Oh, goodness.
I have an older sister who is a senior this year. She’s quite artsy-- she wants to double major in Acting and Women’s Studies-- but she’s an intellectual sort of a person as well, and she radiates interesting-ness. She auditioned for acting at four schools and applied to four or five others. She got into her two safeties with massive merit money (ie enough for zero debt for the out of state public and quite a bit of money in her pocket for the in state school), but over the past week has just gotten a whole slew of rejections (plus a waitlist at Northwestern?! No one gets rejected from Boston University and waitlisted at Northwestern. But she did. Ah, the joys of college admissions with a twist of hyper-competitive auditions!) The Rejection of the Day today was Barnard, and it struck an emotional cord that the others haven’t because she seems to embody the nature of the school. NYU is coming up soon, but it was described at dinner as “the final lash” and everyone winced because it was true; it’s the best school for acting in the US and is really difficult to get into even without factoring in the art bit. It’s a hard month over here in the pseudoprimal household.
(Okay I’m having a hard time stopping because because and so I’m just going to ramble for a bit about the glorious human being who is my sister…sorry, you all!)
My sister is so so so cool. She has extracurriculars like you’d never believe-- she sings opera and so not only has voice but also an intense four-year program for singing; she acts, not just at school or with acting lessons, but also in an even more intense two-year program and many productions outside of even that; she’s been in multiple bands and she plays three instruments and writes wonderful songs; she’s the editor of her school newspaper and she recently talked the administration into publishing a handful of articles about controversial subjects, a big step for her conservative Catholic school; she teaches Sunday School at church every week and absolutely adores the little kids and the stories she brings back. She’s had a job and done cool summer programs in voice and acting.
And then people start talking to her, and they’re just like, wow. She’s incredibly socially adept-- kind, enthusiastic, mature, and able to strike up a conversation with absolutely anyone and carry it all the way through. Her strong opinions and moral axioms are ingrained into the fabric of her life, and even after a short discussion, anyone can tell that she has a deep understanding of the world. She’s firey and resilient and spunky, but also thoughtful and a good listener.
I remember her coming back from her NYU audition. She had had an interview with one of the people from there at Unifieds, and they talked about everything from Shakespeare to physics, and the guy told her that he wished he could talk to her for hours.
And, unlike a lot of art kids, she has solid academics-- stellar grades, a 33 ACT, and some rigor (a lot of honors classes but only three-ish APs). Her essays were beautifully written and she had two or three English teachers (along with both of out parents) read every essay, every answer to every supplemental question. She was able to spend a heck of a lot of time on every application because she did them in October even though she applied RD.
As you might have been able to tell, she’s a compelling person.
It’s really hard to see her get rejected.
(Though it was nice to see the waitlist at Northwestern! We all thought Northwestern was her reachiest of reaches, so the waitlist was a nice sign that she was applying to the right sorts of schools, at least.)
She’ll probably end up at the OOS safety, which-- we’ll face it-- she’d likely have ended up at even with acceptances from other places, just because of the cost, but it’s different to be forced into a school because you didn’t get in anywhere than to choose it because it’s a better choice. She’ll be happy there, I hope; they have a great acting program and will allow her to double major, too. She liked the vibe when she visited and knows a few kids there who really like it, too. It will all be okay in the end, I’m pretty sure.
But gosh does it hurt right now.
