What will you do after receiving rejection letter? I'm feeling dying.

[Qunerzhizhi]

I'm applying for city planning related programs and I received my 1st rejection letter this morning from UCB. I know this program is highly competitive but still badly frustrated. It might be a little bit overreacting but it's how I'm feeling. This is my first application and the rejection lost all my confidence and hope for all my other schools. All the other institutes are more competitive than UCB I think and I haven't received the early notice from Upenn (the most matching one), which probably means that I have already been rejected, thus I have sent a Schrödinger's email to ask for the bad result. Hours before,  I was still imagining about the life in Boston but now I can see the picture that I'm bursting out the next month, failing my thesis, staying at home for the rest of my life and watching all my friends get admissions.I have been losing bunch of hair everyday since submission and you can feel it's getting unreasonably thinner, just because I'm worrying for no reasons or the reason that I want to escape from. As an international applicant, I gave up the opportunity for Phd candidate and took a great deal of courage to applying for universities in USA. I know I should do something but just don;t know want to do to get normal again...

[pnguyen540]

I was in the same situation where my top choice is also the first school that rejected me. I know beforehand that the program is highly competitive and it is a dream of every one in the field to get into that program. But I did try my best. Just know that there are people who are more competitive than you. And since you are doing your best, move on to the second choice on the list. There is always next year to re-apply. Don’t think it as a failure, but rather an experience to advance yourself and your next application. Good luck! 

[Jonaslb]

I think you need to feel the emotion and understand that sometimes applying to grad school is like scooping ice cream. Sometimes someone wants coffee and you are strawberry. Don't look at this as failure but something that makes you stronger. Everything happens for a reason and one day you will see why this door was closed.