As admission letters start rolling in and people start hearing back from their dream schools, not everyone wants to hear the answer to the dreaded question: did I get accepted? Sadly, colleges can’t accept everyone – no matter how qualified we think we may be. 

It’s going to be tough…

Dealing with rejection can be difficult, especially when it’s from a school you’ve dreamed about attending your whole life. At first, it might be difficult having everyone ask whether or not you go in. But eventually, the pain of telling them you didn’t will soon diminish. But there’s no reason to fret, because for every school that rejected you, there’s one school looking for a student with your exact qualities.

“Although you’re not going to get into every college or university you apply to, I think it’s important to keep a positive mindset and outlook on things. If you get rejected, you shouldn’t sulk in the rejection, you should bounce back and move onto the next,” senior Libertad Robledo said.

Empower yourself

Perhaps, for the first couple of days, avoid college as a topic of conversation. Although it may seem inevitable, it’s not impossible. Everyone deals with rejection differently, but no matter who you are, you shouldn’t dwell on the decision for long. Instead of thinking about all the things that could’ve made your application better, think of all the schools so far that accepted you or will accept you. In their eyes, you possess a quality that makes you an outstanding candidate.

So close, yet so far…

It’s also important to keep in mind that “deferred” doesn’t mean “rejected.” Although you may not have been accepted, you have the edge when your application is submitted for the regular decision pool. Colleges will keep in mind that you were willing to commit and be a a part of their school, and they will make sure to take that dedication seriously.

Even then, you may get rejected. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Whether you were rejected from a dream school or a safety school, remember that as one door closes, others open. Perhaps your dream school could not have offered you all the things you thought it could. Reagardless, in the famous words of our CAP counselor, Ms. Stack, “you’ll grow where you’re planted.”