By now, you should have hopefully received all of your uni offers for next year. For some people, it may have gone great. You may have got all of your offers and have accepted a place at your first choice. However, for other people, it may not have gone as well. You may have unfortunately been rejected from your dream uni and this can be an incredibly difficult fact to process. I know this because it happened to me.
When I was applying to university last year, I received four out of five offers within roughly a month of sending my application to UCAS. However, I didn’t receive my last decision for another 6 months. That decision happened to be from my dream university. It turns out, their decision was a rejection. It was difficult to process at the time, especially as I had to go straight into an exam mere minutes after finding out that I had been rejected (wouldn’t recommend that- it’s not fun). Ultimately, though, I’d say it turned out for the best. I’m now at a university that I love, doing a degree that I love. I’ve met so many amazing people and made some amazing, life-long friends. So, here’s advice on how to get over being rejected from your dream uni, written by someone who was rejected from their dream uni.
Allow yourself to be sad
It’s difficult to process being rejected from your dream uni. This is especially if you’ve had to wait a long time for the decision, just as I did. So, take some time to process the decision and allow yourself to feel sad. I’m sure you have worked so hard and you may have been rejected by the uni through no fault of your own. Letting your disappointment at being rejected bottle up will only cause you more pain. Acknowledge what happened and allow yourself the time to process it.
Embrace what comes next:
You didn’t get into your top school. So what? There are at most four other schools that did accept you, and you should embrace this new opportunity with open arms. I’m now at what was originally my third choice school during the application process. Looking back on it, I think that deciding to come to the uni where I am now is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. While going to a different uni won’t have been what you were dreaming about, you never know what may happen or who you may meet. There are so many possibilities, so you should embrace them.
Don’t let it define you
Rejections are a part of life, that’s unfortunately just a fact. As sad as it may be to be rejected from your dream uni, it can help to prepare you for the inevitability of more rejections later in life. It’s incredibly unlikely that you will know the actual reason why you were rejected. While it’s important to allow yourself to process the rejection, moving on, once you’re ready, and not letting it define you is an important thing. Obsessing over the reasons why you may have been rejected will only cause you more stress and anxiety in the long run.
Coming to terms with being rejected from your dream uni is a difficult thing, but it’s not on you. It’s their loss for not accepting you. There are other schools that have offered you and want you at their institutions. While it may seem like the world has ended because you were rejected from your dream uni, you should allow yourself to embrace whatever comes next. Who knows, it may be even better than what you were expecting.
Last Updated on September 2, 2022
Published on March 15, 2022
A student from University of Nottingham.
