As a senior, it seems as though the only thing that is on anyone’s mind is college. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see where I end up (and nosy me is thrilled to see where everyone else ends up, too).
The process of actually finding out about college acceptances is brutal. Essays upon essays, just to get rejected. I’ll be vulnerable here and tell you all that I actually did get denied from my top choice. I was, much to my surprise, not very upset about it. Then again, I knew that I stood almost no chance. Getting rejected from an Ivy was almost laughably predictable, but that didn’t take away the sting.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I got into the Ohio State University, whose admissions were a crapshoot this year. My TikTok For You page was suddenly flooded with videos of people heartbroken about not getting into their dream school. It just reminded me once more of how arbitrary this entire process really is. Many applicants had better stats and better stories, and yet still got rejected.
The fact is that for me, as well as many others my age, this serves as the culmination of our entire educational journey. My entire life, I was told that the key to success was higher education. Both of my parents have master’s degrees, and practically everyone in my wider family has attended college. It’s all coming to a head now, where I must address this notion. I’m competing against some of the most talented and incredible young people this country, and in some cases, the world has to offer.
At the end of the day, I’ve learned that a school is just a school. We’ve all heard the horrors of peaking in high school—30-year-olds wearing letterman jackets and donning pom-poms. Yet so many adults still hold their undergraduate education, a period of just four years, in such high esteem. As an Indian-American, an aunty whose son went to Harvard or MIT or [insert random prestigious university] will never shut up about how her precious son got in even if it happened half a decade ago.
This isn’t to diminish other people’s achievements, nor is it a way for me to cope with rejection (okay, maybe it is a little bit). More importantly, I’ve finally learned that maybe college isn’t the be-all and end-all of my career or life. For now, it’s exciting, but so is everything else the future has to offer.
I love college decisions. I hate college decisions. I love and hate college decisions, all at the same time.
