<p>Armand, did you not apply to any safeties? Surely there must be some colleges out there that are still taking applications. Or you can take a gap year and try again next year. Or go the community college route. You have some options!</p>
<p>Amand,
I know it hurts a lot, but you need to do a search for a post titled" picking up the pieces" by Andi, written 2 years ago when her son was also rejected/waitlisted by every college he applied to. He had aimed too high, as you did, and had no safeties , just as you had none. He took a gap year, reapplied to other colleges and was accepted to many the 2nd time around. There are MANY lessons to be learned from reading that thread, and if you do the same as Andison did, you will be in a different situation next year.</p>
<p>I don’t know…</p>
<p>Part of the reason I only aimed high was because I feel obligated to compete on that level—if I’m not good enough to get in, then I’m not good enough, period. Going to a community college or one of the reject feeder schools for two years would be an admission of inferiority; it’d require me to simply accept being a mediocre, stupid individual. I mean, I’d thought 2280 SATs without any prep were a sign of some intelligence, but…clearly, with Berkeley getting over 5000 perfect SATs, it wasn’t…Argh.</p>
<p>I hope it will be some consolation to you, then, that you don’t have to admit to “inferiority” or attend a “reject feeder school.” I’m kind of glad you’re not taking a place at one of those schools that could be used by someone who appreciates going there.</p>
<p>Don’t give me that condescension, Cowbell. I’m not arrogant, I just have high standards for myself. Is there something wrong with wanting to go to a high quality institution, and not just nodding and accepting whatever the college powers that be grant you? I know my words were harsh towards those schools, but going to a community college while thousands attend Ivy Leagues is bound to make someone feel inferior, alright?</p>
<p>Well before today I got into my two safeties (UCI and UCSD) with a scholarship to SD so I was happy and i guess unreasonably optimistic.</p>
<p>Today all my other admission decisions came out… About 7 in total. </p>
<p>Results:
Rejected from Harvard, Princeton, UPenn
Waitlisted at Johns Hopkins, Brown
Accepted to UCLA and UCB</p>
<p>Everyone keeps sayin LA and B are good and I mean… i’ve said it myself that I’ll be happy if I get in… but the whole time I’ve been hoping to get into UPenn or Brown… and then i get rejected/waitlisted from every single private school I applied to =/ </p>
<p>I guess its a mixed feeling of rational happiness and irrational devastation of pride… I really wanted to go to UPenn =( </p>
<p>I guess I’m being an ******* about it… feelin all crappy even though I got into all my UC’s but since this was a rejection forum I had to get my feelings out of my system =/
AHHH</p>
<p>I got waitlisted at MIT. The thing that irritates me the most is that I feel like I was such a borderline applicant and that the slightest change to my app couldve gotten me in. Caltech was my other top choice and I got in there so Im happy, but I feel pretty stressed out about not having the option to choose between the two. They seem like such different places.</p>
<p>I got rejected from bowdoin which was my #1 choice school… i don’t know… it really bums me…</p>
<p>this girl in my school… who i thought i was better than… got in… with an early write… and they offered her full ride…</p>
<p>idk…</p>
<p>this sucks…</p>
<p>if i didnt get into bowdoin… i prolly wont get into the other schools i applied to… colby… bates… amherst…</p>
<p>esp. since my EFC is kinda low… and those 3 schools are NOT need blind and bowdoin… is</p>
<p>kinda… stupid… cause i really thought I was a match for bowdoin…</p>
<p>I don’t want to jump all over anyone, because I do believe that there is and should be a time of grace when we can all feel as crappy as we want about not getting into the school that we wanted, but I really advocate (as a fellow disappointed rejectee/waitlistee) that we all try to focus on the schools that have accepted (most of) us. Caltech? Berkeley? Wellesley for me? All great, prestigious, impressive, excellent, hard-to-get-into and desirable schools. Pull out your acceptance letter! I guarantee that it will make you feel a lot better about yourself.</p>
