<p>Deferred REA, rejected RD. </p>
<p>Accepted at Vanderbilt (CV Scholarship), Alabama (NMF Scholarship). No other rejections. A few other safety acceptances. Attending Alabama this fall.</p>
<p>This is going to sound like an extremely bitter post, and while I’m definitely not happy with how the last year has gone, it has nothing to do with my rejection. I’m happy that that turned out this way. Last winter I spent a lot of time thinking hard about what I actually want out of life and I realized before I got the decision that I probably wouldn’t ever be happy if I went somewhere like Stanford. I’m disgusted with myself for ever letting people push me into applying to prestigious schools. After I had all my decisions, I picked the school that I thought would have the least intellectual environment because frankly I’m sick of the recognition I get for my intellectual accomplishments. That’s not a side of myself that I really identify with that strongly, yet there’s a lot of people in my life who want that to be my whole identity, and who think that it is. They say that these are the years of your life where you have to find roles that you identify with, and for my long-term happiness the best thing I can do is get the hell away from everybody in my life who thinks that they know what those roles should be. It’ll be refreshing to spend the next four years in a relatively less studious community. </p>
<p>It’s good I didn’t get in REA; if I had gotten into Stanford I would’ve had a lot of pressure from all around to take that offer and God knows it was hard enough to make people (thanks Mom and Dad) accept that I didn’t want to go to Vanderbilt. Can’t imagine how much worse that would’ve been.</p>
<p>I’m sure that Stanford is a great option for a lot of people but I doubt my problems are unique, so I guess this could help somebody else. If nothing else, this has been a great outlet for me to whine about my problems.</p>