As the applications are dropped in the mail, I try to warn everyone that it really is a "reach" school, that there are thousands of other applicants just as qualified as I am, that there are no guarantees. But they just smile and say that I'm different, that every school in the nation wants me, they say that I'm special.

And when the letters come with Waiting List written all over them, it doesn't matter that the campus was too big, or the people weren't friendly, or that the theatre program was insignificant. What matters is that all those people who thought that I was special all of a sudden realize that I am not. n