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Sad! Junior Rejected From Internships She Didn't Even Apply To

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Photo by Free-Photos / CC0

When junior Penelope Marsh (C'18) checked her email inbox on Wednesday morning, she found a slew of internship rejection emails - nine, to be precise. The incident, already depressing, was exacerbated by a baffling fact: Marsh did not remember applying to any of these internships.

"I mean, I talked to some of these companies at the career fairs last week," Marsh recalled, fighting back tears. "But I didn't realize that meant I was actually applying to them. I just wanted the free stuff they were giving out."

We spoke with a representative from RedEatsX, a Philadelphia-based food startup. "We had a very strong pool of applicants this fall," said Amy Brooks, who collected Marsh's contact information at the career fair in exchange for a free pen. "At these events, we get a very large number of interested applicants. Penny March - what's that? Oh, right, Penelope Marsh had a very strong application, and a cool email address, but unfortunately she just didn't stand out to us."

Although most of the companies weren't even in Marsh's industry of interest, that didn't stop her from being thoroughly demoralized by their rejections.

"I don't even have to do anything to get rejected," she said. "It just happens. I feel like such a failure."

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