{"id":44796,"date":"2019-02-25T08:02:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T15:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/dealing-with-admissions-rejections\/"},"modified":"2019-02-25T08:02:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T15:02:37","slug":"dealing-with-admissions-rejections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/dealing-with-admissions-rejections\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing With Admissions Rejections"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rejection<\/figure>\n

What do you do when you are rejected from your first choice school?<\/p>\n

As admissions consultants, we are always cognizant of the fact that our work has the potential to dramatically alter the lives of our clients. Decision letters will roll in over the next few months, and we\u2019ll hear back from hundreds of clients who are moving halfway across the world to go to a school we consulted on. These client\u2019s relationships, finances, perspectives, and so much more are about to be transformed\u2014very exciting! <\/p>\n

But\u2026 what about someone who got rejected from their dream
\nschool? What happens then? Well, it\u2019ll feel like the end of the world. It\u2019s
\nnot. There are still many moves left in the game of life after college or grad
\nschool. Some of the most important figures in history started their career with
\na brutal rejection, and were still able to do big things even without their
\ndream education. In fact, you could make a compelling argument that we would
\nnot know these people\u2019s names if they hadn\u2019t
\n<\/em>been rejected. <\/p>\n

Here are four interesting things people have done after
\nbeing rejected by their dream program.<\/p>\n

1. Become President of the United States<\/h3>\n

Barack Obama\u2019s political and personal style can be summed up in one word: professorial. Obama\u2019s background as a professor of constitutional law shows through in everything he does, from the way he argues, to his clothes, to his smallest rhetorical tics<\/a>. But the 44th<\/sup> president wasn\u2019t always so comfortable in academia. According to his wife<\/a>, \u201c[Barack] \u2026 didn\u2019t take school seriously in high school, he barely got his work done \u2013 he was a bum.\u201d Harsh! Perhaps predictably, then, a 17-year-old Obama was rejected his dream school, Swarthmore College, back in 1979. Obama says of the rejection<\/a> \u201cIt really broke my heart, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything turned out okay for Obama in the end, however. He
\nmatriculated to Occidental College instead, and transferred to Columbia
\nUniversity two years later. Friends say he really came into his own
\nacademically at Harvard Law School, at which point he found his true passion in
\npolitics. By 1992, the middling student Swarthmore rejected was teaching
\nconstitutional law at University of Chicago Law School and well on his way to
\npublic office.<\/p>\n

The lesson? There are still a lot of chances to turn things
\naround even if this application season didn\u2019t go the way you planned. Persistence
\nand refusing to give up on your goals are far more important long term than any
\none admit letter.<\/p>\n

2. Start a civil war<\/h3>\n

In 19th<\/sup> century China, the key to success was the civil service examination system. Pass, and you could become a government official, move to a larger city, and secure your family\u2019s future for generations. Fail, and you had to settle for your lot in the provinces. Hong Xiuquan<\/a> was, by all accounts, a promising student. But when it came time for the actual examinations, he just couldn\u2019t handle the pressure. He choked. Then he choked again. And again, in 1837. After the third rejection, the young man suffered a nervous breakdown, described by historian Stephen Platt: <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he got [home], he collapsed
\ninto bed and called his family, who crowded around him. He apologized to them
\nthat his life was over and he had let them down; then he closed his eyes and
\nlost all strength. They thought he was dead. But eventually he woke up and
\nbegan telling them about strange things he had seen while he was asleep.\u201d (Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom<\/em>, pg. 61)<\/p>\n

The visions brought on by Hong Xiuquan\u2019s failed exam became
\nthe basis for a religious-political movement and eventually the Taiping
\nHeavenly Kingdom, a rebel state which he ruled as king and prophet. Hong
\nXiuquan fought a bloody civil war against China\u2019s Qing dynasty government from
\n1851 to 1864, reigning over up to 30 million subjects before his ultimate
\ndefeat. The war resulted in 20-30 million deaths, making it both the deadliest
\ncivil war and the biggest overreaction to academic rejection in human history.<\/p>\n

This is a good example of what NOT to do after a ding. Like
\nHong Xiuquan, you probably invested a huge amount of time and energy studying
\nfor tests and crafting your application. It can be incredibly frustrating to
\nfeel like that effort was wasted, but really, it wasn\u2019t. You learned about
\nyourself, about how to apply to things, and about the topics you had to study
\nfor entrance exams. That knowledge is still with you, and can be applied to
\nother applications in the future\u2026 but only if you aren\u2019t in jail for inciting
\ninsurrection.<\/p>\n

3. Revolutionize physics<\/h3>\n

You probably already know that Albert Einstein invented
\nmodern physics while a patent clerk in Bern, and that he wasn\u2019t a great student
\nas a child. A lot of this is exaggeration: Einstein was always great at math
\nand physics, even within the strictures of a traditional turn-of-the-century
\ncollege. His bad marks came in\u2026 every other class, which he simply didn\u2019t care
\nabout as much (yet<\/em>, he came around on
\nthe humanities later in life). <\/p>\n

What interests us, however, is his rejection from every university assistantship to which he applied. Essentially a funded dissertation, admission to any one of these programs would have allowed Einstein to avoid the patent office job and focus on his studies. Instead, Einstein was rejected from everywhere\u2014for some time, repeatedly. The cause? According to Einstein, a bad letter of recommendation from his professor Heinrich Weber: \u201cI would have found long ago if Weber had not played a dishonest game with me.\u201d Fortunately, it turned out that der Depperte<\/em> (\u201cthe dopey one\u201d) was perfectly capable of handling patents and doing groundbreaking physics at the same time. <\/p>\n

Folks, always be 100% sure about your recommenders! If
\nEinstein can make this mistake, anyone can. If you choose to apply again in a
\nlater season, and have even the slightest suspicion that a recommender screwed
\nyou over, you should start over with a whole new set of recommenders.<\/p>\n

4. Start an artistic movement<\/h3>\n

Impressionism might be a bit basic these days, but in the 19th<\/sup> century Monet and Manet<\/a> were considered quite edgy for\u2026 not having many hard edges in their paintings. Both were rejected from art schools, exhibition spaces, and prestigious fellowships, and both lived in poverty for large portions of their lives. You may think these parallel struggles would have made the two Frenchmen friends\u2014and it did, but not until after a bitter rivalry over their too-similar names and mutual refusal to adopt a pseudonym.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine these artists being nearly as famous as
\nthey are if they had been accepted to the academies they sought admission to.
\nTheir refusal to adapt to existing styles is key to their eventual recognition,
\nbut also the reason they never gained admission to the inner circles of the
\nFrench art world. In some cases, rejection is the key to success.<\/p>\n

Are all these examples unrealistic? Probably. Most of us can\u2019t turn a rejection into a presidency or a total war. But the key idea is that these historical figures didn\u2019t let rejection stop them. \u00a0Neither should you. You might have to take a different path, a longer path, a less prestigious path, but there is always still a path to your goals\u2026 or possibly an even cooler outcome. So keep on going!<\/p>\n

\n

Get your Free Consultation here!<\/a><\/p>\n

Email:\u00a0claudia@admissionado.com<\/a>
Young People:\u00a0WhatsApp<\/a>, or Wechat (@JonFrankHBS)
Older:\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>
Oldest: 866-409-4753<\/p>\n

The post Dealing With Admissions Rejections<\/a> appeared first on Admissionado<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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