Option three: The wait list
The first Saturday of spring break, I casually walked outside to check the mail. As I flipped past random junk mail, a small envelope caught my eye — it was from one of the colleges I applied to.
In general, you want a big envelope, since that usually means you get congratulations from colleges on your acceptance, along with a bunch of forms to fill out and handbooks to give you a more formal introduction of the college and the city or town it’s located in. A small envelope, not so good. My first rejection, I thought to myself.
I wasn’t completely correct. Instead of an outright rejection, I was given the option of being put on the infamous wait list, the place where hundreds of other applicants are put. Being on the wait list or even rejected doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t qualified. Most everyone there is just as good as the people who got accepted. It’s really like the lottery. You can almost never be absolutely certain that you got in.
I wasn’t particularly mad. According to the numbers given in the letter, less than 10 percent of applicants were accepted. Plus, the major I applied for was an incredibly popular and famous one at the school. To top it off, the signature appeared to have been written in by hand, which I suppose makes it more personal. Having to write your name a few thousand times doesn’t seem like the best way to spend a day in the office.
Soon afterward, I searched the Web for ways to possibly make me stand out from the list, so to speak. One of them suggested I write a brief letter to the director/dean of admissions just reconfirming my interest in the school. So here I go, reliving the college application process, just after I thought I could forget about the whole thing.
— Benjamin Fu