I made a chart to show how ridiculous college acceptance rates are

[Here is the chart] (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vThkB-iRs5ha2TIWOm79sTcBS40EQBE76EBRwKUK01LMC_xlqftWdrUpRwjlykG2oCoiHAO3cmThJmi/pubchart?oid=297907989&format=image)

As decisions approach, I thought it would be nice to remind everyone that the letter you get does not define you, and this process is a crapshoot for even the most talented kids.

Many of us (myself included) may not fully grasp how absurdly difficult it is to get into elite schools. At UCLA, for instance, their acceptance rate of ~20% means that for every admitted student, there are about 4 students that don't make the cut. Simple enough. Cornell, with a 14% acceptance rate, has about 6 students rejected for every person accepted.

The trend worsens significantly as you move down the line—MIT, at 8%, rejects almost 12 applicants for every 1 it accepts. And Stanford? That number shoots up to 20. I am a perfectly good applicant, but can I honestly expect that out of 20 Stanford applications, I will be the lucky one they pick?

These schools, in all their glory, make life-altering decisions with shockingly little information. If you don't make it into your dream school, life will march on. You will recover. Try to not be hard on yourself if the overworked AOs don't split hairs in your favor. You never know if you don't go, and at least you got your name in the hat.