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The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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Reject the Rejection Wall

"Did you know Kathleen was rejected from UCSB?"

"Really? I thought she was smart."

Although this brief conversation was entirely made-up, I can easily picture such gossip circulating if the Student Activities Board proceeds with its plan to create a rejection wall. The proposed board would feature rejection letters from colleges to students. I have several problems with this idea. First, it has serious potential to offend students through gossip; second, it serves as another reminder of how students aren’t meeting their own expectations; and third, on a more logical note, I don’t believe that Student Activities can round up enough letters to even get the wall started.

I think the rejection wall has the potential to foster a spirit of bad feelings between seniors. Most schools have not sent out their regular decision letters, but already, I have listened to many of my peers discussing fellow seniors acceptances, rejections and deferrals from colleges. Their words are, most often, not pretty.

"He doesn’t deserve to go there!"

"Wow, isn’t it hella easy to get in?"

I can already picture people heading up to the student activities office simply to scope out the colleges where people weren’t accepted. If people do this, it defeats the purpose of the board entirely. The point of the wall is to reassure seniors that "everyone gets rejected, you shouldn’t feel bad about being rejected." I think, through experience and after thirteen years of formal schooling, seniors already know that much. Everyone has experienced failure in his or her life. How is looking at other people’s failures, in black and white, helpful?

This brings me to my second problem with the proposed rejection wall; it serves to highlight students’ shortcomings. Paly is already a highly competitive environment, academically and otherwise. Students feel the pressure to perform in their classes, their extracurricular activities, and even in their social lives. It seems foolish then, to highlight their failures. If anything, seeing where others were rejected may conjure up the feelings students first had upon receiving their own rejections.

From a realistic perspective, how can the wall work anyway? Apparently they won’t post any letters until they have collected approximately fifty of them, but how are they going to get that many? Who wants to publicize their rejection? Speaking as a senior, I don’t plan on posting my rejection letters for the student body to gawk at. There are only about 350 seniors, are there actually fifty willing to make their rejection public? It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but many people won’t want to share this personal and potentially stigmatic information with their peers.

The argument that "the rejection wall has worked at other schools" does not comfort me. From experience, (I transferred here my junior year) I know that Paly is a more competitive environment than many schools. Just because the wall has worked at other schools doesn’t mean that it is a good idea for Paly.

Ditch the idea of the rejection wall. People shouldn’t feel bad about being rejected, but if they do, I don’t believe that this will make them feel better.

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