The day I received a rejection letter from Washington University in St. Louis, I talked to my mentor, who currently goes to Harvard. He told me that it gets better after the first rejection.
 
I wanted to believe him, but I wanted to remain cautious. I had only three admission decisions remaining at the time, and I had my doubts.
 
If I was rejected by Washington, which I considered a “reach school,” why wouldn’t Stanford, Yale and Brown reject me, too?
 
It was almost 5 p.m. and I was at school, working on scheduling contestants for our annual forensics tournament. A friend of mine (who had also been rejected by Washington University in St. Louis) ran inside and yelled, “Guess who just got into U.S.C.?” Of course it was him! He was smiling from ear to ear!
 
I had told myself that I wouldn’t open any admission decisions until I was at home, but I knew I wouldn’t get home until later that night. So that afternoon, I told my friends (which I know isn’t recommended) to gather around and share the moment with me.

 
I typed in my login information and placed my finger over the mouse. I looked over to my friends.
 
“Do it!” they said. So I did it.
 
“CONGRATULATIONS! Welcome to the class of 2017!” the Web page read.
 
It was Yale. I was dumbfounded.
 
 Within the next few moments, as I processed the fact that I’d been accepted, several people around me raised their hands to high-five me. Someone hugged me.
 
The news spread quickly. Soon I was getting calls left and right from family members, friends and even teachers to congratulate me.
 
In the aftermath of celebrating, the same friend who was also rejected from Washington in St. Louis, sat next to me and said, “So your mentor was right after all, huh?”
 
“I guess he was,” I said. Turns out that for me at least, it did get better.
 
After several phone calls, countless texts, and telling my parents, I was logging in to find out what had happened with Brown. The verdict? Wait-listed.
 
With the acceptance from Yale, it didn’t hurt as much as it should have.
 
What was clear by then was that the entire process was unpredictable. I mean, statistically speaking, I would have thought that if Yale accepted me, then Brown should have, too. I thought it was even more logical to assume that since Washington in St. Louis rejected me, then there would be no way I could ever even dream of being accepted to Yale, or Brown, or Stanford, but somehow, it happened, and I’ve realized that it happens often.
 
I couldn’t help but wonder, though, how each of these schools arrived at their decisions.
 
How important was my standardized test score? How much weight had my letters of recommendation carried? How much had my QuestBridge application helped?
 
Was the entire process just like a coin toss? Did I somehow manage to be the lucky one?
 
Later, I found out that Stanford offered me a place on its waiting list. I was disappointed. I hadn’t been rejected, but I hadn’t been accepted, either. Even though the idea of waiting even longer to know where I was going wasn’t exactly appealing, I submitted the form to include me on their waiting list.
 
So now I wait, and of course, everything has changed unexpectedly.
 
Now I must choose among the four schools that will cost me little or no money — Amherst, Bowdoin, the University of Kansas, Yale — without knowing whether I will be admitted into Stanford in mid-May.
 
The likelihood that I’ll be admitted to Stanford is entirely dependent on the students who were accepted. The more admitted students who choose to not go to Stanford, the better it is for those of us on the wait list.
 
All this uncertainty means that I can’t fall in love with any one school just yet. I would love to, but with that slim chance in the back of my mind, it’s going to be that much harder to decide.
 
So I’ll wait. Some more. I’ll have to try hard to impress once again. I feel as if I’m starting high school all over again, that I’ll have to submit new accomplishments to try and convince Stanford that I’m worthy of a spot.
 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m humbled to have this opportunity, even if it isn’t what I was hoping for. In many ways, a rejection would have made things a lot easier. Now with this on my plate, I have to consider many more factors before deciding where to enroll this fall.
 
As everyone else is winding down in this erratic process, it seems that for me, it’s only just begun.