Feel rejected after getting rejected? Please hear my story

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>Trust me: Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen do not serve their country for glory. They don’t go without food for days, sleep next to their rifles at night, see their vehicles get fragged, and buddies get shot at to brag to high school kids on an internet forum. What they go through isn’t a video game where if you die you get another chance to live again. It’s the real deal. </p>

<p>It’s deeper than that and if you have not realized this, then you need to either enlist and see for yourself, or talk to a servicemember (perhaps you can talk to the OP?).</p>

<p>I can’t believe someone actually said that. Either you’re trying to cause trouble or you’re a very troubled kid. I believe that the OP had nothing but good intentions and for some reason you are attacking him. What has he done to you to provoke your rhetoric? Why do you feel that he needs to prove himself to a bunch of high school kids on a college site? He has nothing to prove to you. He knows a little more about life than you and I think you should read his story without a bias. Everything he said is 100% right.</p>

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<p>I’m not asking anyone to praise the OP (but if anyone on this forum deserves it…); rather, I would appreciate it if we would stick to discussions that pertain to the topic. </p>

<p>I could share useless information about how John Kerry had a lower SAT (1190) than did Bush (1210) and graduated from Yale with a lower GPA, but what good would that do? Would that provide any perspective that would be helpful? </p>

<p>The goal of this thread is to alleviate any worries high school seniors may have about college by showing them another side of life. Anecdotes or insight or would serve this purpose. Vast generalizations about the perceived intelligence of the President authorizing the War in Iraq have very little to do with this.</p>

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<p>maybe if they are ignored they will go away and start their own thread ;)</p>

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<p>^ Your message is falling on deaf ears gchris. I said the same thing about a thousand times, and I got attacked. Thank you though for realizing that we are extremely offtopic.</p>

<p>What do you expect from high schoolers? <em>shrugs</em></p>

<p>But I agree with the above post.</p>

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<p>He could be smarter than Einstein… It’s the policies that make him a failure</p>

<p>I am not a pure Dem so your Kerry insults have no effect on me</p>

<p>I realize that this arguement has nothing to do with the op, but what is there really to do with this post besides to read it and use it in whatever way suits you? </p>

<p>It was easy to predict that about 10 people would love the post, someone would naively toss in a couple words with negative connotation to the post, and the first ten would rip him to shreds. You people really shouldn’t be so shocked…it is a message board. They were invented for people to argue(or at least they should have been.)</p>

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<p>By the way what’s with the high schooler diss? There are plenty of smart, mature high schoolers(not necessarily calling myself the latter) and plenty of dumbass immature college kids(who else is buying all the crystal meth?)</p>

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<p>Thanks for admitting that. </p>

<p>He wants you to relate it to your personal life, not your political beliefs.</p>

<p>I don’t use crystal meth, smoke pot, or get drunk and I’m a college student. However, the way you guys are acting shows me that you aren’t capable of being college scholars. (I do think you guys are intelligent, but I wish you would come off that way on this thread). </p>

<p>No offense to any high school kids out there.</p>

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<p>People will bash me for saying this! : /</p>

<p>I believe the OP VOLUNTEERED FOR SERVIVE. CORRECT ME IF I AM MISTAKEN. I DOUBT ANYBODY FORCED YOU TO JOIN THE MILITARY… This is America in the 21st century. A hobo can get a job and get an education. Soldiers should know what they are getting into. I’ve been to India and Africa where people eat their own crap just to stay alive… I’d rather be in your position than to be in that one. Trust me I’ve seen the world. I haven’t applied to colleges, but the main reason these kids are crying is because they don’t wan to end up like you. This is America… the land of oppurtunity. Kids that ate **** in Africa can come here and become lawyers and doctors…Kids that go to the Army aren’t poor, they are just lazy and BELIEVE they have no other options… I don’t see that many asians in the army? do you know why? Go work at mcdonalds and get some financial aid and go to a junior college. anything is possible here… so we’ll complain if we want to. Thanks! </p>

