Some of you may recall that I was waitlisted at Brown and Stanford Universities, and that their final decisions about me have yet to arrive.
 
Well, there will be no acceptance letters from Stanford or Brown. I had a change of heart about those schools some time ago.
 
I asked to be removed from Brown’s waiting list soon after I decided to get on it. (To be honest, I think I just got on to see whether I could get in: I didn’t really think about whether or not the school was a good fit.)
 
Removing myself from Stanford’s list, on the other hand, took a little longer. Aside from the weather and locations, everything about Stanford and Yale University seemed very similar: top notch.
 
As I was weighing my options before the May 1 deadline, however, I felt that Yale offered the best balance of everything that I was looking for in a school. There was no need to wait for a final word from Stanford.
 
I decided to get off Stanford’s waiting list for three reasons. The first was because I didn’t want to keep waiting for a response. The day I committed to Yale was the day of my prom, and I just wanted to enjoy the evening with friends whom I won’t be seeing as often when fall comes around. The second reason was because I prefer Yale’s residential system, which offers a small community within a large campus.
 
My third and final reason was entirely personal.
 
 In 2007, when I moved from California to the Midwest, I felt like to returning to California for college would be a great idea. In my perfect world, I would have gone to Stanford as an undergraduate and then the East Coast for graduate school. But life had other plans for me.
 
I’ve had some time to re-examine my goals and hopes for the future, and I’ve readjusted. Today, I have even bigger goals for graduate school. I’d like to become a Rhodes Scholar and attend school in England. (Before I can do that, I have to figure out what I want to do as an undergraduate. That, of course, will take time to discover. There’s no need to rush.)
 
After careful consideration, I decided that even though I loved the laid-back West Coast social scene, it’s better for me to experience something entirely new and head to the East Coast.
 
I lived on the West Coast for 11 years, practically all of my childhood. I’ve been up north to San Francisco, and down south beyond San Diego and into Mexico’s Baja California.
 
On the other hand, I’ve only visited areas on the East Coast on a hit-and-miss basis. There’s much to explore and plenty of people to meet. That’s what I’m most looking forward to.
 
When I decided to join Stanford’s waiting list, I felt that something would nudge them into saying yes to me. I felt that, despite the slim chances of being accepted off a waiting list, my luck would once again pull through.
 
That, however, is something I’ll never truly know, and I’m perfectly fine with that. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever wonder what would have happened. It just means that I’ve realized that there are more important things than waiting longer in hopes of receiving one more letter of acceptance.
 
Timothy V. Nguyen, who became a good friend I met while visiting Amherst, said it the best: “The only thing I regret about this whole process is that I can’t go to all of these schools.”
 
I’ll never find out whether or not I could’ve received another acceptance, but that’s O.K., because I do know that I get to spend the next best four years of my life at Yale. I’m ecstatic.
 
I have no doubt that I’ve been blessed with wonderful opportunities that so many others don’t get to experience. From the moment when I was surprised with a scholarship to the University of Kansas, to the astonishment that came at the end of March and early April, I’ve been humbled by every award that’s ever been presented to me, every offer of admission that’s ever been sent to me, and every person who’s reached out and offered their help as I’ve managed through this difficult course that is the admissions process.
 
To everyone out there — my parents, teachers, friends, mentors, The Alexander Hamilton Friends Association, and even the readers who’ve followed me these past several months — when I say couldn’t have done it without any of you, I absolutely mean it.