If you didn’t make it in

Round 2 is wrapping up. And this is not what you expected.

Columbia came back fast with the first slap across the face. Way back in February, HBS passed you up for an interview invite. Eventually, Wharton did too. Stanford was totally silent, and then you finally got confirmation  this week of what you’d started suspecting, that they said no as well.

Brave Supplicant, EssaySnark understands. It hurts. In fact, it totally sucks. Not getting into bschool can be a really big blow. It feels personal. You laid out yourself in writing and went to all this trouble. You got your hopes up, thinking maybe maybe maybe… in fact, most people assume they will get in somewhere, after all that effort. But then nothing. And man, that… just…. wow.

It’s OK to be sad.

Not that it means anything, and not that we expect it to help any, but EssaySnark is proud of you.

There are a handful of you Brave Supplicants who we had our hopes up for, too. We’ve gotten to know a few of you and we’re disappointed right along with you that you didn’t make it in. (We are not so callous to think that our disappointment is anywhere near what you’re feeling — but we are bummed on your behalf, for what it’s worth.)

But we’re also rather impressed with you.

The fact that you have put in so much time and energy and effort thus far shows that you are committed, and being committed is the MOST IMPORTANT THING. This is true for anything in life. We don’t just mean commitment to this process, commitment to trying to get an MBA, whatever. No. You have shown commitment TO YOURSELF. Whether or not you try for the MBA again, the fact of the matter is that you got off your butt and you did something this past few months. You TRIED. That’s more than what most people ever do.

EssaySnark’s little hoo-rah post probably won’t make you feel all that much better right now. Rejection stings, whether it’s from a love interest or a bschool (over the past few months, the lines between these two categories may have been blurring a bit!). Nothing anyone can say will make it go away.

But hopefully, these little rah-rah cheers will come back to you down the road, maybe a few weeks, maybe many months, maybe it’ll be years. You’ll remember what we said: That you are impressive to us because you gave it a shot. It doesn’t matter if you go for it again. We think there’s something interesting about you that you went for it in the first place.

What the future holds, none of us knows, but the fact that you’re a go-getter, that you’re dissatisfied with the status quo and you want more from life, that you’re willing to put yourself out there, to take a chance and try to make something happen, is in the category of Super-Cool to this here EssaySnark.

You should feel proud of that. ‘Cuz we are.