<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I see that MIT decisions have been made.</p>
<p>To all those who were accepted, congratulations! You've proven yourselves to be the cream of the crop, and you're probably going to have a blast at MIT. After all, MIT accepted you. They know what they're looking for :).</p>
<p>To all those who were rejected, it's alright! Don't worry about it! I don't want you to go through what I went through, so read on...</p>
<p>I'm a 3rd year at UC Berkeley. I applied to MIT about three years ago, and I had a good shot at getting in. I'm no supergenius, but it wasn't out of my league.</p>
<p>I got rejected, and I was devastated. Truly devastated. I had my young little heart set on MIT for so many months, only to have it shot down in a moment. I cried, I vented, I treated it like it was the end of the world. I was upset about it for weeks. I eventually convinced myself that MIT was lame. Screw MIT, right? I funneled my frustration into anger.</p>
<p>Some of you probably realize that getting rejected by MIT is not the end of the world. Some of you might not. In either case, I want you to understand that there is absolutely nothing to be upset about.</p>
<p>Why, exactly, was I upset? Well, I reasoned that my not getting into MIT would prevent me from having an amazing undergraduate experience, and that it would prevent me from getting into a top graduate school or a top job. So, in essence, I concluded that my not getting into MIT completed screwed up my path through life.</p>
<p>Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!</p>
<p>I thought I had screwed up my path through life? I had no freaking idea what my path through life would be! I thought I did, and I thought wrong. Graduate school? How did I know if I even wanted to go to graduate school? I still am not completely sure, although I am planning on getting my masters. The point is that college will change you, and it's an amazing thing to change and mature. Your rejection didn't screw up your path through life. It is a <em>part of it</em>!</p>
<p>So, to continue...</p>
<p>I didn't get in, and I went to Berkeley instead. And hey, I love it here. I actually love the fact that most people are not studying science or technology. In fact, most of my friends are humanities majors. That's just one example of why you might like another school over MIT. Another example: it's not cold. I could go on, but this is an MIT forum and that would probably be a dumb move ;).</p>
<p>But <em>don't be justifying your rejection for the sake of justifying it</em>. Don't build up an inferiority complex. Let's assume that MIT would have been the best school for you. That doesn't really make sense, as there are multiple <em>bests</em> in the world of colleges, but let's just make that assumption for the sake of argument...</p>
<p>So, you didn't get into the best school for you. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. You are very likely to enjoy the school that you end up at. They accepted you because they feel that you are a good fit for them!</p>
<p>What about the prestige? Don't worry about the prestige. That was one of my fundamental problems: I couldn't stop worrying about the damned prestige. I don't mean to trivialize my sincere desire to go to MIT and my sincere belief that it was the best school for me, but I also wanted to tell people that I had gotten into MIT! It's MIT!</p>
<p>And to continue with my story...</p>
<p>Once I got to Berkeley and matured a bit, I actually realized that Stanford would have been a better choice for me than MIT. This had nothing to do with justifying my situation; I was rejected by Stanford, too. I harbored a little bit of resentment about my Stanford rejection for a while.</p>
<p>But I didn't go to Stanford, and I didn't go to MIT. I'm at Berkeley, and I love it.</p>
<p>Did my rejection ruin my undergraduate experience? No. Far from it. So far, I've had a wonderful 3 years at Berkeley. Being at college has helped shape my identity, and I didn't miss out on anything. MIT might have been a blast, but I didn't get in. It happens, and it's alright. As I said earlier, your rejection is <em>part</em> of your path through life. It is not an obstacle.</p>
<p>Did attending Berkeley instead of MIT ruin my chances of getting into a good graduate school? Was the lack of prestige a problem? No, the lack of prestige was not a problem (read on for details). In fact, a lot of (most?) graduate students at Berkeley come from small schools that are not considered all that prestigious. Why do they get in? Well, they get involved in more research at these smaller schools. Prestige doesn't give you experience.</p>
<p>You might be a bit confused, now. Berkeley is an enormous school. MIT is smaller than Berkeley. So, then, aren't I saying that I should have gone to MIT, where I would able to get more involved in research? No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that you'll be fine wherever you end up. Even if you go to a large school, you can get involved in research if you choose to. There is always the opportunity to be successful! Nothing will ever ruin that for you (to an extent), so long as you have a drive to be successful!</p>
<p>How about possible employers? Don't they look favorably upon MIT graduates? Yeah, getting a BS from MIT looks great, but many things can make an applicant look great. Don't worry about that.</p>
<p>And back to my story...</p>
<p>I got involved in undergraduate research at Berkeley. How? I just asked a professor! I recently applied to the 5th year program at Berkeley and was admitted. I'll probably accept the offer, and will be getting my MS in Computer Science here. After that, my current plan is to try to found or take an active role in a consumer web application start-up company.</p>
<p>Be it MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, or other schools, your undergraduate experience will be your next step in life. You can't be worried that you missed the next step or that you took the wrong one. After all, you don't know where you're headed!</p>
<p>I hope this helps :)</p>