It’s sad reading about the pain and agony of rejection. My S is waiting for EA decision from his 2 choice schools. They are not reach schools. In fact after touring ivy’s and Big name schools we were turned off by the way they treat students. We had initially thought that a big name school will be the ultimate destination for our S. Now we believe we would rather go to an up and coming school. Maybe it’s my arrogance. I have 2 masters degree and a doctorate. My S has excellent grades and stats. I’d hate to have him spend his college paperchasing the way I did. I point out the business school of Northeastern Univ, named after 2 drop outs, remind him of the biggest names in innovation that never went to college, the truly great ones that never needed a college to carry them. I am so sorry for all the rejections people get. Chasing success and money is chasing after the wrong thing to begin with. What I dream for my S is to be confident enough to be above all these, do great work and everything else will follow, no matter which college you go to.