Caroline Schrama’s family was not shocked that she applied Early Action to Tulane University in New Orleans during her senior year at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station. “It was Tulane, Tulane, Tulane, Tulane,” says her mother, Julie. “She had her heart set.”
It was unrequited love.
Tulane deferred Caroline during its first rounds of decision-making and put her back into the pool of applicants that would compete later in the 2021 school year. Then, it wait-listed her.
“She was crushed … heartbroken,” Julia says. There was crying.
Caroline wound up enrolling in the University of Colorado in Boulder, her second choice, and just finished her freshman year. How did things work out? See how Caroline feels now, and meet six other Long Islanders who were rejected or couldn’t afford their dream schools and were surprised to find their runner-up could also be a perfect match.
Michael Kaplan, 23, Huntington Station, graduated from the Schechter School of Long Island in Williston Park
DREAM SCHOOL Film school at NYU
WHAT HAPPENED He applied Early Decision and was rejected
WHERE HE ENDED UP Ithaca College
“It wasn’t good. I was very unhappy,” Kaplan says of being turned down by NYU. But when he subsequently visited the Ithaca College campus, he loved it. “The second I saw the school and the actual building I would be in for my degree, I forgot all about NYU. What really was the turning point was when I saw the studios, the camera equipment, the film gear. I thought, ‘OK, wow, all of this is at my disposal.'”
WHAT HE’S DOING NOW Kaplan graduated in 2020 and has his own production company called Blue Teddy Productions, making music videos, short films and local ads. He also does voice acting. “It actually all worked out,” he says.
HIS ADVICE Mourn your first choice, and then visit your second choice and see what’s great about it.
Shannon O’Leary, 19, Wantagh, graduated from St. Dominic’s High School in Oyster Bay
DREAM SCHOOL University of Florida
WHAT HAPPENED She didn’t get enough financial aid to make it work, even after she appealed
WHERE SHE ENDED UP University of South Carolina, which gave her in-state tuition
O’Leary was keen on the University of Florida because she’d vacationed in the area and loved it. It was her top choice since her freshman year of high school, she says. “It was a work hard/play hard environment,” she says. She wanted a football team, which none of the New York state schools offered, and she didn’t want to land upstate in the harsh winters, she says. “It was very disappointing,” she says of realizing she wouldn’t attend her dream school because she wasn’t eligible for the same price Floridians paid. South Carolina offered her an academic scholarship that made tuition about the same as New York state school costs, she says. Freshman year went wonderfully, she says. “It was just a very good match for me. I’m doing great academically.” O’Leary joined a sorority and had the chance to go on a medical mission to Guatemala during spring break.
HER ADVICE Dive into your second choice. “A year or two ago, I wasn’t even aware the university existed,” she says. Now, she says she can’t picture herself anywhere else.
Sasheen Hutchinson, 25, Islip, graduated from Islip High School
DREAM SCHOOL Farmingdale State College or St. John’s University
WHAT HAPPENED She was turned down by both
WHERE SHE ENDED UP LIU Post
Some people had suggested maybe Hutchinson should consider a trade because she graduated high school with a C average, she says. But she wanted a college degree. “My last resort was LIU Post,” Hutchinson says. She was offered a full-tuition scholarship from the Higher Education Opportunity Program. She thought, “Let me make the best of it.” She had intended to study nursing but became interested in criminal justice and graduated from Post in 2018, where she made connections that led her to enroll in a master’s degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “I actually had a great time there,” she says of undergraduate institution.
WHAT SHE’S DOING NOW She is working from the TSA at JFK Airport while applying for jobs as a juvenile probation officer.
HER ADVICE "Never take ‘no’ as something disappointing. Just take it as your next step to your ‘yes.’”
