I Got Rejected from Kite and Key Three Times, and I Still Don’t Know Why

The third time wasn’t the charm. I applied to kite and key because I was eager to share my Penn experience and join a group that values honesty and transparency. I told them that I would tell prospective students how much everyone enjoyed the dining hall food. I would add that the dorms are so nice and new. I definitely didn’t get black mold poisoning freshman year from my room in the quad that had a leak in the ceiling. And I definitely never got food poisoning from our dining halls that had 50+ Philadelphia health code violations.

Although I faced rejection, I decided to try again. I figured that it was unlikely I would get rejected twice. After that rejection, I figured it is unlikely that I would get rejected a third time. I was wrong.

Maybe I got rejected because before my final interview, I went on a run to calm my nerves. During this run, I watched a group of homeless individuals shoot up some sort of substance. I also ran past a manhole cover with a thick fog coming from what I could only imagine to be boiling sewage underneath the philly streets. The night before this, I had gotten a Penn alert about an attempted sexual assault. When asked what I would tell a prospective student if they asked what it is like to live in Philadelphia, I was lost for words.

This wasn't the first time I was rejected from a Penn club. I got rejected from many of the Wharton consulting clubs because of my lack of consulting experience. I am not sure what sort of consulting opportunities I could have had on my resume as a 17-18 year old,  but I knew that I had definitely missed out on them.

It also wasn't the first time I got rejected from a Penn club multiple times. I got rejected from Tamid twice even after the representatives at the club fair encouraged me to apply again after saying that “nobody ever gets rejected twice.” I even got rejected from a community service club. I didn't know those types of clubs were allowed to reject people.

My advice to freshman looking to join a club at Penn is to make sure you went to one of the top private schools or boarding schools in the country and/or world. Don't forget to focus on networking with first year investment banking analysts. And don't forget to make sure you have a few consulting experiences on your resume before your freshman year. I hope this helps.