Sorry to hear about that, Yuvi. That any college rejected you, knowing what we know about your skills, is ridiculous. I can think of a dozen startups in the Valley who would hire you... right now. - Louis Gray

College admissions boards are temperamental creatures...they accept and reject people on some of the weirdest things. - Erin

Yuvi: don't worry. Some of the smartest people I know were rejected by colleges. Even me, I had bad grades and went to a Jr. College first, then got into SJSU. - Robert Scoble

I was rejected by UCLA and accepted by UC Berkeley. Good thing, too! I might have never ended up the Valley if I went to LA. - Louis Gray

I actually included my Microsoft Certs, my Website whois lookups, Technorati Rank and Techmeme Leaderboard along with the application (The college has a reputation of encouraging Extra Curricular Activities). Sigh. Pretty Darn Depressed... - Yuvi

don't worry about it :) - mjc

@Folks: Thing is, other than the IIT's, our best colleges are worsers than the US's worst (kinda). In most colleges here, Boys aren't allowed to talk to Girls, and Cell Phones are banned. So are T-Shirts. Sigh. - Yuvi

The CEO of Seagate has some really wacky stories along these lines. He was a surfer for a long time. The CEO of AMD grew up dirt poor in a Mexican town and had many hardships worse than this. You're smart, you'll figure out how to route around the jerks who don't see your value. The top developer at Facebook never went to college (I first met him when he was 16). - Robert Scoble

Yuvi - you're seeing a lot of older folks commenting here (including me). Absolutely sucks right now. Your disappointment is achingly real. But here's the secret...ten years from now, it won't matter. You'll be amazed at how little it mattered that a particular school didn't accept you. My wife, like Louis, went to Cal-Berkeley as her second choice. She's now among the top of her field. - Hutch Carpenter

Yuvi - You should use this conversation as your next cover letter :-) You have a lot of support from some really smart people on these here socnets! Stay positive! - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Hutch: and I know some people who went to Stanford who are total screwups and I've given a couple of speeches now to Stanford classes even though I went to "lowly" San Jose State. Always makes me laugh because I'd NEVER be accepted to Stanford (only one kid out of our class did and he had perfect grades, was always in every club, etc.) - Robert Scoble

Robert - I hear you on that. I always marveled at the students who put everything together so young. Some of us just figured things out a bit later. - Hutch Carpenter

You're super freakin' smart, so that college just lost a wizard student. Keep looking. I attended 5 different Universities / Colleges and one special one -CalPoly- required 3 applications (my major was "impacted" so it was not easy). You can keep applying if you are really persistent ... but it does costs you the app fee each time. (Tip: if your major is impacted, apply under a non-impacted major, get in, then switch majors - yea, I gamed the system but I got in!!) hehehe! - Susan Beebe

Folks, thanks a lot for the support! Helps a boatload :) - Yuvi

@Louis Gray: The irony is that even though we could think of many startups which will pick up this kid just like that, they won't be able to get him the needed H1 just because he is not the college graduate. In India too, companies will not hire him just because he is not a college graduate. Triple Whammy. Sorry Yuvi. Something will work out. Don't despair. - Krishnan Subramanian

Susan et al: Don't think you understand the system here. It's more like a modified High School system (sigh), and the courses are usually crap. You don't have much freedom choosing your "majors" and "electives". There is no "Credit" system. You've to feed off what they throw at you. Most of the students around me would be interested in getting a boring "job" in an IT company, watching movies and basically, doing nothing. Sigh... - Yuvi

WOW, that sucks big time!! augh!!! I was not aware of the lack of choice. That's a huge problem...yikes. "feed off of what they throw at you" sounds pointless and incredibly lame... wow...i think i'd want to crawl in a hole and die. (sorry...i am pretty passionate about equal access to education for everyone and am very bummed about your situation.) I fell helpless to help you... sad - Susan Beebe

You know... given Yuvi's still under 18, maybe one of us can adopt him. :-) - Louis Gray

@Louis... probably not you since you've got twins on the way!! :-) - Susan Beebe

Yuvi... what ARE your options? - Susan Beebe

My Options are: 1. Pay my way into a College where the education sucks, but I have the option of "not" feeding on the crap they throw at me (It's force fed in other colleges), 2. Get into one where the students are somewhat better but I "have to" feed off whatever they throw at me (ie no Freedom) 3. Try my Luck. - Yuvi

Basically, it's: 1. Good Classmates, 2. Freedom (pick one) If I'm extremely unlucky I might get to pick neither - Yuvi

Not much here in the way of real choice, huh? Ok I am thinking practical: Get eduction to meet H1B Visa type requirements, get into USA or where ever you want to go, then work for 4+ years and get a second layer of College education to supplement your "force fed" education. I enjoyed going to multiple Universities and found that it really enriched my education and experience. It's not cheap though. UCLA cost me the most, but my resume benefited greatly from being a UCLA Law School grad. - Susan Beebe

US Colleges are so passé - they're not worth what they cost - go to Asia - General Kafka

Yuvi, get someone like Robert to intro you to Sridhar Vembu, work for him a bit in India, then decide to keep working or go to school in India or the states. it will end up being even better for you than going straight to IIT. - Deva Hazarika

Yuvi @General Kafka and @Deva have good ideas here... Let us know what you decide to do and what we can do to help you :-) - Susan Beebe

Yuvi, go Troll Scoble, you will feel much better! lol - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Yuvi, the world is different today, having a fancy degree is no longer the only key to it. You are smarter / better known than most of your generation. Read this: http://tinyurl.com/6mer69 The guy who wrote it comes from India, has a fancy PhD from Princeton, but in hindsight found it wasted time... degree is NOT what made him a successful CEO - Zoli Erdos

Yuvi seriously what college or university rejected you? In the States tones of schools, go to a community college for two years get your associates degree then transfer to a 4 year university. I never went to High School, got a GED, two year in community college transfered to NYU. Was accepted in Wharton but was missing a few credits. Dude it is up to you to do the work, or you can Bitch like Scoble does. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

I don't know a lot of people who went to their 1st choice. Husband was turned down by CalTech. Ended up getting a photography degree, and going into development, which he'd never have done if he'd gone to CalTech for Physics. - Cyndy

The illusion of Choice sucks :( - Yuvi

I also got rejected from a school I thought I really wanted to go to (Carnegie Mellon). I turned out much happier at my second choice (CWRU) and met my fiance there; I hope fate leads you to a similar happy ending. - Benjamin Golub

Become an outsourced professional. Get paid for it. Pay college with it. You don't need to physically be in an office to work on something or for somebody. - Rodrigo Jaroszewski

Came back to this thread after a long time. I <3 friendfeed :) - Yuvi