College and Finance

If You Didn’t Get Accepted to Your Dream College

It’s about that time of year when perspective college students around the country will be getting their acceptance, or rejection letters. By now, you probably know that if the envelope is nice and fat, full of pamphlets and the like, then you’re in. However, if it’s a thin little sheet of paper you receive, then you’re either waitlisted, or worse, rejected.

In truth, rejection is not the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you in your young life. With universities the way they are these days, prestigious schools get many, many more applicants than they could ever hope to accept. And as the applicant pools go, students seem to be getting better and better grades, doing more extracurricular activities than ever before, and it is simply becoming more difficult to distinguish one’s self from the pack. So, maybe you’ve just gotten that depressing letter that has the beginning “we regret to inform you,” (You probably think they don’t regret it as much as you do). If so, then read my tale of rejection, and maybe it will put some perspective on the situation.

The Story

I applied to four schools my senior year. I was accepted by two and rejected by two. As it turns out, I ended up attending the back-up school of my back-up school. My dream school was The University of Pennsylvania. Specifically, The Wharton School of Business. I fell in love from the moment I made my first campus visit. It was the school for me. It was where I could be successful, comfortable, and happy. When it came time to apply, I did everything in the book I was supposed to, and then some. I even had my grandfather (who was an alumni) write a letter of recommendation. I wrote what I thought was the most amazing college essay ever written. It was an incredible opus in which I talked about how much I loved Penn, how much I wanted to be a part of the tradition, and so on. Alas, April came, and I received my tiny envelope. They truly regretted to inform me that I was rejected. It was a tough application class, and I didn’t make the cut. I wasn’t even waitlisted. My SAT and ACT scores were in range. My GPA was above average. I held a job throughout High School, played football and volleyball, and was even in plays. I wondered how it could happen to me, and where I went wrong.

Needless to say, I was quite distraught. Then, less than a week later, my backup school, The University of Notre Dame sent me another thin letter. Worst of all, one of my best friends, whom I had a higher GPA than, and almost as high SAT score (with a higher ACT score) got accepted. Was I inadequate? Was I simply someone who had too lofty expectations? A multitude of questions and thoughts of self-doubt flooded my brain for weeks. I was truly depressed, and felt that I had failed. I was too focused on my failure to even be happy for my friend. I was convinced that my life would never amount to anything, because I wasn’t going to be a Penn Quaker, or a Fighting Irish.

With that in mind, I had to choose between Purdue University and The Ohio State University. I decided to become a Buckeye, and, to make a long story short, I’m extremely happy I did so. I’ve had some great learning experiences, and created memories that will last a lifetime. I’ve experienced things that never would have been possible had I attended my first two choices. In fact, my freshman year I had the opportunity to go see my Buckeyes defeat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. Sure, in a different world I would have been standing on the other sideline, but it sure was sweet to cheer along with the victorious side. After the game, when I was singing the Alma Mater along with the fans, band, and football team, I felt like I was where I belonged all along.

The Moral

Looking back on it, over three years ago, I had the wrong idea about college. The college you go to does not make you who you are. It can certainly help mold you and set you off in the right direction in your adult life, but it doesn’t complete you. Dream schools are great, but they are not the end-all, be-all of colleges. Simply because some report ranks a college high in a certain area doesn’t mean that you are nothing if you don’t attend that specific school.

College is supposed to be a personal journey. College is all about learning and growing. Your dream school can certainly help you do that. However, those back-up schools you might be snubbing could probably be just as successful in helping you achieve your goals.

If you get a rejection letter from a school you had your heart set on, don’t think of it as the end of the world. As lame as it might sound, think of it as a new beginning. In the hustle and bustle of today’s world, it seems that too many people get caught up with rankings, hiring rates, and other numbers that really don’t say much about who they’ll become. Who is more successful, the Harvard graduate who scrapes by with C’s and ends up getting a dead-end job working for some company, or the state-school graduate who works hard, makes an impact at his or her university, and uses college as a time to grow into a successful adult? It’s all about what you DO in college, not what college you attend. One movie I love that concerns college is Orange County. I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t seen it, but the idea that your college doesn’t define you, and that you don’t need to go to a certain school to be successful is central to the film’s plot.

Remember, those admissions officers don’t really know you, they only have a glimpse of what you’ve done in high school via your application. They could be missing out on one of the best students to ever walk through their door. Just because some person looking at a piece of paper, trying to determine if you are worthy of admission, decides that you are not, doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Also, being rejected from your school of choice doesn’t always have to be the end of the story. You can always work hard and attempt to transfer, or take a year off and re-apply. Remember, if life closes a door on you, it will usually open a window. The bottom line is, if things didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to, it’s not the end of the world. No letter can make or break you. It’s what you do when confronted with adversity that defines you. So, if you’re reading this, having recently been rejected, you have two options:

1. Feel sorry for yourself, and hold regret that you didn’t work hard enough, and rue the day you tried applying to your target school.