<p>Also, Armand, I know you feel really bad right now, but a) Only a very tiny percentage of people go to the Ivies and b) there are plenty of schools that one can go to and be happy at that are not inferior to the Ivies, except perhaps in name value and c) Ivy acceptance does not equal happiness, or wealth, or success by whatever means one defines it. It is YOU or ME or whoever, that determines their own happiness. Not the school that one attends. My Ivy-educated parents can assure you of this.</p>
<p>Hahah, that would imply you had one to look at…</p>
<p>This thread is interesting. It really shows how one man’s trash is another’s treasure.</p>
<p>We have Dartmouth acceptees crying over Princeton, UCLA acceptees crying over Dartmouth, Wisconsin acceptees crying over UCLA, and so on ad infinitum. </p>
<p>This thread will put things in perspective for a lot of people once the initial emotions wear off.</p>
<p>I just want to pipe in, many posts after the fact, that I think Advantageous wrote the most beautiful, mature synopsis of this entire situation. Advantageous, your father must be a sage and wonderful man. I wish I had been so wonderful when my daughter had her disappointment. </p>
<p>You must be an amazing person to write so beautifully immediately after such disappointment. Princeton does not know what they are missing! </p>
<p>Best of luck, the world is your oyster and I am sure you will be a shining star. </p>
<p>To those who didn’t read Advantageous’s wise words, go back a few pages and see. Her perspective is wonderful, heartwarming, and inspiring.</p>
<p>Hi all</p>
<p>Here is my list of acceptances/rejections:</p>
<p>Accepted: Marquette, Loyola, McGill, and Boston University</p>
<p>Waitlisted: George Washington University</p>
<p>Rejected: University of Chicago</p>
<p>Still Waiting to hear: Northwestern and Georgetown…</p>
<p>as the dartmouth acceptee crying over princeton, i realize i’m spoiled, and i feel guilty about it – but at least i recognize that it’s irrational, you know? princeton was the dream school that i wasn’t going to allow myself to have but ended up with anyway, and even though i probably should’ve predicted this, i’m still so emotionally attached to it that it hurts to let that go.</p>
<p>i do feel really ungrateful, which is probably a signal that i’d be wise to get off the public message boards and write this in a private diary or something.</p>
<p>I got accepted to all of my schools but one. BU waitlisted me. Anytime anyone asked me where I was going I always said I was going to Boston. Guess I’m not now.</p>
<p>I’ve heard of a bunch of people getting waitlisted from BU when it was their number 1 choice, and a bunch of people getting in when they used it as a safety. I guess BU is a horrible judge of character. Plus I got accepted to better ranking schools, so they can suck it! Boston can’t even tell the difference between terrorists and ad campaigns! I don’t need them.</p>
<p>I got rejected at Princeton (#1 choice), waitlisted at Duke (2nd choice), and rejected at UPenn(#3 choice). Life seems pretty low right now. Seems like all my life I’ve been aiming high. This is one height I cant seem to get.</p>
<p>Accepted: NYU, Boston U., Duke, NC State
Rejected: MIT, Columbia
Waiting: Northwestern, UVA</p>
<p>I expected the MIT rejection, but I am utterly heartbroken about Columbia. I know, everyone is not in my situation and will just say Duke’s a gret school and I should feel lucky, but I’ve had my heart set on Columbia for over two years now, and I put it up on pedestal. I know that. But it hurts all the same. I’ve worked for most of high school to get here, and it didn’t pay off the way I expected.</p>
<p>i got rejected by 5 colleges that i really wanted to go to (incl uchicago and smith). i have left are cal states and a hawaii college. these other 5 colleges represented what i was looking for, an intellectual atmosphere and curiosity. and it hurts even more because they were my last hope to get away from my dysfunctional family mess.but it’s okay, i know i;ll live. i can find other intellectual opportunities and endeavors elsewhere too. although in my mind theres hesitation about how my future will turn out…a part of me cant help but think if i dont go to a ‘good’ college i wont get a good job, good future, etc.</p>
<p>Oh, thank you, AdvisorMom!!! True, it was tough (my mother, though an even-headed person, was sad and surprised that Princeton didn’t show even waitlist love for my double legacy self), but the more I think about Wellesley, Carleton, and NYU, the more happy I feel. I just feel like I have the both sides of the coin perspective: the Ivy rejectee (me) and the Ivy educated (my parents). </p>
