By Thomas Chen

Scholarships are a big deal in the world of a financially-strapped college student. I am one of the many Northeasterners who applied for the Presidential Scholarship last fall, an award that gives the winner a free ride until graduation. I am also one of the many students who was given a wonderful Christmas gift: a rejection letter.

I opened mine on Christmas morning, not even realizing that the letter was from the President’s Office, and it hurt. It hurt badly. I have worked hard in my two-and-a-half years at NU and have contributed a lot to it. I have been nothing but good to this university, and I don’t feel the university has been good to me in return.

I know there are worse things to complain about, but doesn’t it boggle your mind as to why the university would send a rejection letter so close to Christmastime? Two of my friends, who also were rejected, feel the same way I do about this. It stinks. President Richard Freeland signed my rejection letter (I doubt he wrote it himself), but how did he not notice that he was about to crush a man who has bent over backwards to try to win the respect of the university, on the biggest holiday of the year? Or did he consider how embarrassing it is to have to tell your father on Christmas Day that you were good, but not good enough?

No, of course not. President Freeland was probably too busy getting ready for his own holiday or counting his checks to make sure he really got $500,233 for his salary. I wonder if he even got a glimpse at my application or my resum