It's Not the College, It's You.

Samuel Parigela

You just found out you were rejected from your dream school. Now what? 

Well, you knew your chances weren’t looking too good since you didn’t bag a 1600 on your first SAT attempt sophomore year, nor did you max out both AP courses and dual enrollment courses at the local community college, and you couldn’t even rack up seven Scholastic Art and Writing awards like everyone else who got admitted. And that singular 4 on an AP exam always meant you were an auto-reject, though you didn’t want to admit it. 

Now, all you can do is stare at that rejection letter and know it’s the last time you’ll see your name anywhere near that college logo. Gulp.

Yes, you failed, and yes, your dream college didn’t love you as much as you loved them. You’re likely now expecting me to tell you everything is going to be okay — because it isn’t. If everything was okay, why would that school take the time to send you a lengthy letter detailing how your application wasn’t nearly good enough for them? 

So, how do you deal with this rejection? The simple answer is: you don’t. Ha ha.

This rejection is the end of the line. It’s over, you’re cooked, you might as well withdraw the rest of your applications because it’s common knowledge that one rejection can be extrapolated to the rest of the schools you’ve applied to. While you may try to comfort yourself, it does not all work out in the end, and it certainly does not work out for the best. 

Does this mean you -– as a person, as a human being — are a failure? Of course it does! It may sound harsh, but it makes sense. When that college rejected your application, they rejected your essays and extracurriculars, so it makes perfect sense to interpret a rejection from your dream school as a rejection of your character, of your identity. 

But don’t be too hard on yourself. Once you come to terms with your rejection, you can learn to embrace failure, which you’ll probably see a lot more of in the days to come.