Second time’s the charm
Finally at MIT after an undergraduate rejection
I remember driving down Massachusetts Avenue with my mom when I was 16. We were in New England on a family vacation, so she arranged a campus visit at MIT for me since I was trying to decide which colleges I should apply to. It was a beautiful July day. We had a meeting with an undergraduate admissions counselor in the infinite corridor (the legendary long hallways that stretch MIT’s main buildings), we met with an administrator in the nuclear department, and we toured the MIT nuclear reactor. It was a fun day, and by the end of it, I definitely wanted to apply to MIT. When we got back from the campus visit and joined the rest of the family for dinner, everyone excitedly wanted to know “How was MIT?????” Even at that tender age, imposter syndrome1 took over: I shrugged, not knowing if I should get my hopes up.
When the MIT application deadline rolled around, I submitted mine to early decision. This is a chance to get accepted or rejected in an earlier round of admissions. I was neither, instead waitlisted – which means my application was not outstandingly good or bad, just perfectly average (by MIT’s high standards at least). Ultimately, I was accepted into 3 universities, waitlisted by one, and rejected by MIT.
1 A feeling of inferiority that is often untrue.
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