Feeling Lost After B-School Results

Hey, 23M here, turning 24 soon. This isn’t an informational post, just a conversational one. If you’re looking for insights, feel free to scroll down.

Every time I open Reddit, Telegram, or Discord, I see success stories of candidates getting calls from top B-schools. First off, congrats to them! But I wanted to talk to the other 90% how are you all dealing with this?

Tomorrow is Holi, and honestly, I don’t even feel like going out, but I have to act normal in front of parents, friends, and relatives. Taking a drop doesn’t seem like a great option since I’d graduate at 27, which feels late. What hurts even more is that I gave CAT 2023 and scored 95.3%ile. I planned to reattempt in 2024 to aim higher but messed up badly not even in the 90s. My dad was hospitalized, and while I don’t want to make excuses, it really impacted my schedule. I was constantly moving between home and the hospital.

Now, I feel completely lost. It’s even tougher because I apparently have this image in my family of being great at studies (if that were true, I wouldn’t be using ChatGPT to refine this post before publishing, lol). The only convert I got was SDA Bocconi with a 50% scholarship, as they accepted last year’s percentile. I know it’s not a top-tier college.

Any suggestions on how to cope with this? I could really use some advice.