How Rejection Can Prepare Students for College

For plenty of high schoolers, April is a tough month. College decisions come back - and the news isn’t always positive. Not too long ago, high school seniors would wait by the mailbox in hopes of receiving a large, thick envelope, usually the sign of an acceptance letter and registration materials. Though an email is the normal communication from universities these days, the feeling of rejection is no different.

Normally, students are told to put the rejection behind them and focus on the schools they get into. And while that’s always a good mentality, rejection isn’t always a bad thing.

Applying to college next year?

View the application files, essays and advice of accepted students.

LEARN MORE

According to Phillip Hodson, a psychotherapist from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, rejection can act as a focus booster. “It can make you more determined to prove your abilities, it sharpens your ­competitiveness and gives you an ­incentive to prove people wrong.” At the end of the day, everyone has gone through rejection at some point in his or her life, though that often doesn’t quell the negative feelings that come with it. 

However, it can help students overcome any rejection in the future, or at the very least put them in a better mental state. Since college can be a very tough transition, early rejection or failure isn’t always the worst thing to go through. Freshmen head off to college to new environments, new people, and new experiences, but can’t always cope easily.

About The Author

AdmitSee Staff

​We remember our frustration with applying to college and the lack of information surrounding it. So we created AdmitSee to bring much-needed transparency to the application process! Read more about the team here.