<p>You volunteered… this isn’t a godda*ndraft… remember that. you should know what you’re getting yourself into… Remember you have options.</p>

<p>Just kidding it isn’t your fault. I totally blame your parents… Whatever you say about this message I don’t care but we all know your volunteering is a direct cause of your parents actions and THAT IS THE HONEST TO GOD TRUTH. I’m sorry about what happened dyude! Sometimes kids just don’t get smart parents. Good luck and God bless.</p>

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<p>Bush did in fact have a higher gpa and SAT than Kerry. HAHA I figured. Thank God Kerry didn’t win or our nation would be screwed : /</p>

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<p>Muohohu, I do not want to seek glory. You think I want to walk with a gait, hoping sorority girls will feel sorry for me? You think I wear my Purple Heart as a necklace? No, last time I checked it’s kept in the drawer of my parents bedroom. In college, not once have I mentioned I came from Iraq. When people ask me why I’m 23 and only a freshmen, I just said I had a bad start in life and am grateful for the second chance I received. </p>

<p>Firebird, there are plenty of Asians in the military. In fact, I’m one of them. My parents raised me up right, their salary just wasn’t the highest. Love isn’t about money, well at least that’s my opinion. Please don’t bring my parents into this. </p>

<p>I beg these kids to not end up like me, judging from the ignorance from some of them, I doubt that half of them will make it through the first month unwounded. I’ve made a decision, and that was to not burden my parents with a junior college tuition and immediately help them upon graduation. I want to make this clear. As smurfgirl, gchris, susan r., wecandothis, and countless others have said, please do not bring politics and bickering into this thread. Seriously, I’ve had enough of it here in college.</p>

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<p>don’tgiveup- too bad, some people on this board are just cranky and want to argue for the sake of arguing. Who cares about Bush or Kerry’s SAT score and a lot of the other irrelevant nonsense people have brought up??!!</p>

<p>I hope you will stay on the board and offer your perspective. There is a lot of good info here. I’m sorry this got controversial, but your original message has not been lost.</p>

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<p>whao i’m not brignin politics i’m bringin domestic issues… we have ids that come to this country with 5 pesos and rupees and francs and pounds… and yet some of them become doctors. </p>

<p>Princeton currently gives 30,000 average in grants… this is what financial aid is for. no school should ever deny you financial aid. Only kids that have no parents and have moms that do drugs and make less than 20k A YEAR GO TO THE military. and on the other hand, there are soldiers that want to defend this country with honor and money isn’t a factor in their decision . These are the individuals I respect and support. Not the low life idiots that join the military because they can’t pay for college because THIS IS AMERICA JESUS! Your defendign democratic ideals and yet here you are not taking advantage of democracy and oppurtunity. If we rejected from colleges let us cry and if your buddies die in Iraq then you can cry… we all have something important to us! : )</p>

<p>your a cool guy btw and God bless! And your asian? wow! k well then i have been mistaken in my judgement. </p>

<p>All i’m saying is this. you said your parents salary wasn’t high… what could be a cause of this? LET ME KNOW ONCE YOU MADE UP AN EXCUSE THANKS AND GOOD DAY! GOD BLESS THE MILITARY! PEACE</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/finaid/tools/eligibility.php[/url]”>http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/finaid/tools/eligibility.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>FOR YOU YOU WOULD APPROX GET 40,000 TO GO TO COLUMBIA IN GRANTS/SCHOLARSHIPS… THAT MEANS therefore you would need to pay 2-5 thousand dollars by yourself. and don’t tell me your mom/dad combined make less than 10,000 dollars a year or i would have to write you a check myself just for you to stop complaining and for you to go to school! GOOD DAY TO YOU!</p>

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<p>The point that the OP’s making is that no matter what college you go to, the fact that you go to one puts you in a better position than 90% of the world’s population. I don’t know why people keep bringing political arguments into this thread. It has nothing to do with your beliefs or ideals, it’s just a comparison that gives you some perspective on how much worse it could be.</p>

