Note: I am sorry that I am writing this during a time when a lot of people got rejected from their dream schools while I am here talking about a good thing that happened to me. For those that are rejected, understand that you will find a better school that fits you in the coming months! For those deferred, understand that there are so many options out there, and do not limit yourself to one school.
Today MIT's early action results came out at 3:14 PM Eastern Time (pi=3.14, get it). I live in California, so it came out at 12:14 PM. The hours leading up to 12:14 PM were excruciating. I spent hours thinking about the fact that my rejection was going to happen, yet one part of my mind kept telling me, "What if you got in?" I felt like my heart was about to burst any minute. I couldn't focus on anything, which meant I couldn't even study Chemistry Olympiad. I hated myself for doing nothing in the entire morning. I feel silly to exaggerate the waiting period, but for me, it felt like I knew the world was going to end. Looking back, the anxiety I felt reminded me of these lyrics from Bastille's song, Pompeii:
And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Grey clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above
After getting rejected from Caltech last Saturday, I was prepared for the worst. I told myself a million times that it was foolish of me to even consider getting into MIT.
An hour before the results, I passed the time by finishing the Christmas Carol (the right time of the year) and continued reading The Chinese in America by Iris Chang. Then I saw the time was 12:00 PM. Great. I will have to confront the scariest thing in my life. During the 5 minutes leading up to the decision, I breathed rapidly. I spent a few minutes staring at my computer clock, watching the seconds tick by. My mom yells from downstairs, asking me whether she should record it. I tell her, "Mom, please don't record it. I won't even get in." My mom understood and respected my choice.
12:14 PM. Results were out. I wondered why didn't Petey the admissions officer post the statistics because I wanted to read that blog post before looking at my decision, but I decided to check. My breathing became even more rapid. I could hear my heartbeat. I repeated to myself what the first sentences in the deferral and rejection letter would look like. My finger clicked on the update.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Green and blue confetti were on the screen. I didn't even need to read the first part of the sentence to know what was happening. I rapidly ran down the stairs to tell my mom the good news. For the first time in my life, I screamed out of pure joy. This was also the case for my mom. At that point, I stopped caring about how loud my mom or I screamed. I mean, when is the next time I will receive such crazy news?
After the screaming ended, I typed a funny comment on the admitted early thread that I got rejected by Caltech. It was nice that random students around the country or world told me in the thread that they also got rejected by Caltech but accepted by MIT. When I saw the MIT bloggers like Lydia '14 and Cami '23 congratulate me, the whole thing felt surreal. Although I was happy about the recent news, I was concerned MIT made some mistakes. As you may know, a couple of colleges ranging from Carnegie Mellon to Johns Hopkins accidentally sent acceptances in the past couple of years. I prayed that MIT didn't do such a thing. Thankfully, the admissions officers reassured me that there was no mistake and that I should go celebrate.
For the rest of the afternoon, I sent emails thanking my teachers and counselors along with other important mentors. The fear that everything was a mistake still lingered with me, so I refreshed my mail every 30 minutes or so to make sure that MIT did not send some letter saying that I did not get in. I guess I will still be doing this until Monday * even though I received an email 3 hours later from admitted@mit.edu.
As I am writing this blog, I still feel like the whole thing is a dream. To be honest, one factor behind my acceptance was luck. I bet there were so many talented students out there that could have gotten in but they got deferred. If I told my freshman self that I was going to MIT, I bet that past self wouldn't believe it. When I visited MIT in the summer of 2017, I couldn't imagine myself studying at this rigorous school. I thought the architecture was uninspiring and that I wasn't even qualified to be a student there. My feelings have cooled down, but I think it will take a week or so for me to accept that this MIT acceptance is not a dream but a reality.
After receiving this good news, I am so happy to not have to write my regular applications. Looking back, it is pretty hilarious how I thought I was going to do Johns Hopkins ED 2 a day before decision results. Despite having less work, I am not going to be lazy during winter break. I am not sure if other early admits (not just MIT, but other schools) feel this, but I feel like I have more pressure to do well second semester because most likely my teachers will know that I got in. And this means pressure to keep excelling in Science Olympiad and Chemistry Olympiad. Now, I don't think this is a bad thing. I really can't waste my senior year second semester because I need solid foundations for college. Therefore, I need to keep working hard on my AP exams and IB exams.
While it sounds like I am attending MIT, it is too early for me to decide and accept the offer. I will apply to another school during regular and wait for UC results. Nevertheless, I am excited to visit other people in the class of 2025 tomorrow on Facebook live.
*It is 8:45 PM here and nothing like that has happened so I assume there was no mistake...
Comments
Post a Comment