A student from last year’s graduating class recently to an interview with The Banter and revealed that he had been a real-life victim of the typical high-schooler’s greatest fear: rejection from every college he applied to. In short, he got in nowhere. “People would always joke about ‘getting in nowhere’ and end up at Tufts or UVA, so we never thought that it could really happen to anyone. I just don’t understand; I followed all the rules!”
So spoke the currently unemployed Alec Harrison, a high-school graduate with no forthcoming degrees in sight. He showed us his stack of rejection letters: hundreds of pages thick. When asked why he kept them, he ignored the question and announced, “four hundred and eight letters. Take it in.” Yes, Alec applied to 408 schools, none of whom chose to admit him into their Class of 2016.
“I just didn’t understand why. I worked so hard on my applications. I did them through all of my classes and even on weekends, except when Friends was on. My whole life was dedicated to this process: writing supplements and meeting with a college counselor.”
Harrison did not meet with just ‘a college counselor’; he met with all 32 registered counselors in the greater Philadelphia area. “How much did counseling help? Not much…they would mostly tell me to focus on school and actually turn things in and maybe try an extracurricular. Like I would have had any time to write my apps otherwise.”
The Class of 2012 member chose not to report his plans to the Harriton Banner for their senior issue last year, opting instead for an ‘Unknown’ next to his name.
“Unknown could mean anything! I mean, how could I tell the world that I hadn’t gotten in anywhere when I’ve spent every day since fifth grade prepping to go to college? I’ve read all the books, gone to all the meetings, belonged to every single college review site on the Internet. I just don’t get it. I mean, I took all of the AP courses and registered for the SATs twelve times.”
A Harriton teacher, wishing to remain anonymous, could not verify this. “Harrison? Alec Harrison, you say? No…. Nope, don’t recall him.”
But today, he has decided to venture out to issue a warning and share his story. “I was always so busy planning my life after high school or writing my applications or looking at college stats to determine which was best for me. I decided on Georgetown as my first choice, but you just never know. There are no guarantees, which really surprised me.”
Harrison here issues a warning to Harriton students and potential college aspirants. Work hard on your applications, “probably even harder than I did. I guess it just wasn’t enough. Since there are no guarantees, if I had to do it over, I wouldn’t be such a slacker; I would apply to 1000 schools, not just the 408 that I did apply to.”
Harrison mused on what might have been.
“I wish I had that magical acceptance letter, the one that means you never have to do any work or go to school ever again, because you have gotten into some college or university. I think at least half of them made a mistake, even though all of the admissions officers keep denying any oversight. They’re so tricky to track down – even when you call their home phones – and even harder to convince that they could possibly make a mistake. Though, on second thought, they are pretty powerful people. They decide the path your ENTIRE LIFE will take. I just don’t know what went wrong.”