At this point, most of the Rosary seniors are finished with college applications, and the waiting game has begun. Where will seniors get in, and where will seniors be turned away? With college rejections comes the question: why did that college reject me? What did I do wrong? Luckily, a college can only reject a student once. However, let me share with you the story of my mom’s college application process, and I think the outcome may surprise you.

When my mom was applying to college, it was a lot easier to get into the college of your choice simply because not as many people applied back then. She applied to USC, the University of Notre Dame, UCLA, and the University of San Diego (USD). USC, UCLA, and Notre Dame. Most of these schools accepted her, and she decided on USC. It was only USD that denied her acceptance. And you may think this is the end of her college application story, except it’s not.

In July, a month after my mom’s first letter of rejection from USD, she got another letter of rejection. It was the exact same letter from the first time and the only thing that was different was the day that it was sent. 

The next year as my mom was finishing up her second semester at USC, her mom (my grandma) told my mom that a representative from USD had called their house. My grandma told my mom that USD wanted to talk to her about her application. Then my mom called USD and spoke to the representative and was told that her application was pending and that USD needed her SAT scores. My mom was understandably confused since she had already been rejected twice and when asked if she was still interested in attending USD, she told them no, and the representative told my mom she would close her application. 

And then, two weeks later, my mom got the exact same letter of rejection with the same three sentences just with a different date. 

Now, fast forward to 2021 when it was my turn to go through the college application process. I applied to many different schools and one of them happened to be USD. Anyway, right before Christmas, I received a decision from Pepperdine, which is my dream school. I was accepted, and from that moment on knew where I was going to college. But even after being accepted to my dream school, I couldn’t help but wonder about USD. Would they reject me just like my mom? Or would they accept me? 

On the first of March, I received a decision from USD, and I opened my applicant portal to an acceptance letter. And at that moment, I knew that my mom’s college application saga would finally come to a satisfying conclusion. Even though my mom may have been rejected three times, it was now my turn to turn down USD and give my mom’s story a satisfying ending.

However, before I end this article, I just want to make one thing clear. This article is meant to be taken lightly, and in no way am I trying to be disrespectful towards USD. USD is an amazing school with wonderful opportunities, which is why I applied in the first place. Rather, this article is meant to be seen as funny. And I hope that all of you enjoyed hearing about my mom’s interesting college application story as much as I enjoyed writing about it.