I applied to Penn ED, thought I had a solid shot. 35 ACT, great ECs, solid GPA, awesome essays (I was pretty proud of them). I got rejected, prob because of my transcript but whatever. Whatever, it’s an Ivy League.
I didn’t mind at first, but now some of my closest friends have gotten accepted to the likes of Northwestern and Vanderbilt. The realization that they are done with their high school careers and have successfully achieved admission into their dream schools makes me feel so much worse about getting rejected from Penn.
Now, my only other school I really want to go to, Michigan, comes out next week, and my hopes are dim. How do I get rid of this feeling of inferiority?
It is understandable that you are disappointed and sad as an initial response, but try not to take the rejection as an indictment of you as a student and a person. Yale rejects many wonderful students. It is about assembling a balanced class when there are many, many more qualified candidates than they can accept. You need to start telling yourself that your self-worth is not determined by any one college’s acceptance or rejection of you. Life has many more rejections ahead for you-- breakups with people you date, rejections from jobs you try for, maybe even dismissal from jobs you’ve worked hard in. This is life. Start telling yourself that you are capable and can survive these hurdles.
Someday, your first breakup won’t matter because you will marry the person with whom you will build your future, and you will be so glad you aren’t still with the person who dumped you way back when. Someday, you will be so happy as a freshman at whatever college you end up going to, that you will be glad you were rejected by Yale. Yale is not the only college where happiness and success await admitted students.
So, go congratulate your friends heartily. Then they can do the same for you when your acceptance comes.