“Georgetown.”
Robert gave me an indecipherable look and noisily emptied all the air out of his mouth. “Georgetown was yoursafety? And have you heard back?”
“Yeah. I got in.”
“Oh.” He took off his glasses and tucked them into his shirt pocket. “Way to bury the lede. So you’re worried because you got rejected by four of the hardest programs to get into. And you got into Georgetown. Plenty of people would say that’s their top choice.”
“Maybe it’s their top choice, but it’s not mine. It’s not Harvard.”
“Why all the fuss about Harvard? Most people would say Yale is the best program.”
“Well, I didn’t get into Yale either.” Robert was starting to annoy me. Could he just get to the point already?
“Sure,” he said. “But you seem very set on Harvard, so I was just curious.”
“Harvard is the best for corporate law. And it has the best name recognition.”
“Huh, okay. I guess as an institution overall that’s the case.”
“Exactly. So why didn’t I get in?”
He cleared his throat and rolled his chair toward the water cooler. He didn’t actually get out of his chair, which meant he had to push his feet against the floor in an awkward waddling motion. He didn’t appear self-conscious about it, even though I thought he should. We sat in silence as he filled his metal bottle to the brim. He gestured toward me to ask whether I wanted water as well, and I shook my head. I began tapping my foot, hoping he would notice, but if he did, he didn’t apologize for taking so long.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said after first taking a lengthy sip. “Sometimes these things happen. Sure, if I had to place a bet three months ago, I would’ve said you had a decent shot. But no one is 100 percent.”
“You’ve seen my scores. Isn’t there just some explanation you can give? Anything.”
“You’re very persistent. It’ll make you a good lawyer.”
“I just want to know why I was rejected. You can tell me. I’m not going to freak out. I genuinely want to know.”
He put a hand up. “Hey, I get it. You want a postmortem.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, is there anything you aren’t telling me? Disciplinary measures? Were you ever canceled for saying a racial slur?”
“No. I promise. Search my name.” I gestured at his computer. “You won’t find anything.”
“I believe you.”
“So what is it? Why was it not enough?”
“I don’t know.” Robert put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair.
I squinted my eyes. Something about his answer felt off, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. “It feels like you actually do know, you’re just not telling me.”
“I understand this is hard to process. But the truth is, sometimes these things happen. It’s like undergrad. There are thousands of valedictorians who don’t get into their top choice school. Maybe Columbia wasn’t even your top choice school.”
“It actually was, and that’s a false equivalence. Undergrad admissions are completely different.”
We stared at each other for the next few seconds. He broke off contact first.
“Okay, fine.”
“Fine? So you do know why I didn’t get in.”
“I have my suspicions.”