James Connor, 19, Northport, graduated from Northport High School
DREAM SCHOOL Massachusetts Institute of Technology
WHAT HAPPENED He applied Early Action and was deferred, then rejected
WHERE HE ENDED UP Georgia Tech
Connor recognized early on how difficult it would be to get into M.I.T., so he says he pushed himself in academics, extra-curriculars and community service during all four years of high school. He graduated in the top 10 students, got a 1460 on his SATs, and became an emergency medical technician. “I was almost kind of counting on getting into that school,” he says of M.I.T. When he was deferred, he says it was “a bit of a reality check.” When he was later rejected, he was crushed. “That was really a brutal moment for me,” he says. What made it worse was that he was also not given a spot at other uber-competitive schools with computer science programs including Carnegie Mellon University, Cal Tech and Stanford University. He calls Georgia Tech not his second choice, but his ninth. He enrolled for freshman year thinking he would apply to transfer. But after arriving, “I realized how much opportunity there was for me,” he says. He got involved in the university’s new School of Cyber Security and Privacy, and he immediately lent his experience to a budding program of EMTs on campus — he’s now taken over as president. “From an academic and extracurricular standpoint, I have pretty much fallen in love with this school,” he says. Not only does he not want to transfer, he’s planning to stay on for a master’s degree.
HIS ADVICE “I kind of learned over the course of this that life is going to throw you some curveballs sometimes. Sometimes it ends up being better than you could have possibly hoped for.”
Jolie Zindman, 21, Rockville Centre, graduated from Southside High School in Rockville Centre
DREAM SCHOOL Lehigh University in Pennsylvania
WHAT HAPPENED She was accepted, but it was too expensive
WHERE SHE ENDED UP Fairfield University in Connecticut
Zindman had been planning to go to dental school, and she liked Lehigh’s biology department and the school’s connection to the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. But the financial aid she got from Fairfield was far better. “My parents would have helped me make that dream happen,” she says of Lehigh. But, she says, “it made so much sense to save tons of money and go to Fairfield.” After she arrived for freshman year, she realized she didn’t want to take chemistry anymore, and she changed her major to public relations. She had the chance to start and lead PR and communications clubs on campus. “I never knew that this would be my path,” she says. She graduated this spring and will be working for an agency in New York City that does influencer marketing.
HER ADVICE “I’m so happy where I ended up. I don’t want anybody to lose hope if they’re not quite sure about their decision or what’s coming next for them in their student life.”
Imran Jan, 23, Lindenhurst, graduated from Lindenhurst High School
DREAM SCHOOL Stony Brook University
WHAT HAPPENED He was rejected
WHERE HE ENDED UP Farmingdale State College
“The reason I wanted to go to Stony Brook was most of my friend group wanted to go there,” Jan says. He also liked the campus tour, where the school extolled its faculty, labs and research opportunities. “They said all these fancy things,” Jan says. And lastly, he wanted to live in a dorm so he could “experience some freedom.” When he was rejected, he says he felt “horrible” and “defeated,” and he questioned if college was even right for him. When he got accepted at Farmingdale, he says he wasn’t excited because he was still smarting. But Jan took advantage of Farmingdale's research opportunities, he says. He joined a community service club and a club for Middle Eastern and Asian students. He became a peer leader for underclassmen. “It brought me out of my shell,” he says of Farmingdale. “I used to be really shy and now I’m outspoken. If I did go to Stony Brook, I don’t think I would be the same person I am.”
WHAT HE’S DOING NOW In August he starts a Ph.D. program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he plans to study either cancer biology or immunology.
HIS ADVICE “Everything happens for a reason; I strongly believe in that. You’re going to find your people.”
Caroline Schrama, 18, Huntington, graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station
DREAM SCHOOL Tulane University
WHAT HAPPENED She was wait-listed
WHERE SHE ENDED UP University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business
When Schrama knew she’d been deferred by Tulane, she started to look at other options more closely, realizing she could not “put all my eggs in one basket,” she says. She was resigned to the situation; many of her friends had been rejected from the same school and others. The Schrama family had gone on ski vacations to Colorado, and she knew she loved the outdoor lifestyle and the mountains, so she looked at colleges there. The Leeds School of Business — endowed by the Leeds family, which founded CMP Media on Long Island — seemed to be a highly competitive environment that would challenge her. “I got more excited over time,” she says. During her freshman year at Boulder, she says she earned good grades, joined a sorority and clubs, and did a lot of hiking and skiing. Today, Schrama calls CU Boulder “the best choice I could have made, honestly."
HER ADVICE Know that you may end up having no regrets at all. "I am so, so happy with my school. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