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<p>Firebird, a lot of Asian immigrants have low salaries, because we’re “immigrants,” which means we just moved here and have to start a whole new life, hence lower salary and inability to afford college. </p>

<p>Also, I’m guessing the OP wasn’t accepted to a top school where 100% of financial need was met. Lower tier schools, oftentimes don’t meet 100% financial need as they simply can’t afford to. </p>

<p>Also, why are you hating on people simply because they were brought up in a bad household? They had enough tenacity to want to raise themselves up, and for many the Army is a path.</p>

<p>Also, Princeton? Columbia? Learn to string a coherent sentence together first. You’re one of those kids I would love to simply beat the hell out of.</p>

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<p>What a sad turn this thread has taken indeed. I implore anyone who has never seen Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July to please watch this movie. The true story of Ron Kovac, a Vietnam vet who willingly enlisted in the war at age 18. Maybe if certain people saw this film they would not so quickly deride the OP for a choice he made when he was 18 years of age and not be so easily willing to discredit his phenomenal post as an attempt for “sympathy” and other such nonsense. I am as anti-war and anti-Bush as they come, and it is clear to see that a war debate has nothing to do with this thread.</p>

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<p>It can be a little useful to put things in perspective by comparing yourself to a kid in Iraq or otherwise, but the dangers of doing so outweigh the benefits. </p>

<p>The OP says, “Yet, some of you kids need to have your priorities set straight.” Well, I believe most of the kids who whine about being rejected do have their priorities set straight. Their number one priority was to get into a good college so they could have a good education, but they failed and so they are whining about it. It’s a logical, but useless, reaction.</p>

<p>If they follow the OP’s thinking, that they should feel better because there are people worse off, it can make them feel better, but it certainly won’t help them. </p>

<p>For example, if you are in a class of 10 and nine students get into a good school and you don’t, how does it help to think to yourself, a kid in Iraq is in a worse situation than me, I can and should be happy. It doesn’t excuse your failure. I suppose it can make you feel better. If it makes you feel that your failure isn’t devastating, that’s ok, because that particular failure isn’t absolutely devastating. However, what happens if you take it to the next step?</p>

<p>Say you go to a mediocre school after not getting into a good school, but then you graduate and you fail to get a job. It doesn’t help to think, oh I can still live with my parents, I’m still better off than all those homeless people in the world. In fact, it’s harmful to yourself to think that way. But again, it can make you feel better.</p>

<p>(Of course, there is a big difference between the failure of getting into a good school and the failure of getting a job. I address this near the end of my post.)</p>

<p>If it helps them to stop whining then great, but that’s not the point. The goal is not to stop whining but to try to do better. What does help is this piece of the OP’s advice: “Work hard, and you will get into the graduate school of your choice (which is what most jobs look at anyways).”</p>

<p>So really this should be shortened to: If you’ve been rejected from a top college, and want a top paying job through a stellar education, **** and work hard in your ok college so you can get into a top graduate school.</p>

<p>But by cushioning this advice with stuff like, you should feel better about your own situation because there are others worse off, this advice undergoes the risk of becoming weaker.</p>

<p>If this method of making yourself feel better is applied too far, you run the risk of dangerously belittling your own faults. If you don’t recognize your own faults for what they are, you will be disadvantaged compared to those who do and make sure to make up for it.</p>

<p>In short, this is a warning against using this sort of self-esteem boosting thinking to offset failures. It may seem ridiculous to warn against this, because there is certainly a big difference between the failure of getting into a top school and the failure of getting a job, but it is important not to underestimate the slippery slope of minimizing your own failures. It can happen gradually, and it is a sad sight to see.</p>

<p>If this type of thinking can be avoided in the first place, before it can become harmful, it should be avoided.</p>

<p>Essentially, what I am saying is quite similar to Azure’s post on page 4, but I have skipped the parts where I defend myself from people who are overly and alarmingly patriotic, to the point of being somewhat to completely illogical, ignorant, and patronizing, and to the point of being somewhat to completely narrow-minded and blind.</p>

