I was so disheartened last spring when I got to know that our school's Principal would be leaving us and that I would suddenly find myself in an environment detrimental to my development as a person, that I started my search for private schools in the US and being the naïve romantic that I am decided to apply to just one single school: the big, bad Phillips Exeter Academy.
Well, two months ago I received an email stating I had been waitlisted at Exeter which is a nice way to say: GTFO. Needless to say, I was shattered because this had been a huge part of where I saw myself in the future, and even though I had this feeling in the back of my mind that Exeter was a really long shot, I guess you can never consider the reality of not getting in until it actually hits you. And it did.
My interview went pretty well. The guy was an alum from the Class of 2004 I guess whose grandparents were actually from the same town as me, and he was very friendly and told me that he'd give me a "very good recommendation". The essays were nice, too as were my teacher recommendations. But in hindsight, what I did not do was exploit the tragedy of my situation. I did not harp on the fact that mine is a single mother putting her daughter through college, that the financial difficulties at home were getting the better of us and the huge amount of personal stuff that I was and still am going through, but I decided I did not want to be the sob story of the year and wanted my application to stand out on its merit, not the tragic background. In hindsight, yes, I should've highlighted how crucially important it was that I get in.
I recently returned from Ghent, Belgium for an Olympiad (more on it later) and thought that I should mention my new achievement to the Admissions Committee since I had only been waitlisted, not rejected and that it might help them reconsider my case. And then I got this email:
Well, two months ago I received an email stating I had been waitlisted at Exeter which is a nice way to say: GTFO. Needless to say, I was shattered because this had been a huge part of where I saw myself in the future, and even though I had this feeling in the back of my mind that Exeter was a really long shot, I guess you can never consider the reality of not getting in until it actually hits you. And it did.
My interview went pretty well. The guy was an alum from the Class of 2004 I guess whose grandparents were actually from the same town as me, and he was very friendly and told me that he'd give me a "very good recommendation". The essays were nice, too as were my teacher recommendations. But in hindsight, what I did not do was exploit the tragedy of my situation. I did not harp on the fact that mine is a single mother putting her daughter through college, that the financial difficulties at home were getting the better of us and the huge amount of personal stuff that I was and still am going through, but I decided I did not want to be the sob story of the year and wanted my application to stand out on its merit, not the tragic background. In hindsight, yes, I should've highlighted how crucially important it was that I get in.
I recently returned from Ghent, Belgium for an Olympiad (more on it later) and thought that I should mention my new achievement to the Admissions Committee since I had only been waitlisted, not rejected and that it might help them reconsider my case. And then I got this email:
"In your search for a new school". Ouch. It's March 10 all over again, except being sad now is a really shitty thing to do. I wish I could somehow just go back a few months earlier and tell myself "yes! bare yourself out on that application because that's what they wanna see; your tragedy" but I guess I had too much pride in me to give in to that. Anyway, PEA can have its peace. I'm done.
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