A no from one school, team or job is a sorting result, not a ranking of your soul.

Rejections feel like verdicts because they arrive with so little explanation. What actually happened is that a group of people with limited places matched applications against needs you could not see: a position already filled, a quota, somebody’s preference on the day. Your worth was never the quantity being measured. The process has no way to measure it.

Give yourself an evening to be disappointed, properly, without dressing it up. Then ask what you can find out: feedback, the thing they wanted, the next date you can apply. Send one message or one application before the week ends.