EA pool was composed of applicants who have wanted to go to Princeton for their entire lives-- they were the best of the best. And certainly the fact that I was deferred (and not rejected) meant that my statistics were such that I could have been accepted to an Ivy-- I just wasn't good enough to make that cut.</p>

<p>And then from January to March 29 I anticipated the worst but hoped for the best. I wasted away the last semester of high school of my life trying to make March 29 come sooner. And then I was rejected from all 8. Okay. So what was the past four years of my life for again? A full AP and IB schedule (and straight [high] As). Months of SAT / ACT prep-work. Literally thousands of hours of community service, leadership, and local youth Conference planning. Years of competing with people for no reason at all. </p>

<p>And after reading that people will tell me-- everything happens for a reason, that though I was rejected, I learned how to be proactive and how to manage my time and how to be a diligent worker. And to that I say so what. I've always known how to do it. But why the hell did I waste my time working so hard for something when I could have done literally ANYTHING else and still have gotten into the schools I got into. </p>

<p>I wish I could go back and relive my life, take back the moments that these rejections didn't care about. And I know that there were so many more qualified candidates. I so understand that. But at the same time, it frustrates me when I look on these decision threads for Harvard and see "SAT Score: 1990, Ethnicity: Hispanic" or "Rank: 12 / 160, Legacy." And then I see threads in which people say they are "depressed" that they have to choose between two or even all three of HYP. </p>

<p>It's all so silly in retrospect. Why would anyone work so hard for something when they know that even if they are the most qualified candidate in the entire world, they are still not guaranteed a spot-- they still have to win the lottery. I'd like to give some advice to any underclassmen or parents whose children will soon be facing high school: enjoy your years in high school. Because in the end, it doesn't even matter.</p>

2

<p>I don’t think it’s fair to say because you were rejected that being accepted to an Ivy is like winning the lottery. If I had an 8% chance of winning the lottery, you can bet I’d be playing it. All the schools are really different, and schools aren’t going to accept you if you’re not a right match. Just applying to the Ivies because they’re Ivies doesn’t make sense; I applied to a few and worked really hard on the supplemental information and the arts supplement, and it worked out. I knew which ones were right for me (except for Harvard; I knew I wasn’t right for Harvard, but then I applied anyway), and the schools that accepted me (Ivy and others) could tell we were a good match.</p>

3

<p>I don’t think that really merits a response, but I’ll humor you with one anyway. It doesn’t make sense that I applied to Ivies just to apply to them, but you yourself admit you didn’t feel Harvard was right for you when you applied. Hypocritical much? I applied to see if I would get in. Assuming I didn’t do my homework for each of them, especially the two I desperately wanted to get into (YP), is just extrapolation. My Yale supplements were my best. Princeton’s could have been much better-- I regret applying EA in retrospect. </p>

<p>And winning the lottery is obviously a figure of speech. Literally tons of people describe an acceptance to an Ivy in this way. It’s another way of saying you can be the top of the top and still need to be lucky to get in.</p>

4

<p>I have two children, a senior in HS and a junior in college. My D attends a top LAC, and S will be attending a different top LAC.</p>

<p>They did well in HS and had good test scores, and were/are involved in activities they love. They didn’t do any of it to get into an Ivy or to be competitive applicants. They enjoy learning, value education, and enjoy what they are involved in.</p>

<p>It might be helpful to change your perspective so you can enjoy your college years. Will working hard in college be a waste if you don’t [fill in the blank]? Get into a top law/medical school? Get hired on Wall Street as an investment banker?</p>

<p>Learn to enjoy life – of course, not everything is fun. Studying, practicing, sacrificing, delayed gratification aren’t always a walk in the park.</p>

<p>There are no guarantees in life - you can do the things to get to where you think you want to go, but if the journey takes you someplace different, it doesn’t mean the entire trip was a waste.</p>

5

<p>What does this teach you about applying to places only for name value?</p>

6

<p>For the love of god, you got into Duke. You should be satisfied.</p>

7

<p>Sorry to bump an old thread, but after reading this post, I began to think that my decision to join the school volleyball team was the best decision of my life. </p>

<p>I used to blame playing volleyball as the reason why I was an under-qualified student for top schools. It occupied most of my time for other clubs, limited my opportunities for leadership, and cut into my work schedule. Overall, because volleyball was my only dedicated extra-curricular activity, and it made me appear as a flat, generic character. But looking back, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else in the world. I can honestly say playing volleyball was the most enjoyable moments of my high-school career.</p>

8

<p>You got into Duke, be thankful. I understand what you mean. I chose not to work very hard in high school because honestly I believe life is too short. I learn for fun and knowledge and have a goal that probably 10 million other people do. It’s not a very special goal, but I just want to live a life. </p>

<p>If you really want to be very prestigious, then go for a PhD and prove those schools wrong. </p>

<p>Do what makes you happy. If you are working for something and hate working for it, then do something else. When you do anything in life, do something that makes you happy regardless of what happens. If you learn something, you be happy that you learned something interesting, you don’t learn it for more money. Money is measured by what you love to do, not by how much you will kill yourself.</p>