We all remember opening our first college admissions letter. Our eyes searching for the words “we are pleased to inform you” or “we regret to inform you.” This week millions of students cracked open those letters and emails.

With deadlines and results also pouring in from internships and graduate program, it’s likely that many college students have begun to re-experience the frantic frenzy. Most recently, I was not admitted into a pre-law program at NYU, and despite other acceptances from different programs, it was a blow to my self-esteem.

It’s hard for us not reflect our personal worth on an admissions decision since school has consumed more than half of our short lives. We often idealize certain schools or internships as the best or only way to success but in reality success depends on personal will and not the prestige of an institution.

This is not to say that opportunity is granted equally among individuals. There are still legacies and privileges to keep in check when discussing opportunity and success. Yet, it does not dismiss the fact that if we want opportunity, we have to seize it when it arises. During this time, it’s important that regardless of the result, millennials not have all their hopes or disappointment rest on a single acceptance or denial.

It is much harder to be admitted into programs than it was 50 years ago, yet it also much easier to find success on more than one path. Millennials are the best at doing the most with the little they have.

There are a few reasons why admissions have become more selective — the main one being the number of applicants applying to college. As a result, the colleges’ acceptance rates decrease and applicants are held to a higher standard. Due to the increased competition students apply to more schools making the admissions even more selective.

Many millennials can take admission decisions as a personal failure, and why shouldn’t they? Most rejection letters sound like an apology with a slew of sorrys and regrets followed with the overwhelming number of applicants rant and a brief good luck wish at the end. But the happy truth about life is, that while most of us do not get what we want, that does not mean we do not end up where we want to be.

A recent New York Times article chronicled the lives of two students who did not get into the schools they wanted yet they garnered much success.

Peter Hart was denied admission to the University of Chicago and University of Illinois. Instead he attended Indiana University where he got into an honors program for undergraduate business majors. He became vice president of a business fraternity on campus. Upon graduation, he got a job in the Chicago office of the Boston Consulting Group, and one of the new hires was an old friend from high school who had attended Yale.
The road that one starts on isn’t always where they end. Our modern society has cultivated opportunities beyond the academic path. Life is not linear, there is always a fork in the road and millennials need to not get caught up in the dogma of rejection.

Laritza Salazar is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at lcsalaza@syr.edu.

Published on March 17, 2015 at 1:02 am