To those who got rejected to their top-choice Universities, I want to spread a message:
Failure is one of our greatest friends.
Success is great and all but sometimes it may build the ego, arrogance, pride, and greed.
See, failure is special. Failure naturally builds humility, self-examination, and self-realization. Failure teaches us so many things about ourselves but only if we accept that we failed.
So don’t get angry that you didn’t get in because that angry is blocking that lesson. Failure equals new opportunities in life that you didn’t expect; and in life you can’t expect anything to go your way. All you can do is put your all into whatever you’re doing. Sometimes you make it, or sometimes you learn.
There’s so many stories of successful people failing over and over again.
I think the moral of this story is that if you aren’t afraid of failure and you learn from your failures, you can literally fail your way to success.
Thanks. But you got any consolation for a fool who just got wait listed at his safety? 
If it’s possible to “literally fail your way to success,” then i’m going to be President some day…
That is nice and all,but I don’t look at this as a failure in life. It’s how you deal with it that determines if it’s failure.
@GreyGarvin By your logic, you’re telling me that everyone who ever was successful has been the President. Ok.
@michaelite I don’t know how consoling this will be until you get closure with all the schools you applied to, but you were very clearly a qualified applicant, and whatever factors led to you getting waitlisted were most likely things that you could not have changed.
Don’t start obsessing over all the mistakes you made or think you made. At the end of the day, most of us were 17-18 year olds or younger ranging from “not coached by professionals” to “literally did not know that extracurriculars were important to college applications” (that one might have been me…), trying to handle college selection, applications, financial aid, and a host of other things we had no experience with. I’m sure you didn’t make any severe mistakes, but even if you did, they happen.
Also, don’t let a not-even-a-rejection distort how you view yourself and your accomplishments. I repeat, failing to get accepted to a college ≠ you are a failure. Your stats are still impressive, and you still have a lot of intellect, passion, and potential to offer to whatever college you attend.
I have ongoing struggles with that kind of slippery-slope negative thinking, and it’s not healthy or helpful. Try to relax and enjoy the rest of your senior year. There are still lots of possibilities for you: Getting off the waitlist, getting into another school, or even getting shut out and ending up enjoying an Indian university / transferring / going to grad school in the U.S. There’s no failure big enough (except maybe committing a serious crime, lol) that is going to cut you off from getting where you want to go, as long as you’re willing to keep going.
:-bd
And @StanfordSwag Maybe he/she was just viewing the President as the highest position in the country and is thus equating the epitome of success with highest status/power?
I really do think this is a touching post, especially for the CC forums. Thank you 