As the spring season approaches, so does another season — college decisions. Scrolling through social media platforms this past month, it seemed like all I could see was a mix of high school seniors’ college decisions. As a college freshman — someone who has been there and done that pretty recently — I thought I’d pitch in some of my own words of advice that I’d give to my younger brother. 

Dealing with not ideal decisions

College decision season can feel like a roller coaster of emotions and events. For one, college decisions are sometimes truly random and entirely unpredictable. You can be flat-out rejected by a school you thought you’d for sure get into and then be accepted by the school you never thought you’d get into all in the span of just one day. What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t feel discouraged when you don’t receive an ideal decision because college decisions sometimes are truly random and you could be surprised. 

I also want to emphasize that a college’s decision made by a few admissions officers should in no way diminish the effort you’ve put into your application and the time leading up to that moment. Maybe the school thought you’d be a better fit for another school or maybe the school was looking to admit a particular student that year and you just didn’t fit the profile. So many different factors go into college decision-making and, sometimes, those decisions aren’t a reflection of you and your application but simply of the school and its admissions officers’ thoughts. College decisions are basically completely out of your control after you hit that submit button, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up over a decision made by someone who has only met you through a few PDF files and has never met you in person nor seen all of your amazing accomplishments with their own two eyes.

Although these words are truly hard to hear when you’ve just received a rejection — trust me, I know —you should not feel discouraged by any deferral, rejection or waitlist offer. You should take these kinds of decisions as a redirection to where you actually belong, or take it as motivation to prove that this school has truly lost out on an amazing person who would’ve brought incredible ideas and experiences to that school.