<p>example: “I really don’t appreciate a HIGH SCHOOL KID telling me, A COLLEGE STUDENT what to do.”</p>

<p>The age, status, or in general, background, of someone should neither legitimize nor illegitmize that person?s arguments. It should, at most, put things into perspective (such as the difference between a woman arguing for women?s voting rights and a man arguing for women?s voting rights).</p>

<p>Also - no offense to the poster of the above sentence. It is unfair to use one sentence, taken out of context, to judge someone ? I am only using this sentence to provide an example of the ignorance or patronization that can often be consistently seen in people who are overly and alarmingly patriotic.</p>

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<p>LOL is all i can say…</p>

<p>heres the scenario:</p>

<p>hi i’m an asian in the army and i live in the land of oppurtunity and I don’t feel like purusing education because I feel bad taking money out of my parents pocket… therefore I want to join the army and make my parents proud. No asian parent is proud to have their son in the army. its common sense. Watch jarhead and you’ll know why.</p>

<p>He’s trying to tell us to be happy with what we have… It’s America… nothing is enough. we are a people that are never happy and we strive for better and better. I don’t see any argument here. It’s like his words will somehow change us into wanting less. </p>

<p>uh oh a think a nerd wants to beat me up : /</p>

<p>and this could be the biggest anti war propaganda I have ever seen. Display the personal emotional story of one man’s journey through iraq and somehow we all start crying. One word: Volunteer</p>

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<p>As Bill Gates once said “There are many paths to heaven.”</p>

<p>UM whoever concluded there was a heaven? Heaven isn’t a place but an asbstract concept and ideal that attracts the minds of million of Chrstians into doing good… Scare tactics in the past really worked! : )Who draws the line between Heaven and Hell? I guess gullible is the new word of the millenium</p>

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<p>^ GET A LIFE firbird. I’m going to hijack this thread for a bit 'cause this guy/girl’s really getting on my nerves.</p>

<p>FB: “I feel bad taking money ouf of my parent’s pocket” (sarcastically)</p>

<p>A: There are people out there who are caring enough to want to pay college themselves because of parental economic struggles / parents unwilling to pay them. Just because you are lucky enough (I presume) that your parents are willing to pay doesn’t mean everyone else is. And colleges that offer 100% demonstarted need for financial aid is not very many and usually very hard to get into. Especially when the college admissions is difficult to predict, it makes perfect logical sense for someone who isn’t entirely sure of their college prospects into a top-tier university to join the army thereby guaranteeing financial aid.</p>

<p>FB: “No asian parent is proud to have their son in the army.”</p>

<p>A: Have to talked to EVERY SINGLE ASIAN PARENT (including a million or so of them in China???) If you haven’t, I suggest you stop making over-generalizations. It makes you look like a complete idiot whose only way to retaliate is to insult others based in stereotypes. Disgusting.</p>

<p>FB: “It’s like his words will somehow change us into wanting less”</p>

<p>A: Apparently it has for some people on this board. See above answer for you over-generalizing.</p>

<p>FB: “uh oh a think a nerd wants to beat me up”</p>

<p>A: I just thought this was funny. Do you over-generalize EVERYTHING?</p>

<p>FB: “and this could be the biggest anti war propaganda I have ever seen.”</p>

<p>A: If you’re being sarcastic, you’re not very good at it. If you’ve even paid the slightest attention to the OP’s posts, you would know that he supports the military. That’s not very “anti-war”. Oh yes, and your “one word: volunteer” thing just contradicts your above statement. Way to go!</p>

<p>FB: “UM whoever concluded there was a heaven?”</p>

<p>A: That was the most off-topic thing I’ve read on this thread. And it’s not even something the OP was talking about for Heaven’s sake! I DON’T CARE (and not many do, I daresay) if you don’t believe in Heaven/Christinity/religion. Start your own thread.</p>

<p>I’m against the Iraq War, but don’t insult people who put their LIFE on the line on something they believe to be helping their country - their families, their friends, strangers on the street… Even if you think the war is worthless (as I do), have some respect!</p>