One of my favorite stories to share at Collegewise seminars is that of my former student from many years ago, Meg, who wrote her college essay about the fact that she’d lost every election she had ever entered in high school (and there were lots). These were lopsided losses, too. But she was the first to make fun of herself about it. She was likeable, self-deprecating, and at the same time found a way to exude confidence without taking herself too seriously.

She was also admitted to her first-choice college—Notre Dame.

Failure gets a bad rap in college admissions. Kids may think they need to excel at everything they touch, but the truth is that there’s great value in going after something you want, falling short, dusting yourself off, and coming back for more. Colleges know it’s those kids–not the perfectionists who would never put themselves in failure’s path–who are likely to take advantage of the bounty of opportunities available to them in college.

Meg tried hard in all of those elections. And even after her most lopsided of losses, she still came back and ran again for other offices. Multiple times. And in between those failures, she went out and made valuable contributions somewhere else. It would have been clear to anyone who read her application and essay that she was not afraid to challenge herself, that she would never be deterred just because something didn’t work out as planned, and that whatever she was able to get involved in, she found a way to make herself indispensable.

Failure can sometimes be a recipe for success.