By: Emery Curtis and Megan Hastings 

Graphics Editor and Public Relations Manager

You spent months agonizing over your Common App essay, carefully crafting the perfect response to “Tell us about a time you failed” (even though your biggest failure was forgetting your Quizlet password before an APUSH test). And now, after all that stress, the moment of truth has arrived, the email you have been dreading. Wasting upward of 30 minutes trying to remember your portal password and/or resetting your account, you see an update was posted to your portal. Your heart pounds as you open it. And as your eyes scan the letter, the words “we deeply regret to inform you” stare back. But hold on. There’s no way this is real. Maybe they sent the wrong email? Maybe your name got mixed up with someone else’s? You check the website, your spam folder, and even that one email account you made in 5th grade and haven’t used since. Surely, this is all a terrible mistake. 

Stage 2: Anger. Once reality sinks in, you try to be cool. So you didn’t get in? Big whoop. It’s obviously not because of you. It’s because of some random admissions officer who probably read your essay while sipping their third cold brew and misclicked “reject” instead of “accept.” Or perhaps they were having a bad day and woke up with hate in their heart. Those are the only logical explanations. You start spiraling. “I bet they just wanted more students from Alaska this year.” You worked hard, you wrote an essay about your personal growth after being cut from the JV bowling team, and this is how they repay you? You start Googling the acceptance rates from past years, calculating exactly how many people took your spot. 

Stage 3: Bargaining. Okay, maybe there’s a chance. What if you just show up on campus and start attending classes until they let me in? You even consider sending them a strongly worded email, rejecting their rejection email! “After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me admission in the fall. This year I have been fortunate enough to receive rejection letters from the best and brightest universities in the country. I am unable to accept yours. Therefore, I will be seeing you next year as part of the freshman class.” 

Stage 4: Depression. Reality sets in. It’s official, you won’t be attending the school you had spent years romanticizing. Now it’s time to delete all of the pinned pictures of that school from your Pinterest boards and throw away those expensive sweatshirts you insisted on buying for “manifesting” purposes. This is a very dark place. You’ve convinced yourself that your entire future is ruined. Your dreams? Over. Your career? Nonexistent. You picture yourself still living in your childhood bedroom at age 35, working a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant while your high school classmates are out changing the world. Your parents try to cheer you up: “You’re going to do great wherever you go!” but all you hear is “We are deeply, deeply disappointed in you.”

Stage: 5, Acceptance. You didn’t even want to go to that school anyway! It’s almost like your phone knows what happened because then you start getting “why I left” videos on TikTok about that university. It’s so refreshing knowing it actually sucks to be on that campus. “The dining food is bad,” “There are so many rules!” and “Their school colors are ugly” is all you need to hear to be okay. Besides, you’ve got ten more emails waiting for you.