Eli Whitney 2010 Applicants

babytitain
Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:21:52 +0000

Hello everyone, because of anonymity, I’ve neglected to post on this board. But now, I feel I owe everyone here–those accepted and not accepted–my story.

I too, was recently denied admission, but I did manage to make it to the final round. I remember sitting in a board meeting at my current school and one of the administrators asked me if I had gotten “The Call” yet. I laughed, brushed it off and said, “Nope, I don’t expect them to [Yale], I’ve already been denied from a myriad of places–Chicago, Cornell, Brown, Amherst, etc. etc.” Then, just as I was saying this, Marianne called my cell phone and said she would like to schedule me for an interview. I was in shock.

I had been told “no” by all of these other fine institutions, but Yale saw something in me and they wanted ME to fly out to New Haven for an interview. I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough money to make it out there. This didn’t matter. The whole school, my current community college, rallied behind me. Everyone from friends, to professors, administrators–even, strangers–gave me money to get to New Haven. I remember some random woman hearing about my story and she offered to pay for a little motel room for me in Milford. I was utmost grateful.

So, I went there, on commencement day–perhaps an omen I thought–and the interview went well. I still remembered to remain pragmatic about the situation. The acceptance rate is abysmally low, and I had to still expect the worse. Thank God I’m a pessimist. My spirit has not been entirely decimated.

I’ve fought against extreme adversity: I’ve been homeless, nearly killed, destitute, a high school drop-out, and the list goes on…But one thing I do know, I will make it. There is a ray of sunshine in this story. Despite all my rejections, I was accepted into UNC as an out-of-state transfer student with a full ride. There are advantages to this:

The weather’s nicer in Chapel Hill :)

I get to live on campus (I’m 24 and I identify as a traditional student, so I actually wasn’t looking forward to living in New Haven and being separated from the “hub”).

I will be matriculating as a Junior, which I doubt Yale would have accepted as many credits as unc did.

I heard the food is pretty awesome.

To all those who made it, congratulations, you deserved it. And to everyone else, let us now begin to grovel in our own despair. Because misery loves company :)