<p>Just to reiterate, I can assure, assure, everyone here: going to Princeton did not make my parents richer, happier, better, or smarter than any given person. It didn’t!! I promise. And my parents’ admissions experience wasn’t perfect, either: my Father was rejected by Harvard and waitlisted by Yale, his first choice, and my mother was unhappy at UPenn and transferred. </p>
<p>I also think that it is important to remember that you as a person have not changed because of your rejection. You are just as smart, just as capable, just as interesting as you were before. Many of the top schools have 2, or 3, or more times as many perfectly qualified applicants as they could take. Again, my advice (to all who have one…sorry to those who don’t :(): Pull out that acceptance letter to X college and read how complimentary it is. For most of the kids on this board, that is a letter that a whole lot of people wish that they could be holding right now, but aren’t. Most of the posts here are from people who have great options–off the top of my head, we have Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Dartmouth, Caltech, Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, and so on, and so on. Every one of these schools is great–every one of these schools is highly coveted. Let yourself mourn, but not for too long–and try really hard to stay away from the boards of the schools that rejected you, because you will only hurt yourself.</p>
<p>cameliasinensis,</p>
<p>My post wasn’t in any way a judgment. It was part of an observation, so don’t think that people here are judging you as ungrateful or spoiled. You have every right to mourn a goal not realized.</p>
<p>Wherever you end up (whether it’s the place you choose now or the place you transfer to, or whatever), you will fall in love with it. </p>
<p>My story is this:
As a wide-eyed 18-year-old who thought he had the world at his fingertips, my heart was set on Yale, and all of those in my corner (including an alumnus friend) had assured me that I would be admitted ED. If not Yale, then I might have to settle for Columbia or Dartmouth, which at the time, I guessed would have been adequate ;-). </p>
<p>December 15 rolled around, and sure enough, a thin envelope arrives from Yale. But I hadn’t been deferred. I had been flat-out denied ED. I felt a lot like you do right now. </p>
<p>In April, rejections followed from Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Stanford, Penn, and NYU. </p>
<p>Then, there was the good news: big envelopes from Northwestern, Berkeley, and UCLA. </p>
<p>I ended up at Northwestern, a school at which I never envisioned myself in November of my senior year (especially after visiting on a weekend when the campus was deserted and covered with snow, complemented by a windchill of about 20 below). </p>
<p>I spent my first year and a half or so with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, but as I began to experience college and to realize the opportunity that I’d been given, that attitude naturally gave way to enthusiasm, and I started embracing the experience. </p>
<p>By the time I graduated, I was devastated to leave the place where I had done so much growing in so many ways–the place that had afforded me the opportunity to blossom academically and socially, to start down the road to becoming the person that I always wanted to be. </p>
<p>Things had worked out. I was headed to Columbia for my master’s, and beyond that, I knew that good things lay ahead. Now, I’ll be starting a PhD program (not at Columbia) in the fall. Guess what my (academic) dream was when I first started applying to colleges 6 years ago? It was to ultimately earn a PhD.</p>
<p>The rejection I felt as a college senior had, 4 years later, taught me that the pain of rejection is nowhere near as brutal as what you lose by not taking that chance in the first place. And you will face rejection again, because competitive people don’t settle. They stay competitive, they take risks, they learn from rejection how to take full advantage of the opportunities they do have, and in the end, they reap the benefits.</p>
<p>So the point is this–take your time to mourn. It may take a week. It may take a year, but also don’t be afraid to embrace the opportunities that present themselves to you, because they are ample and remarkable, and if you identify them and make them your own, you will ultimately end up being the person that you hope you can be–that you knew you could be way back when you sent that application off to Princeton.</p>