You’ve bought the sweatshirt, filled out the application, and spent the evenings daydreaming about waltzing around the campus. Then it happens: the dreaded rejection letter arrives in the mail. As you stare at the small envelope or insulting email you see your dreams diminish before your very eyes. Those sleepless nights filled with cram sessions seems to not have cut it. All of a sudden you notice that “Plan A” for college is no longer in effect and those 60-some dollars you paid to the admissions office were of no use.

There is no denying the fact that being rejected from your dream college is heartbreaking. After all, for more than a decade you have worked hard, studied relentlessly, and all to no avail. You’ve put all your resources towards SATs and finals and a rejection letter is a slap in the face. What this highly impersonal rejection tells us is “You are an amazing kid, but not exactly what we were looking for.”

So what do we do? Cry? Yell? The answer is all of the above.

Whenever you send out a college application, especially to your favorite college, you should expect (a) a rejection letter and (b) to mourn about that rejection letter. Now, is that to mean to you won’t get into any school? No, of course not. In a country with more than four thousand institutions of higher learning you are bound to get into more schools than not. However, grieving is a step we should all take when receiving that small envelope in the mail and preparing ourselves for it will make the process all the more easier if it happens.

I’ve applied to six schools early action and so far everything has been dream. Three schools have accepted me and offered me generous aid in scholarships alone. However, my dream school, Georgetown University, has yet to respond. While I am almost certain that I will get into every school I applied to early, I am almost certain that I will get deferred from Georgetown and rejected in the end. It pains me to say it, especially since it is my dream school, but it’s the facts of life.

Although the prospect saddens me, I am prepared to grieve about my loss and embrace the countless other opportunities that are at my disposal. We all have to admit to ourselves that there are better college applicants out there than us and those people are applying to the schools we want to get into. If we do not get in it is not because they are better individuals, but simply because they look better on paper than we do.{sidebar id=66}

As Foothillians send off their college applications to battle against the thousands of other individuals who seek acceptance at one of our country’s prestige’s institutions I want to remind everyone of one thing: Although you may not get into your first choice, you will get into your dream school.

Regardless of which school you attend, you will still formulate the same memories that you would have had at your first choice. You will still make amazing friends, learn more than you would have ever imagined, and become mature individuals who will take the world by storm. It may very well be that you have a better time at the college you attend because it is not as competitive and uptight as the first school you applied to. Who is to say that you may even succeed more at another school because you are not surrounded by individuals who have perfect GPAs and SAT scores?

All-in-all, while we should cherish every moment of the one in a life time event we should not let out imagination get the better of us. Let us remember that we are competing against people who are applying from all over the country and the world. Although rejection may be difficult at first let us not forget that it is neither personal nor a reflection of your value. You will get into a great school and you will succeed in life even if you don’t get into your first choice.