Nearly every high school student aspires to join a certain top college, possibly because of its prestige or for any other reason the learner has. The tension you experience after sitting for your final high school exams can be very overwhelming considering that the exams’ outcome has a significant influence on your life. The people around you have all their eyes on you. You also have a particular academic or career goal to achieve, and you feel that your college of choice is the bridge connecting you to your goal.
Unfortunately, the results are out and then the shocking news is that you can’t join your dream top college. You feel like giving up on your goal. But does the disappointment warrant you throwing in the towel? The answer is no. In fact, your rejection by the college could be a blessing in disguise.
Despite how hard you work a high school student, it is good to be open-minded just in case you fail to hit the spot as far as admission of your favorite college is concerned. Of course, it’s quite disappointing when you fail to achieve your goal despite doing all your best about it, but fortunately, it’s not the end of the road. There are so many route options you can choose from to achieve your ultimate career or educational goals.
Here are some tips to help you deal with the rejection:
- Know that rejections are part of life
From actor Meryl Streep to author Stephen King, many successful people you’ve probably heard about have dealt with more painful rejections before making it big. As such, you should acknowledge rejections as part of life. However, how you deal with a rejection influences your success in the relevant area. In this case, will you lament forever and pity or hate yourself just because an authority decided that you won’t join your dream college? Or will you accept and move on?
A rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t allow rejection to control your life. If you fall, you don’t remain on the ground forever. Instead, you wake up, shake off the dirt and move on. There are many who have failed to secure a place in their dream colleges and still became prominent persons, even better than those who went through the colleges.
- You can consider an appeal
Although some collages seem too busy to entertain admission appeals, some are lenient and might admit a rejected students upon a legitimate and compelling appeal. Therefore, unless the college that has rejected you stipulate that they don’t accept appeals in your rejection letter, you can consider appealing for a review of your application for possible admission. However, it is advisable that you make an appeal only if you have something legitimately new to add to your application. Also, you should personally appeal; not your parent or anybody else.
- Start to figure out of a “plan B”
Don’t sink into depression or see yourself as inadequate if your appeal hits the rock. Failure to get admitted in your target college might not necessarily because you performed poorly in your final high school exam. It could be that there are many applicants and the institutions couldn’t accommodate all of them, including you. Also, the people involved might have a negative bias towards you. On the other hand, possibly there’s another good college that more than ready to admit you and help you achieve your goals. Whichever the case, it’s now time to forge forward but wisely.
It’s time to find an alternative. Which other college will help you reach your goals and provide you with an environment that’s almost similar to that of your first choice? The first step to establish the best second choice is to identify the factors that attracted you to the college that rejected you. Is it its geographical location? Your desired academic program? Students’ population? Once you do that, try to find out if there’s another college that’s close to your first choice, considering the qualities.
You can involve from your parents, mentor and/or friends in this process to make sure you make a comprehensively informed decision. Also, you can reach out to the alumni of the considered institutions to learn more about them. If possible, you can even visit the colleges physically to have a taste of possible future first-hand experience with them. Ultimately, you’ll be able to get the perfect match. You might be surprised to eventually realize that the alternative even better or at par with the college that rejected you.
- Know that the prestige of a college has nothing to do with your future
The prestige of a school doesn’t guarantee you success. Your personal performance is the major determinant of your success. Research by Alan Krueger and Stacy Dale show that students who were rejected by the prestigious schools they had initially chosen landed jobs with almost equal salaries to of those who went through the schools.
The rejected students joined alternative schools, worked hard and eventually got the knowledge and skills they’d have gotten from the schools that failed to admit them. Most employers don’t consider the prestige of the school or college that you attended but rather the skills and the knowledge you have to help them achieve their respective organizational goals.
- You can transfer to your dream college after a while
If you are still determined to join your most favorite college, you can join another college and then reapply for admission as a transfer student. However, you need to find out that the course that you are planning to enroll in the second college will get you accepted in your dream college should you opt to transfer. Also, ensure that you work hard and build a strong profile to maximize the chances of acceptance of your transfer request by your ultimate college.
You see? Rejection by top colleges isn’t the end of the world. You have lots of chances to make your future as bright as possible.