When I applied for a select few colleges this year, I was pretty sure that I would get selected in atleast one of them. But as always, life throws up unexpected situations. I had to stop my application process midway for few colleges. And the others, I was not even called for an interview. While I had prepared myself for rejections from colleges, I was in no way prepared for rejection at the pre-interview stage. This despite having a “good” score in the exams and a decent profile in terms of work experience. My initial reaction was total shock and disbelief. I had no backup plans and that did not help things either.
While I am not yet totally ”out of the woods”, I am quite positive that everything will end well. I also realised that for each “success story” of MBA candidates published in the internet, there are ten unpublished stories of candidates not making it. In other words, get inspired by the success stories; do not get carried away by them.
But for people like me out there in a similar situation, the following is what I have learnt from this experience.
1) Re-visit your TRUE purpose for MBA. Is it still valid? Do you still agree with that purpose? ( If you do not have a TRUE purpose, find out that first. It actually helps you to progress further.
2) If your purpose is valid, what are the other ways of achieving this “purpose” without having to do a MBA. If it is a career shift, can it be done by taking some other courses / certifications? If it is a job change within the same industry, can you make some changes to your profile to get that dream job instead of ploughing through a MBA? If it is about proving yourself to somebody, can some other “activity” convince them? If it is to escape the effects of recession, can any other courses help?
3) Check if you are ready to wait for one more year to do a MBA. This means that you will have to retake entrance exams (if any) and go through the entire admission process again. This also means that you will be graduating one year later.
4) If you cannot wait for one more year, check for colleges with the admission cycle still open. These colleges might not exactly be what you wanted and you might have to compromise in a few areas. You might not have enough time to find out where you have to compromise. In those cases, just apply to the college while researching simultaneously. You will still have time later to decide if you want to actually join them.
All said and done, coming to terms with a rejection can be difficult (atleast initially). Taking a break, or better, indulging yourself along with a positive attitude definitely helps… 
