Eli Whitney 2010 Applicants

BoolaBoola
Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:58:39 +0000

Eyethink–

That was purely facetious speculation on my part. The harsh fact of the matter is this: if Yale got 126 applications and they wanted every one of those candidates, they could have easily admitted 126 of them. Transfers are generally accepted at 2-4%. Bigger pool, more accepted…but smaller overall percentage.

Still…I can’t help but wonder.

Although the rejection letter was extraordinarily kind and the process was educational, it was still a rejection letter. It’s one thing to say, yeah, you know I didn’t fail, I gained experience…but that doesn’t change the fact that I will not be going to Yale in the Fall. I do very well at the school I’m at: Dean’s list, 4.0, etc etc… But it’s not Yale.

They simply did not want me. Or quite a few other people, for that matter. Applying as a transfer student wouldn’t have made a difference. For whatever reasons, my application didn’t fit. And that’s fine.

I did not apply to any other schools. If it’s not Yale, I’ll just create what opportunities I can at the school I’ll return to in the Fall.

The weird irony of this is that I am sitting in a Yale suite right now typing this. I’m here for summer school.

By next Fall, I’ll be a rising senior and will probably have too many credits to bother trying to apply again. Even if they accepted me the next time around–and I cannot, for the life of me, see what difference a year would make to the admissions committee–I’d probably end up a first semester sophomore. I’m not getting any younger.

So, no page long interview with me to look forward to in the YDN and I won’t be sitting with you in the bleachers in November cheering on Old Blue.

But I still love the school–strangely and unexpectedly–and if this monthlong fling is all I’ll have, then I suppose I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Congrats again to the ones who made it and best of luck to those who are daring the tempests next year.

Fortes fortuna adiuvat.