Tips and advice on preparing for rejection from colleges?
In many cases rejectees just don’t match the categories of seats schools have open, so don’t take it personally.
Just focus on the admissions.
Two things to remember:
- College admissions staff understand their school’s culture well and are pretty good at choosing applicants that will thrive in that culture.
- Student’s typically fall in love with the college that they eventually attend and forget all about those that they didn’t.
Good luck!
Where did you apply? @MrElonMusk
Students used to have bonfires with their rejection letters. Not sure if that makes sense in the electronic age, though.
Remind yourself of what you liked about all the schools you applied to. You can only attend one school anyway. So you just have to get into one (and if you don’t, you could take a gap year if needed — it isn’t the end of the world).
Learn to love the school that loves you.
Note that you have company. More kids applying to more competitive colleges means more rejections. Numbers games are causing a lot of kids with near perfect applications to not get in some of their choices. Things like demographics changes of the applicant pool can make last years ED or EA accept this year’s deferral. Know that it is really not you, it is them. And also know if you go to almost any college and knock it out of the park your future is still unlimited.
Such great responses! this post & the responses should be pinned
The flip side to applying broadly is the likelihood of receiving many rejections. My DD applied to 15 schools and between her safeties and a couple of match favorites, she’s hoping to get in to 4 of them. That means 11 rejections of course, which can be hard to handle, but I guess it comes with the territory these days. DD told me that even if she were only to get in to her least favorite school, that school is probably the 1st choice for tons of other kids. So it’s about shifting your mindset slightly to embrace any acceptance as a positive.
I firmly believe that the kids who experience rejection are better off in the long run than those who don’t. To the OP - yes, you will probably get rejections. BUT YOU WILL BE OK. With a little time and hindsight, you will see that the rejections didn’t define you & didn’t ruin your life. You have no control over the outcomes at this point; you can only control how you respond to them and how you handle them. The ability to stay positive and adapt to what comes your way in life is a VERY valuable skill, so try to nurture that. Focus on gratitude, positivity, adaptability, flexibility and keeping an open mind, and you will come out of this process stronger than before.
I know that this advice will be of zero help when you’re reading your rejection letter(s), but give yourself a couple of days to be sad and then come back to read everyone’s comments on this thread. There is a ton of great advice and support for you here.
Make sure you have a safety that you would be delighted to attend!
@SREE33 Many places…
Ok any specifics?
If I were you, just think of reasons you would prefer your safety / match schools over your reach, so a rejection would be less impactful.
@SREE33 Yeah, I’m perfectly willing to go to my safeties/ reaches but one can dream…
Start daydreaming about your safeties. Look up lots of stuff about them and get excited about going.
Once you are at your new college, whichever it is, you probably will love it and wonder how you could ever have wanted to go somewhere else.