<p>Actually, just by applying to a place like Harvard or Stanford, you’re already in elite company. You are hundreds of times more fortunate than most others of your age currently alive. There are some 1.1 billion people aged between 15-25 in the world. Let’s say there are a half a billion people college-aged. At any time, (let’s assume about 10,000 undergrads at your average university and let’s take the top 30 American schools) there are about 300,000 students at these most highly-ranked universities. If you attend one of these institutions, you are in fact part of a lucky .06% of college-aged students in the world attending world class institutions. Even if we take into consideration great schools all over the world, I doubt that we’re looking at more than 1-2%. Be grateful, and celebrate when that acceptance letter arrives. If you get a few rejections in between, take a moment and consider how lucky you already are. </p>
<p>[Stats people…feel free to correct my 2 minute calculations…I may be way off…but I hope my general point stands.]</p>
<p>Also, I hope I don’t come off as moralizing; I’m simply trying to give jittery high school seniors a bit of perspective. :)</p>