When I was applying to Colleges last year I knew I already my top three, they had been my top three since the beginning of junior year.

1. University of Maryland
2. Catholic University of America
3. Stevenson University

In total I applied to nine schools, but from the start I knew if I got into any of my top three I would attend those schools. When I applied to Maryland I was absolutely confident in my scores, grades, essay and recommendation letters; overall I thought I was the perfect candidate. I thought that I would have been the perfect Terp! I had always wanted to attend UMD; I remember when I was in second grade my class and I went on a field trip to UMD and we were able to go on a campus tour and go trick or treating on Fraternity Row. Later that day I got home and I told my mom that I wanted to go to University of Maryland when I was older. Maryland was officially my dream school.

The anticipation of getting my acceptance letters was the worst, I got accepted into Stevenson very early, but I had to wait till December for many of my other acceptances. Many of my friends and I checked our emails and our mail daily to see if we had heard back from any of the schools we had applied to. I remember the day that I got rejected from UMD like it was yesterday, it was on a Friday in January. My boyfriend, who attended UMD, at the time had called me to tell me that the applications were up on UMD’s website. I remember shaking as I typed in my password to see if I had finally got into my dream school. I remember reading the words “we regret to inform you” and I knew that it was over. I didn’t get in. I remember having to tell my mom that I didn’t get in and she told me that everything would be okay and that I had still applied to eight other schools. But they weren’t Maryland, I honestly thought no other school would compare to Maryland. Having to go to school and hear that all my other friends were accepted into UMD absolutely crushed me. I was the only one in my friend group who did not get accepted.

I began to grow into a state of depression after that, I felt so unwanted. But after crying for countless hours I began to realize that it wasn’t the end of the world. I had been accepted to plenty of other great schools like Stevenson and Catholic. I ended up putting my deposit down for Stevenson and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m almost done with my first semester here at Stevenson and I’m absolutely in love with my school. I realized that getting rejected from UMD was an amazing start to my future. There’s more out there then your first choice. Turns out that my third choice is now the perfect place for me. I used to constantly think about what if I did go to UMD, but then I remind myself that if I didn’t go to Stevenson then I wouldn’t have met all the amazing people that are in my life now.

Yeah getting into my first choice would’ve been great, but I found my home and I wouldn’t change it for the world.