2min read • 5 months ago
Written By: Bamidele Toluwase
To explore the path of preparing as an applicant, and what it takes to stand against rejections.
Rejection, applicants, Science, grad school, SOP, CV.
Expository Essay
The story of many applicants goes thus: they set out to apply for graduate school, send missiles of applications and only get misses in return. But like a child who is learning to walk, who falls down several times but gets up, so is the journey of an applicant who seeks to improve his/her life. The science of navigating rejections can be hard, but leveraging on numbers and proper research can move the needle in the haystack. In this article, we will dissect what it takes to deal with rejections, how to face it, what to do after rejections, and how to leverage on numbers to win.
You may have heard of this popular parable of a farmer who sets out to plant his crop; some fall on the stony ground, others amidst thorns, and others amidst good grounds.
Such was the story of Kamsi, who from the day she stepped into Calabar's University, under the hot sun as she walked from one class to another, nursed the dream of doing her graduate school abroad. When she had finished the requirements of her course, medical laboratory science, she began the journey of applying for grad school. Her process started in 2022, with the submission of applications for opportunities in the U.S and the UK. That same year all the schools she applied for rejected her, emphasis on ALL. One particular rejection stung; as she made it to the interview stage, she had started spurting the conviction to family and friends that she was going to Oxford, with so much joy in her heart.
“I even went as far as giving my clothes out,” she said.
But in that year, she was also rejected. She mourned like she lost someone; for weeks she cried and bemoaned the opportunity lost, she even felt like a failure. Eventually, Kamsi said to herself: “I’ll try and if I fail, I’ll try again.”
It took another year of applying to several schools before she finally got a yes in 2023/ 2024, where she got accepted into two prestigious universities. In her time of waiting, she went back to the drawing board, took more courses, cried and sulked, but today she learns under the tutelage of professors in the Cambridge University all because she didn't give up.