The Road to Success: What I Learned By NOT Attending Oxford

A couple of days ago, my iPhone reminded me that 5 years ago, I was admitted to Oxford! Amazing news, right? But then I found out I didn’t win any scholarships to actually be able to afford to attend.

I was devastated. With a heavy heart, I turned down my offer from Oxford.

The most frustrating thing is this:

It’s not that I wasn’t good enough or that I wasn’t smart enough to attend Oxford. It’s simply that I didn’t have enough money to do so.

It felt like a missed opportunity! I got into Oxford of all places, but guess what?

Now, I am a fully funded PhD candidate at Harvard and I was doing research at Oxford last week.

Here are a few encouragements when you feel like you missed an amazing opportunity!

1. The timing might have not been right

Yes, attending Oxford would have been an opportunity of a lifetime. However, 5 years ago, the pandemic was slowly brewing. If I had attended, I would have been stuck and quarantined in Oxford far away from many of my family and friends. It’s possible to receive the right opportunity at the wrong time.

2. Reuse the materials you used to prepare for that opportunity

The application process for Oxford was not easy. However, I was able to reuse ideas and content from my application to motivate me to apply to fully funded PhD programs in the US. When it comes to writing, nothing is ever wasted. The process of obtaining that opportunity can repackaged and reused to pursue similar or even better opportunities in the future.

3. Consider opportunity costs

If I had decided to pay out of pocket to attend Oxford, I would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Instead, I decided to continue working for a few years, save as much money as I could, and pay off my student loans from my undergraduate degree.

I was in a better place financially because I wasn’t chasing prestige by burdening myself with the cost of an Oxford degree. I looked at the options in front of me and counted the costs of pursuing each one.

With the rising costs of higher education, especially graduate programs, it’s super important to see how much it’s going to cost you. Also, think beyond just the financial cost of earning a degree. What will it cost you in terms of the relationships in your life, your future, and your goals if you pursue this opportunity?

The major takeaway

A missed opportunity can be gutwrenching, but be encouraged – there are always more opportunities that await you in the future!

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