College rejections as inspiration
Of course my friends know of my travails with a certain university (not an "Institute") in Cambridge, Massachusetts and thin envelopes with "depressing" (bizarre) letters inside.
Mine arrived in late July after my high school graduation, not late March or April, which I think made them worse than usual. Nonetheless I came out on the other side years later, doing alright, with an economics degree from America's best undergraduate college. And now I bleed green. Who knew? (Actually Mom and Dad really wanted me to go there first, I think.)
As usual around college admissions season, the WSJ has an inspirational piece about movers and shakers who were rejected from their first choice, which curiously in the piece is this or that part of that university in greater Boston that does not deserve to be named. Apparently there's a demographic niche of those who have applied and been rejected, over 25,000 a year.
Money quote:
If rejected by the school you love, Dr. Varmus advises in an email, immerse yourself in life at a college that welcomes you. "The differences between colleges that seem so important before you get there will seem a lot less important once you arrive at one that offered you a place."
And somewhere along the way you find it's the place you were always meant to be, anyway.
Before They Were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People Were...Rejected
At College Admission Time, Lessons in Thin Envelopes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704211704575139891390595962.html
Now if only the WSJ had used the Oxford comma in that headline!
Mine arrived in late July after my high school graduation, not late March or April, which I think made them worse than usual. Nonetheless I came out on the other side years later, doing alright, with an economics degree from America's best undergraduate college. And now I bleed green. Who knew? (Actually Mom and Dad really wanted me to go there first, I think.)
As usual around college admissions season, the WSJ has an inspirational piece about movers and shakers who were rejected from their first choice, which curiously in the piece is this or that part of that university in greater Boston that does not deserve to be named. Apparently there's a demographic niche of those who have applied and been rejected, over 25,000 a year.
Money quote:
If rejected by the school you love, Dr. Varmus advises in an email, immerse yourself in life at a college that welcomes you. "The differences between colleges that seem so important before you get there will seem a lot less important once you arrive at one that offered you a place."
And somewhere along the way you find it's the place you were always meant to be, anyway.
Before They Were Titans, Moguls and Newsmakers, These People Were...Rejected
At College Admission Time, Lessons in Thin Envelopes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704211704575139891390595962.html
Now if only the WSJ had used the Oxford comma in that headline!