You spent a lot of time to search and shortlist the best university for your prospective studies, and took hours to filling out the admission application, writing the personal statements, making academic CV, and taking the required examinations. After all that effort, you waited for months to hear the decision from the university. But unfortunately, you got rejected. So now, how should you handle the rejection?
Don’t worry – in every aspect of life, rejections are part of success. If you are rejected from a specific program of your target university. It doesn’t mean that you are not a suitable candidate for the other universities. A selection committee takes many factors into considerations before making a decision. There can be various reasons why your admission application is rejection, some of the most common reasons can be your application was too generic, too many typos, generic personal statement or your application does not meet the academic threshold. After rejection, instead of feeling sorry about yourself, here are some suggestions which you should follow – right now.
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- Stop feeling frustrated
First things first, you are not alone and it is ok to be rejected, don’t take it personally. Believe me, I have been there — and I can understand exactly how it feels. A large proportion of applicants get rejection from the university — not surprisingly, more than you might imagine! — and that’s a normal part of admissions process. We all know rejection is one of the worst feelings but don’t cut yourself from your social circle and get isolated. Instead, try to spend time with your friends and express your feelings with them, it will help you to overcome the pain of rejection.
- Consider it as a learning experience
As a human, we learn from our past experience. You can count this rejection as a lesson for your next attempts. In the next part of this post, I will share few points that will help you to stand out in future.
- Focus on your strengths
Next time — in your admission application, your major focus should be on your strengths that will help you to stand out from the crowd. For instance, Letter of Motivation is one of the main elements of student application and plays a big role to shows your enthusiasm and motivation towards the chosen program. A student can prove his strength, achievements and potential in admission application through the personal statement. You should ask yourself why you want to pursue a specific program from the selected university. If you answer it honestly in your Letter of Motivation, that will help to strengthen your application. A Letter of Motivation should clearly demonstrate why you are the best candidate for the program and how the chosen program will assist you to achieve your career goals.
Apart from it, avoid all sort of mistakes such meaningless jargon, grammatical errors and typos in the CV that leads to rejection. Academic CV should highlights your accomplishments instead of listing tasks and duties. Moreover, rather than listing the techniques and tools you know, tell how you have used them.
- Improve your weaknesses
Take your time to figure out what can be the major reason behind your rejection. As I mentioned earlier, the reasons can be your application wasn’t specific, a lot of typos, lack of motivation in the personal statement or the academic threshold was too high and your application does not meet it. If you are graduated with a lower CGPA, then there are different ways to compensate the low CGPA. For example, internships, practical trainings, research experience and online courses plays an essential role to strengthen your application.
Related: 6 Powerful Ways to Compensate Low CGPA
- Get expert advice
There are tons of blogs, guidelines and experts’ advises available over the internet. Spend your time efficiently to read the expert advice before submitting an application for the admission. Another option can be finding out a friend, who has already been through the admission process and request him to review your admission application.
- Start online courses
That’s one of the best things you can do – rather than crying and wasting your valuable time after rejection. It is far better to start learning online courses. In modern era, many top universities are offering online courses and you will have to go through the assignment and course work as the students do on campus. Fortunately, completing and mentioning online courses on your CV will make your application more appealing to the admission selection committee.
Related: Top 10 Websites For Free Online Education (MOOCs)
- Keep our eyes on other options
As we heard ‘successful people don’t rely on a single source of income’. The same way, you should also apply for programs in the multiple universities – and there’s nothing wrong with this approach. It will save your time, after all if you get rejected from a single institute — still there will be hopes from the other sides. You might consider them as a backup plan if you get rejected from your prioritized choice, right?
Conclusion
Overall, rejection from a university is not the end of the world – and it does not mean that you are not a good candidate for the other universities. You should take your time to accept what has happened, follow the above mentioned suggestions to improve your application and submit to another school. Don’t be afraid of rejection just try again and win. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford