<p>It’s been over 8 years since I got those rejection letters in the mail, and I still feel a sting in my chest whenever I hear the words “Ivy League,” “Harvard,” “Yale,” “Stanford,” “Princeton,” “Columbia,” etc.</p>
<p>I think my reaction is normal, but not the fact that I still feel negative emotions whenever I remember the fact that I was not admitted to any elite school. Soon it will be a decade since those rejection letters came in the mail, and I still haven’t gotten over it.</p>
<p>Does anyone feel the same way?</p>
<p>(Perhaps I should have played the numbers game)</p>
<p>You shouldn’t be reflecting back on such minimal things. Just because the top schools rejected you doesn’t mean you were a terrible person/student. You shouldn’t feel bad. I am sure you gave it your best shot. Ivy League admission rejections, SAT scores, and all of this should be irrelevant eight years afterwards. Most people end up happy at whatever school they go to. Don’t sweat it!</p>
<p>I don’t think I gave it my best shot. I made a lot of rash decisions in high school and never had a clear plan on how to get accepted to the schools I wanted to go to. I believe that if I had had the right guidance or just the right knowledge it would have been more likely that I had been accepted to the schools I wanted to go to.</p>
<p>I ddin’t get what I wanted, so I had to settle for a second rate school where I was miserable for 4 straight years. I didn’t like the people at that school, I didn’t like its academic curriculum, I didn’t like its culture. I didn’t like anything about it.</p>
<p>Do I still hold resentment? Sort of, but it’s been over two years now. My parents had some delusional expectations and built up the Ivy League schools for me. However, I eventually saw through all that crap and was expecting the rejection before it happened. So at least not much time and effort was wasted worrying about it.</p>
<p>I still hate those elite schools and the kids who get accepted, though.</p>
<p>And noucat - sorry about what happened. It sounds as if you actually cared a lot, unlike me. I know what it’s like to be miserable for several years, though. Hopefully it made you a stronger person. Just out of curiosity, is your present situation ok?</p>
<p>I also knew it was likely I wasn’t gonna get accepted to the schools I wanted to go to, but after it became official I hadn’t been accepted to those schools, I took a blow from which I never fully recovered. I can quite literally pinpoint the onset of the depression I went through to the moment I opened my mailbox and saw the last rejection letter.</p>
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<p>I don’t hate the kids who got accepted to the schools I wanted to go to. Why would I hate them? I know that a lot of them see me as a ■■■■■■/idiot/unmotivated loser/lesser human being/person unworthy of their time (you pick it), but I can’t blame them for seeing me that way, because I know that if I was in their shoes, I would probably see people in my shoes the same way they see me. I also don’t hate the schools I got rejected from, but sometimes I do wish I could erase them from my mind.</p>
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<p>I’m not the best employee the company I work at has had. If I am still working there is because the people I work with like me, otherwise they would most likely have given up on me already. I find solace in knowing that if I had gone to an elite school, my present situation would have made me feel extremely embarrassed.</p>
<p>That question sounds exactly like a question that would be on The Moment of Truth haha. But to answer it, I didn’t apply to elite schools because I am not all that smart :-S</p>