2. Take the rejection as an opportunity and run with it.

After wasting time with 1, I eventually chose 2. Which one will you choose?

April 30 2008 | Admissions and College Advice and Pre-College Decisions | No Comments »

Do College Rankings Really Matter?

There has been considerable uproar since a variety of Liberal Arts colleges decided to not participate in the US News and World Report annual rating of colleges. I cannot begin to describe the amount of times I’ve heard friends compare their colleges. One of the biggest comparisons is relative ranking. Sometimes I wonder; do rankings really even matter? For example, my older sister graduated from Ohio State with a degree in English (OSU isn’t known for having the most stellar English department), but nonetheless she graduated and ended up at Fordham Law. Her roommates her freshman year were graduates from Yale and Dartmouth, respectively. I’m sure they outranked Ohio State in a wide variety of academic areas, yet my sister ended up at the same exact Law School. She ended up being hired by a very prestigious law firm, and now makes a sizeable amount of money. So, do rankings really matter? Were her roommates that much better off because their colleges received higher ratings?

I think there’s no simple answer (as both sides have valid arguments). However, I feel that while rankings may give you a little bit of a boost when looking for a job, it’s much more important to see what you did in college, rather than how your school was ranked. I guarantee someone who gets straight Cs at Harvard will not be as appealing to a perspective employer as someone who earned straight A’s at a state school. I know too many students get into highly ranked colleges and expect it to automatically make them better than everyone else looking for jobs. Just because a school is highly ranked, doesn’t mean it will be the best fit for you. It also doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to get the best job in your field. At the same time, brighter students tend to seek out the higher ranked colleges, so one might think that the overall educational atmosphere would be better. But, again, what’s the goal of college? To get a degree, in order to get a job. Will going to a highly ranked institution always translate into a higher salary?

The last thing is that rankings really can be deceptive. Many students can make their colleges as easy or hard as they want. If students look for the easiest classes, with the easiest professors, their college experience, and degree will reflect that. Students who challenge themselves in highly ranked, and unranked schools will both probably benefit from a strong education. Some schools deciding to not be involved in the US News and World Report rankings is a very big statement. Schools are realizing that when it comes down to it, being able to brag about being top ten in a certain area is great, but might ultimately be unfair to the thousands of schools that still have fantastic programs, but just don’t break the top 10. Should students not apply to certain universities simply because some report doesn’t rank them high?

So, do college rankings really matter? If the BCS is any indication, ranking colleges in any spectrum (either academically or athletically) can be quite challenging, and sometimes woefully inaccurate.

But I digress, what do you think?

November 27 2007 | Admissions and Pre-College Decisions | 1 Comment »

Why Women Are Getting More Rejection Letters Than Men

I was reading an ESPN article, which mentioned the fact that there are significantly more women in colleges, and applying to colleges, than men. I thought this was a pretty interesting fact. I was than led to a New York Times article entitled, To All The Girls I’ve Rejected. It was written by Jennifer Delahunty Britz, dean of admissions at Kenyon College. The fact is, that because colleges want to keep Male to Female ratios as close as possible, more women are getting rejection letters. This also means that it’s easier for a man to get into a highly selective university than for a woman.

There’s no real advice that can be associated with this. It just plain stinks. Women get the real short end of the stick because instead of competing against everyone equally for a spot, they are now competing against other women, and there are more of them. While it works out in the favor of men, it’s quite troubling that such a fewer number of men are going to college. In fact, if this situation continue, some experts think that college student bodies will be 60-40 female by 2010. So, the climate remains that men are getting left in the dust (academically), while women are now competing with each other.

One of the best things you can do is apply to a load of safety schools. If you have your heart set on one university, but don’t gain admission, you can always do well at a different college and apply for a transfer. For men, I wouldn’t be too excited about the prospect of having to work less to be accepted to colleges. I’d be concerned that the gender is lacking and being passed by women. It’s unfortunate that the crapshoot that is admissions seems to become cloudier every day.

People are just too good any more. Everyone has a million extra curricular activities, top grades, great service projects, and fantastic SAT or ACT scores. When everyone is lumped together, distinguishing the outstanding students from the bad students is one of the most challenging things. I used to be insanely bitter because I was rejected from ND while my friend, whom I got better grades than, but not better test scores was accepted. Thinking back, I’m almost positive our applications were very close (we both played varsity sports, I even held a job throughout High School), and they simply had to choose one and leave the other one be. So, some other advice is to try to distinguish yourself somehow. Start a web site, study abroad, live in Africa and help people with AIDS. No longer does captain of the soccer team and student body president with a 4.0 and 35 ACT score cut it, because there are loads of other students who have that. For women, the number is increased dramatically.

Also, if you don’t get into that dream college, don’t fret. Your school could crush them in a bowl game sometime.

October 19 2007 | Admissions | No Comments »