Last year, around this time, I stared at an apathetic admissions portal that told me I had been deferred from my top-choice college. Around three months later, in the regular decision round, I was battered by another five rejections and six (or seven?) waitlists.
At the time, I felt like the weight of the world was collapsing in on me. This feeling is all too familiar for many high school seniors — The Pitch has written about the topic countless times, offering compassion, counsel and comfort to students who feel lonely, lost and let down by the admissions committee of their dream school.
As I vividly recall, no matter what anyone says to you about how “rejection is redirection” or “when one door closes, another one opens,” the conciliatory comments seem to just go in one ear and out the other.
It’s even tougher to hear reassurances from people who don’t understand you in the same way — superficial shows of sympathy from friends who did get into their top-choice colleges, or adults who haven’t gone through the modern-day college admissions process. College rejection is the first time many of us come face-to-face with the heartbreaking reality of a seemingly arbitrary, capricious system.
So, my goal in writing isn’t to say, “It’s all going to be okay” or “Everything is going to work out in the end.” Instead, as Linus van Pelt once remarked to Charlie Brown, despite his failure in the class spelling bee, “the world didn’t come to an end.” There are no guarantees, no perfect promises that everything will work out. But the world will keep spinning.
If you were rejected from your top choice college, it’s up to you to take the next step — keep working hard in classes, tweak your essays if necessary and, most importantly, continue doing the things you’re passionate about.
In the mess that is the college admissions process, it’s scary when you don’t know where your next steps might take you. But whatever and wherever your next step is, it’s important that you take it.
Even for those who got into your top-choice college early decision and are preparing to mentally check out of your classes and school, know that your journey isn’t over. When you arrive on campus next fall, you’ll be greeted by a whirlwind of class assignments, club commitments and coffee chats that come with being in college. And it certainly doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
Because getting accepted to, or rejected from, your “dream” college isn’t the end of the world — in fact, it’s just the beginning.
For me, my story worked out in the best way possible. Despite being in the throes of deferral and rejection, the second semester of my senior year became one of my happiest in all of high school, as I dedicated it to doing what I loved: writing for The Pitch. And my efforts were rewarded with recognition that helped me get into Duke University.
It would not have happened, however, had I not kept going after December 2024. Now, one semester in at Duke, I’m still doing what I love — writing for The Chronicle, playing on the club tennis team and making music in the symphony orchestra. The world doesn’t stop spinning, even if you get to your dream school.
All this is to say, whatever happened or happens in your admissions portal this month, there’s a whole other world sitting beyond the 12-point type font letter on your laptop. And it’s there for you to explore and enjoy. You just have to keep taking one more step, and, metaphorically speaking, step through your portal, out into the world beyond.
– Seyun Park
Seyun Park ‘25 was a former Pitch writer and editor for Volumes 67-70.
