The Four Stages of College Rejection

Marilyn Gardner Milton’s Latest Blog Entry

As both a parent and education professional, there’s one thing I know never gets any easier: getting rejected from your “dream school”.  On the education blog “chegg”, I recently read an article on the “four stages of getting rejected” from your dream school.  It really struck a chord with me, so I thought I would share them with everybody:

It happens: Waiting for a college letter, whether it’s one of acceptance or rejection, is a nerve-wracking process.  When you get a rejection letter, it’s only natural to feel dejection and sadness, even anger and jealousy.  But you also can’t forget that there are plenty of different factors that play into admissions decisions, something that I know firsthand.  It’s easy to take the decision personally, but the people who read your application often don’t know you and don’t spend more than a few minutes on each application.

Denial: When you get rejected, you often think “it just can’t be”.  Rejection often leaves us bitter, but we need to keep in mind that every rejection is a learning experience.  If you can think of the reason that you didn’t get in, then you can learn from that, which can motivate you to do better in the future and find the best school for you.  Even if this was your “dream school”, that’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of other great schools for you.  Since college is about experiencing new ideas, places and people, getting used to something new should be a good thing!

Acceptance: While you might want to live in denial, ultimately we need to face the fact that it just wasn’t meant to be.  This means going back to the drawing board to assess other options.  As we become focused on the “perfect school” for us, we often overlook the awesome aspects of other schools.  Reevaluate your priorities and look at your college list with a new perspective.  

What will be will be: This might sound cliché, but that’s only because it’s true.  Who knows?  You might meet the love of your life or your best friend at the school you ultimately end up going to, and in the end, the school you go to doesn’t matter in the long run.  Your education is what you make it more than anything else.

from Marilyn Gardner Milton’s Website http://ift.tt/2ogqVZJ

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2njaaML

The Story of Riding Up Front

Marilyn Gardner Milton’s Latest Blog Post

Although America is a “nation of immigrants”, apprehension towards new arrivals and “the other” is nothing new in this country.  When Jewish refugees from Brazil arrived in New Amsterdam (modern-day New York) in the 17th century, governor Pieter Stuyvesant tried to turn them away, even if the colony was a free port whose government officially promoted religious freedom.  Even the “enlightened” Benjamin Franklin wrote with derision about the “stupid, swarthy Germans” who were arriving en masse to Philadelphia in the 18th century.  It seems like not much has changed, especially as official policies and public sentiment around the world becomes more and more hostile to immigrants.  One nonprofit community art blog, Riding Up Front, has been aiming to counter this by telling the stories of immigrant cab drivers through illustrations.

These stories are contributed from people around the world, relaying real-life conversations with immigrant cab drivers.  According to founder Wei-En Tan, herself a Singaporean immigrant living in the US, the blog, which focuses on interactions between cab drivers and passengers, is meant to “humanize” immigrants.  Although the blog started out as a way to counter Trump’s policies, it’s intentionally featured the stories of drivers around the world.  For much of Europe, for example, immigrants are still a relatively new phenomenon, who only began to arrive en masse due to a labor shortage in the aftermath of World War II.  For many countries, this was their first experience with en masse immigration since the fall of the Roman Empire, leading to a rise in xenophobia and far-right nationalism that are only being amplified.  That’s why it’s that much more important to think about immigration from an international perspective.

The site features donation buttons for readers to support the artists, as well as such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Rescue Committee and the American Immigration Council, all of which fight for immigrant rights.  Just a week and a half after launching, it’s received story submissions from more than 30 people and four different artists, a great sign for the site going forward.

If you’d like to learn more, you can click here, or go visit the site itself!

from Marilyn Gardner Milton and Volunteering http://ift.tt/2n9v4wV

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2n9KX6F