The Student Room Group

How did you deal with university rejection?

I haven't experienced rejection yet. But, with my wholly British and negative attitude, I am anticipating some form of rejection this year. I have applied to some universities which are very hard to get in. (1 in 25 of applicants are successful in my course at Bristol!) :bricks:

Another place I applied to gives out rejections and offers on Christmas Eve. Luckily I don't have my heart set on anywhere in particular, but I'm just not sure how I will take it.

I don't want to carry a stigma with certain cities just because I didn't get into their uni! Or carry a feeling of resentment..

Do you have any tips to share with university applicants this year?
(edited 12 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Original post by ohdeer
I haven't experienced rejection yet. But, with my wholly British and negative attitude, I am anticipating some form of rejection this year. I have applied to some universities which are very hard to get in. (1 in 25 are successful in my course at Bristol!) :bricks:

Another place I applied to gives out rejections and offers on Christmas Eve. Luckily I don't have my heart set on anywhere in particular, but I'm just not sure how I will take it.

I don't want to carry a stigma with certain cities just because I didn't get into their uni! Or carry a feeling of resentment..

Do you have any tips to share with university applicants this year?


To be honest you won't get over it at first, until you got all your offers and in time you set your heart on your new 1st choice firm and plan out everything as long as everything goes to plan. Or you could hope for a place in clearing which'll depend completely
(edited 12 years ago)
first rejection: didn't really care cos it was my home town and i wanted to move away
second rejection: got it after what was a pretty good interview so didn't care
third one: was from the uni with the pretty good interview, cried
fourth one: came the day after, cried some more

:tongue:

but it hasn't really bothered me too much now, reapplying to 3 out of 4 of those unis
Outrage, pure and simple.
Reply 4
Original post by atomos
first rejection: didn't really care cos it was my home town and i wanted to move away
second rejection: got it after what was a pretty good interview so didn't care
third one: was from the uni with the pretty good interview, cried
fourth one: came the day after, cried some more

:tongue:

but it hasn't really bothered me too much now, reapplying to 3 out of 4 of those unis


out of pure interest, did u not meet the entry requirements or was it because the subject medicine is just so competitive?
Reply 5
Original post by ohdeer
:bricks:



This emoticon made me :teehee: and at the same time :s-smilie: + :frown:

Random :ninja:
Reply 6
Got rejected after my results from my first choice and my insuarance.
I cried. Cried some more. Then went and spent a hell of a lot of money. Finished by getting suitably drunk at home with my best friend.
I got really upset, and withdrew my whole ucas application just because my favourite didn't accept me... -fail

And a piece of advice: definetly don't do this, especially if the fees are going to be three times as high in the next year..
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by Tobyfcb
out of pure interest, did u not meet the entry requirements or was it because the subject medicine is just so competitive?


because it's so competitive, i met, and at some unis exceeded the entry requirements :dontknow:
I took it really well. I spoke to a couple of girls who were good enough for oxbridge but didn't apply because they didn't think they could face the possiblity of rejection, that seems crazy to me. Some people take rejection personally and feel anger or lose confidence. I thought of it as taking a shot at it and if I got rejected then at least I tried. When I got rejected from places I didn't feel too bad, it felt like losing a bet of £100 or something, it isn't nice at first but once you have a walk around for a bit and take a hot bath it feels fine and after a nights sleep your totally over it.
Reply 10
I only got rejected from the one university I had actually wanted to go to (i'd been getting the prospectus since I was in year 10) I'd had my heart so set on that university that I hadn't even considered the possibility that I could be rejected. So when that track update came through, I pretty much fell apart. I took to my bed for about two days and refused to be rational.

Although very quickly I accepted that it was a very over subscribed course, and at the end of the day the people got offers would have deserved them. I am now so happy at Manchester which is where I am now, ad cannot imagine being anywhere else.

