see also:
SITUATION: You didn’t get accepted to your number-one school.
SIMMER DOWN: Use it as a reason to consider your other options.
Dear Juanita Doe:
I regret to inform you that you have not been accepted into Your Dream School...
If you got a letter like that, I’m sure there were tears. There probably were cuss words, and there were likely one or more bouts of, “What am I going to do?!”
So you got a rejection letter. Congratulations—it could turn out to be a great thing!
Um…really? Yes, really. Here’s why.
1. You would’ve been the one always buried in books.
Were you rejected because your academic profile didn’t match that of the other applicants? Then you might’ve just been saved a lot of strife in college as your classmates breezed through subjects while you always struggled. One college admissions tip is that you could be better off at a school where your classmates will challenge you, yes, but where there’s a chance you’ll feel like the smartest one in the class sometimes, too.
2. You would’ve changed your major a bazillion times.
Did it come through in your college admissions application that you don’t know what you want to do with your life after high school?
The school may have given a spot instead to someone who was clearer about his or her plans. Here's a tip—if you weren’t sure about college, you may have gotten to school and changed your major a ton, or dropped out, or otherwise wasted your hard-earned cash when some more soul-searching about your goals might be in order.
3. You would’ve hated the place.
If a college didn’t accept you, it probably was not the right school for you in the first place.
But I’m willing to bet that at least one school on your list (you applied to more than one, right?) will fit the bill. If you didn’t get into your first choice, a college admissions tip is to look at all the benefits of your second- and third-choice schools. Those colleges, too, have graduated lots of productive, happy citizens. Make yourself one of them!
Getting rejected from a college doesn’t make you a failure. Now stop complaining and get out there to make your plan “B” stand for the “Best” plan ever.
What do you think? E-mail editor@nextSTEPmag.com or go to nextSTEPmag.com/Community.