Photo: TikTok
Sometimes rejection can be a force for positive change.
By Alexandra Blogier — Written on Apr 08, 2023
As winter turns to spring, there’s another transformation on the horizon for the nation’s high school seniors as they prepare to receive their college admissions decisions. It’s undoubtedly a time when emotions are running high for high school students, who have been working towards getting into college for the vast majority of their academic lives.
One woman went on TikTok to offer her advice for students receiving rejections from schools they applied to.
For Angelica Song, getting a rejection letter from her dream Ivy League School changed her life for the better.
In light of all the college reaction videos posted across TikTok, Song made her own inspirational post, telling her followers that “getting rejected from my dream school 6 years ago in high school was the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Song, 24, offered her perspective on the college admissions process and the amount of pressure high school students feel to get accepted to their dream schools.
“For a lot of high-achieving students in high school, we really glamorize not just the schools that we want to go to but the life that we would live,” Song explained.
She believes that there’s a major idealization of what the perfect college life could be, all predicated upon getting into that particular dream school. Song said that many students glorify “the major that we would do, the job that we would have in that city, and the alumni network” of certain schools, what she calls “this romantic post-high-school life.”
“At least for me that got me through the late night studying, the all-nighters, the AP [and] IB classes, the tons of millions of extracurriculars that I did.”
“That singular goal and that next step and this dream life I thought I wanted, that’s what kept me going,” Song explained. She said that getting rejected from the “top Ivy” she dreamed of going to made her feel extremely disappointed in herself: “I felt like everyone around me was disappointed in me, and I just felt like I ruined my whole plan and dream.”
Song says the rejection made her think, “I’m not going to get my dream life.”
March 30, 2023, marked Ivy Day, the date when the 8 Ivy League universities released their admissions offers to the hundreds of thousands of high school seniors hoping to be admitted. Ivy League acceptance rates proved to be exceptionally low for the incoming Class of 2027. Harvard University’s acceptance rate was 3.4%, its second lowest rate in university history since 2022’s rate of 3.19%. Yale University admitted 2,275 students from its largest-ever pool of 52,250 applicants. These numbers show just how competitive college admissions are.
Song’s post is a reminder that college rejections don't define the rest of someone’s life—or determine their future happiness.
She had a message of hope for students getting rejected from the colleges they’ve had their hearts set on, revealing, “My current today is better than any dream that my high school self ever had.”
Song said that even though she went to a school that she didn’t consider a “top” school, her time there opened her life up in ways she never imagined. She chose a major that she never thought was possible for her, met close friends, and is currently working at her “dream company” in an industry she didn’t think she’d enter. She noted that she’d also reached a level of financial stability she’s never experienced before, making an income that she “told [herself] would be a goal by 30, that [she] reached at 24.”
“Younger Angelica could not even dream or fathom how great or big my dreams could be,” Song said.
While the high-school version of herself was “so certain” she had to live in New York, attend Columbia, and become a journalist, Song now lives in Los Angeles and works in tech. Song made the incredibly valuable observation that “where you go to school does not limit or value your success… You will be exactly who you need to be.”
Sometimes, our happiness is unexpected, coming out of the rejections and disappointments we overcome.
“My current life is so much better and bigger than I ever thought,” she explained, which speaks to the power of allowing our lives to unfold in unexpected ways, and the importance of not limiting ourselves to one rigid view of what our futures can be.
College rejections aren’t the end of the world, even if they feel like it at the time– as Song said, “one door closes, three more doors will open.”
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.