Seniors Neeha Kadavakolanu, Ajunee Kohli, and Keerthi Krishnan share their ways in coping with rejections, ways to destress, and the overall environment of college decisions.

Neeha Kadavakolanu:

Motto: Everything happens for a reason.

Ways to destress:
“Some people know the deadlines for when [acceptances for] certain colleges will come out and go to different forums to try to figure it out and I avoid doing that. You already have to think about it when it comes out on that day, so trying not to think about it before really helps me”.
Kadavakolanu also enjoys reading “The Success Principles” by Jack Carfield to put her stress in a more positive light. “That book basically says that you should take responsibility for your life and realize that when things go wrong you should evaluate why they go wrong and try to work on that to improve it”.

Dealing with competition:
“At the end of the day, why? There’s no point in feeling upset and you should focus on your own development. Something that is really reassuring is when you have a good support from people around you — whether it be from your parents or close friends”.

Ajunee Kohli:

Motto: Work hard and whatever comes out of it, you will be okay.

Ways to destress:
“The way I destress is that I watch a lot of Netflix and I love art so I sketch. I like to keep to myself and be alone now to deal with different situations. Everyone has to find their own way to understand themselves, how to deal with things and what helps them. For me, I always loved art and I always knew that art helped me destress. Netflix is sort of a newer thing and I’ve been binge watching some shows. [Future applicants] really need to experiment with their passions and go more deeper into it”.

Facing a rejection:
“For a lot of the schools that I got rejected to, my parents were like ‘You should do an appeal’ even though I know that I don’t want to go there. I kind of have a mindset that I am the one going to college so I should be able to choose what college I want to go to and the decisions I make to get there are also up to me. I don’t let the [school environment] during this time affect me and I focus on other things.”

Keerthi Krishnan:

Motto: Be level-headed.

Ways to destress: “For me when I am trying to destress, I usually do music. I either play the violin or sing for an hour to release my anxiety”.

Receiving an acceptance: “I don’t pride myself on the fact that I got accepted, I am actually grateful. When I got into Riverside with Regents I was checking during Lit and I got in. The amount of happiness cannot even describe how happy I was because it was my first acceptance, so I thought ‘I’m going to college, finally”‘.