Fallouts of Uni/Scholarship Applications

Recently, I have had a class gathering with my old Y5/6 NUSHS class when I was told that there are people who are in salty (otherwise known as shocked and in disbelief) that I was given an offer to study Law at NUS (the SMU Law offer was less surprising), making me one of the very few from my cohort to get offers from both local Law Schools.

Honestly, while it is certainly not healthy for a friendship to involve "salt", I do understand where this friend is coming from.

At least 8 people from my cohort applied to NUS Law, of which 3 got offers. The other 2 turned down their offers, one to go overseas on scholarship, the other to fulfill the scope of his scholarship. That leaves only me from my cohort to enter NUS Law.

For the 2 that turned down the NUS offers, I fully recognize their abilities to have been good lawyers, as they have performed very well in English while in school. I have also participated in MUNs with them during my MUN-ning stints, and found them to have done very well. I wish them the best, whether they choose to pursue Law, or otherwise.

Perhaps I was the most surprising of the 3, having only average English scores throughout my 6 years in NUSHS. It is not with surprise then that people would be shocked that I get the offer. In fact, I personally believe that my academic and language abilities pales in comparison even to some of those who did not get the NUS Law offer. This is not to say that I don't think I deserve the offer, rather I think that at least one or two others who applied deserve the offer more than me.

Furthermore, I have had my own levels of salt regarding Uni Applications too. Till this day I am still rather unhappy with the fact that I was not awarded with any scholarship. Certainly, I respect the decisions of the scholarship boards, for they are the subject matter experts. 

However, I was just extremely confused that one of the big scholarships from Singapore was awarded to someone, in my personal view, much less deserving than me. I'm not saying that for certain I deserve the scholarship (in fact I probably don't), but there are other candidates more deserving than me who were also passed up for the scholarship in view of this less deserving person. While I have long accepted the results, I cannot say I have stopped feeling salty confused over the matter.

But I guess this is how uni applications work. It is indeed very subjective. You could have the perfect portfolio, perfect essay, but still bum up at the interview and get rejected. It could also be your teacher recommendation that turns on you, or something maybe even out of your control. But you will never know why you got rejected/accepted, because most universities and scholarship boards do not entertain enquiries on decisions on confidentiality grounds.

The "salty" feeling probably comes from
  1. The amount of expectation one puts on him/herself based on how hard he/she worked during the application period
  2. How one perceives oneself against the applicant pool (especially those around him/her competing against him/her)
  3. How subjective the application process is
  4. How one will never know why one is accepted or rejected
In conclusion, the fact that there's competition means that someone has to win, and someone has to lose. This is the ugly truth about uni/scholarship applications, not everyone can get what they want. It is also because of this that negative emotions start to form, since everyone wants to win. This does not just apply in terms of application, but in the real world too. I honestly don't blame others for feeling salty over what I have achieved, for I know that I have my own reasons for feeling salty too.

Man, some universities are degree mills. Others are salt mills.

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