When it came time for my senior year of high school, one of the more important parts of it for me was college. Coming from a family that does pretty well for themselves academically, I think there was a good amount of pressure that I felt when faced with what college I might be going to.
What I encourage the class of 2026 to do is really think about what might happen if you don’t get into your dream school. Ironically enough, this very much did happen to me as I was rejected from the one place where I saw myself at, the place that I envisioned for myself since fifth grade.
While rejection may seem easy to process for some people, I don’t think anyone really talks about how emotionally hard senior year and facing college admission really is. Even in this short amount of time, I really believed that I have matured a lot since submitting my application back in December of 2024 and now graduating from a major part of my life in May of 2025.
For me, everything started off the way I envisioned it in my head, getting into every school that I had applied for up until February where I sort of felt like my life was falling apart.
I’m not even going to lie. I think I cried everyday for a week straight, and while that may seem dramatic, I genuinely had a plan for myself and life didn’t exactly take me there.
The whole process is just consistent internal dread and anticipation throughout the entirety of the year, especially since everyone around is going through the exact same thing.
At the same time it also feels horrible because someone you know might get into a college and you didn’t get in so that makes you feel even worse than you already do.
Though it’s important to realize you are not where you got into or didn’t get into. Realistically the whole process is a lottery system, and I’m not saying this just to make myself feel better about my own decisions but I feel like students shouldn’t measure up their worth to whether or not they got into a specific college.
I’m not saying this to scare incoming seniors, but it’s going to hurt if you don’t end up where you had exactly planned. Especially when you felt like you did everything you could but it wasn’t enough, the pain that you get is genuinely real. When I got my very first rejection I felt like I was going insane.
Having a good support system definitely helps but I think for me at least, it was hard because the one place I wanted didn’t want me.
As well as the fact that I started to feel like I did all these extracurriculars and took all these classes for nothing since I didn’t get into where I wanted to go.
And most people might say, “rejection is redirection” or “well it’s just college”, to me those decisions are what determined the next four years of my life so yeah, it’s not just college.
Especially since I knew I had a greater expectation placed upon me within my family as they expect me to go off and get into a good school, I want to make them proud.
In the end everything does start to look up, for me, while I was still mourning the fact that I didn’t get into my dream school, and still am by the way, I knew I had options and I ended up finding a place that I really see myself at.
Which is how I ended up committing to California State University, Long Beach! I was really apprehensive about committing to a place where I didn’t originally see myself at, but after doing some research and touring the campus I’m proud to say that I know I’m going to be happy there.
Long story short, incoming Juniors and Seniors, please make the effort. I know I could’ve done so much more to better my chances and regret the fact that I didn’t but everything happens for a reason.
Don’t let these small decisions ruin your year, no one’s educational path is consistent and there are going to be ups and downs along the way. I wish I knew that coming into this and I’m glad I can share that sentiment with you!