College rejections may be a good thing?
Note: I struggled almost all night with the idea of writing a blog today. At first I thought no I would stop until after we knew how things resolved with Barbara. Then I thought well normalcy should be the order of the day. But then how can I write about anything but my dear friend Barbara. Then I thought, well no I do not want to seem to be throwing in the towel on her personal fight. So this is what I finally decided. For better or worse, I will not write about Barbara. For me her fight, although desperate is not over and so long as it is not, I will not write something that might be termed a remembrance. So know this, my heart is with dear friend, but until I hear otherwise, the fight will continue. If it ends I will then write about how I feel about her and her courageous fight. Let’s contribute to that fight by not throwing in the towel. So today’s blog and all future ones until we know otherwise will be about the usual topics, While this blog is the usual fare, Please know how difficult that decision is to make.
College rejections may be a good thing?
We are in the season when colleges are considering admission requests. Jeff Selingo, a professor at Arizona State University, contributor to “The Chronicle of Higher Education” and author of “College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What it Means for Students” argues that rejection by colleges may be an important life lesson for students. Writing for Linked ‘In’ Dr. Selingo argues that students learn a great deal when they are rejected. Here is his general argument which is published by Linked’in’ at:
Dr. Sleingo notes that the top tier schools (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Columbia) will often brag at the end of admission process that they accepted about 1 in 10 applicants. This means that some of the seemingly sure students will be sadly disappointed. Take a student who might be 3rd in class have all A’s, 800 in the writing portion of the SAT, with a 1,360 total SAT. Yet this student this student may or may rejected. Why? Well when Universities accept so few applicants, even students like this have to be rejected.
Why might a student such as this be rejected? College admission officers have more than academics to balance when they consider admissions. They have to look at geographic balance, athletic balance, or scholarship balance. When one in ten students are selected, that means that top tier students sometimes have to be rejected.
So how is this good? Dr. Selingo, postulates that rejection itself may be a great learning opportunity for students. What can you learn from rejection? Dr. Selingo suggests three things.
1. The world is not fair. Despite being a great student, it is important to know not everyone gets in. Dr. Selingo suggests that parents use the rejection to teach or reinforce humility in kids.
2. A rejection may add some importance to the application for a second choice. He notes colleges often look for these rejected applicants and will point with pride that they have x number of students who applied at one of these top tier schools chose their university.
3. Almost all students who want to go find a way a way to College, do so. Selingo writes that there are about 5,300 colleges and universities in the US. And nearly every student who wants to go to college will make it to some school somewhere.
According to Dr. Selingo the key for getting through a tough college rejection is to grow from it. Understand that competition is fierce. A choice of college is of course personal. But if the student wants to get into the top schools, they should also choose a secondary and equally desirable choice.
How does that fit into diabetes? Picking a school is more than simple choice for a diabetic student. When we choose a college we also chose a place to be diabetic. Picking a secondary school is not always easy. Still part of growing up is accepting second choices. I for one ended up at Indiana University Kokomo, instead of the Indianapolis College as I wanted. Even then I was barley admitted. By my second year I was at Indianapolis full time. I was able to turn a negative into a positive. In the meantime, since I was home I got a call from my now wife. Had I not been in Kokomo she might have moved to another choice. I am so glad she didn’t an being with Sheryl is far better than any college choice.
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Rick