Sorry for the essay, but what i'm trying to say is that whilst it may feel like the end of the world when you first get rejected, everything does have a way of sorting itself out :smile:
I pooped my pants a little, then carried on playing COD.
Reply 12
Original post by atomos
first rejection: didn't really care cos it was my home town and i wanted to move away
second rejection: got it after what was a pretty good interview so didn't care
third one: was from the uni with the pretty good interview, cried
fourth one: came the day after, cried some more

:tongue:

but it hasn't really bothered me too much now, reapplying to 3 out of 4 of those unis


I fear i'll be in the same situation as you were last year (i'm also a med applicant) :/ it's difficult to be positive when you see the statistics and the fact that for 1 place they're 25 applicants *sigh*
where have you applied? :smile:
Reply 13
First one, was surprised and upset - had been thinking for months that that was the one I was most likely to get into.
Second one, wasn't surprised, but still upset. Was my favourite, but I knew from a month or so after I applied that to get a place was VERY unlikely.
Third, again, wasn't surprised, but didn't particularly enjoy it :/
Fourth, not surprised, VERY upset, cried a lot. Tried to move on and think about reapplying :smile:

So far this year, had no rejections... but there is plenty of time yet :frown:
Reply 14
I was really hurt for a few days - especially as I exceeded the entrance requirements by loads! But then as time went on and I got another offer from my eventual firm, it bothered me less. I still don't know why they rejected me, but you can always request a reason why if you really feel it was a mistake on their part.
When I missed the grades for my firm choice, I was very upset. However, I then saw it as a blessing in disguise. Because I went to my insurance, I have much more time to do things that I never got a chance to do, realised that after I graduate, I don't want to do a maths postgrad course but instead go into astrophysics :moon: and also living and studying in London is brilliant :biggrin:
Reply 16
Original post by ohdeer
I haven't experienced rejection yet. But, with my wholly British and negative attitude, I am anticipating some form of rejection this year. I have applied to some universities which are very hard to get in. (1 in 25 are successful in my course at Bristol!) :bricks:

Another place I applied to gives out rejections and offers on Christmas Eve. Luckily I don't have my heart set on anywhere in particular, but I'm just not sure how I will take it.

I don't want to carry a stigma with certain cities just because I didn't get into their uni! Or carry a feeling of resentment..

Do you have any tips to share with university applicants this year?


It was a little bit disappointing for me, but once I had a concrete plan of what I was doing I was too busy/excited/nervous to even think about the unis that rejected me, so I would say you do get over it pretty quickly
Original post by emcero
I only got rejected from the one university I had actually wanted to go to (i'd been getting the prospectus since I was in year 10) I'd had my heart so set on that university that I hadn't even considered the possibility that I could be rejected. So when that track update came through, I pretty much fell apart. I took to my bed for about two days and refused to be rational.

Although very quickly I accepted that it was a very over subscribed course, and at the end of the day the people got offers would have deserved them. I am now so happy at Manchester which is where I am now, ad cannot imagine being anywhere else.

Sorry for the essay, but what i'm trying to say is that whilst it may feel like the end of the world when you first get rejected, everything does have a way of sorting itself out :smile:

Exactly right. I ended up at Manchester too, and feel exactly the same way.
Reply 18
Original post by emcero
I only got rejected from the one university I had actually wanted to go to (i'd been getting the prospectus since I was in year 10) I'd had my heart so set on that university that I hadn't even considered the possibility that I could be rejected. So when that track update came through, I pretty much fell apart. I took to my bed for about two days and refused to be rational.

Although very quickly I accepted that it was a very over subscribed course, and at the end of the day the people got offers would have deserved them. I am now so happy at Manchester which is where I am now, ad cannot imagine being anywhere else.

Sorry for the essay, but what i'm trying to say is that whilst it may feel like the end of the world when you first get rejected, everything does have a way of sorting itself out :smile:


where did u get rejected from?
Original post by jasqur
I fear i'll be in the same situation as you were last year (i'm also a med applicant) :/ it's difficult to be positive when you see the statistics and the fact that for 1 place they're 25 applicants *sigh*
where have you applied? :smile:


don't worry too much, once the application's sent there's not much you can do than hope for interviews :tongue:
and if you have to reapply, a gap year's not the end of the world!

this year i've applied to edinburgh, glasgow, aberdeen and dundee
last year i applied to st andrews instead of glasgow

Quick Reply

Latest