Motivation from Rejection

I have made this thread so people can share their rejection stories from universities and to help keep people motivated for exams in the summer.

Good idea

When I applied to uni last year I was rejected by 3 of my 5 choices and I was devastated. The last rejection I got was from St Andrews and I’d been holding onto hope that I might get in for months, only to be rejected right at the end. I actually cried after that ngl. I really wasn’t excited about my 4th choice and decided to take a gap year and apply to a completely different set of more realistic ‘match’ unis (I kept Glasgow as my safety and Oxford as my reach) and disregarded a lot of the bad advice I’d been given the first time about personal statements and focused more on what uni websites said. I haven’t heard back from all of this year’s unis but I did get into both Oxford and Glasgow this time. I’m honestly not trying to brag, just trying to say that rejection(s) is not an indicator of your worth, academic potential or intelligence. It’s only a judgement of that one application in comparison with many others and luck plays a huge role too. So if you have been rejected but still plan on going to one of your other choices, don’t give up, getting into uni as a whole is a great achievement and opportunity that many don’t have. But, if you’re really not happy with how UCAS went, there are other options such as reapplying and getting the best grades possible this year will really open doors for next year’s application. Good luck! (Also please tell me in full bluntness if this comes off as patronising or anything, I really don’t mean to be 😅)

Honestly, when I looked through universities, I had to narrow my choices from 13 unis to 5. So when I got rejected from Leeds, I found that it just helps me to find the uni best fitting for me. Yes, of course it would have been a good opportunity to go into a Russell Group Uni or learn that mixture of that course but overall, I think it helps me to decide between my 'remained' universities, which all of them I'd love to go to.

Thanks for your story and it doesn't sound patronising at all. I am also considering taking a year out, but then unsure as I still have good universities that have accepted me.