<p>I know this is a tough time, but try to really listen and digest two things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many questions in life don’t have an easy answer to “why”? And believe me, while college admissions can sting, there are much bigger and more painful “whys” out there.</p></li>
<li><p>What I was trying to get at in my early post was that depending on what the admissions committee is looking for this year and what the rest of the applicant pool looks like, it could be that they were looking for something “different”, rather than good vs. stellar.</p></li>
</ol>