It’s every high school senior’s worst nightmare: checking your mailbox to see a thin envelope from your dream school. You didn’t get in.

At first, you may feel like one piece of paper has single handedly destroyed your entire future. However, even though it may not seem like it, plenty of people are happy and successful at their second choice or safety school.

        According to “The American Freshman: National Norms” survey, reports that 18 percent of students—nearly one in five—who are accepted into their first choice school decide not to attend.  John H. Pryor, who conducted the survey, believes cost financial aid is the deciding factor for most students.

        “These students who were accepted and not attending are much more likely to say they are not going because they did not get the financial aid they wanted,” said Pryor.

        However, financial aid isn’t the only reason students end up going to their first or second choice school. Jessica Kane of the Huffington Post reports that students often ending up falling in love with their safety school.

        “Students often put the emphasis on big-name schools versus the places that would fit them best. But often students who don’t attend their first choice school are happiest throughout their time in college,” said Kane.

         Vicki Cancelliere, a former Plainfield North High School student, was not accepted to Columbia- her first choice school. She suspects her rejection stemmed from her lack of extracurricular activities.

“I probably wasn’t a super strong applicant because I only took three AP classes [in high school] and didn’t do any clubs. A lot of schools looked for hard classes and extracurricular volunteering type stuff, and I don’t think I was as strong in that area as most other applicants,” said Cancelliere.

When she first began applying to colleges, Cancelliere didn’t do much research. She says that Columbia’s admissions counselors knew before she did that Columbia wasn’t the best fit for her.

“I applied [to Columbia] mainly because my mom went there. I had seen it on Gossip Girl and I wanted to live in New York, so it seemed perfect. I never actually went on an official visited or looked at any of their programs in depth,” said Cancelliere.

As she waited for the admissions decision, she began to look into other schools besides Columbia. That’s when she fell in love with the University of Illinois.

“I went to all [of U of I’s] programs for prospective students, and I learned so much about the school there.I wanted to go to medical school, so I knew I would have another chance to go to school somewhere out of state,” said Cancelliere.

When she got her rejection letter from Columbia, she wasn’t too disappointed. She had already been accepted into U of I. Once she was able to look past Columbia’s prestige, she was able to see she would be happier and better off professionally at U of I.

“I am so psyched about going to U of I. I move in within the week and I can’t wait to start the next chapter of my life there,” said Cancelliere.