Ask HN: I got rejected from Cornell. I want to study PL theory; what to do?
Throughout my teenage years, I have been in love with PL theory/type theory. I naturally became familiar with the work of professors. I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to be just like them and invent new, novel type systems and contribute to the field. My goal was to go to a good college that was strong in PL theory, where I could meet the professors that I look up to and do research.
My Cornell rejection is a huge wake-up call for me. I had deluded myself into imagining an acceptance. There are only a few schools in the US that do PL theory, and almost all of them are selective (Cornell, UPenn, CMU, etc). There are some less selective schools that do PL research, such as Northeastern, but they may not be ideal in other aspects (e.g. not being strong in math). Cornell is supposed to be the "easiest" of the Ivies. If I couldn't get into Cornell, there's no guarantee that I'll get into my other choices.
Around me, my peers are celebrating getting into Harvard, Dartmouth, Stanford, etc. I don't know what I did wrong. My GPA and standardized test scores are high. Were my essays bad? Other people just don't understand me. If someone wants to study linguistics or economics, people know what that means. But nobody knows what "type theory" is, and "computer science" and "math" are both big-tent labels that encompass many things. The people who helped me edit my essays didn't really understand what I was talking about, either. Most people don't truly know what math is, have never heard of abstract algebra, topology, and category theory, and think that math is just number crunching and don't know what's past calculus. The admissions officers have probably never written a line of code in their lives; how could I explain to them the beauty of the Curry-Howard correspondence and constructive math?
My weak point is my lack of extracurriculars. I haven't done that many activities or won that many awards because I preferred to spend the most of my time learning math at home. These past years, I've been working on my own ML dialect, which features HM type inference, ADTs and pattern matching, etc. I wrote about this in my essay and explained how I wanted to do PL research at Cornell. But as my mom explained, the admissions people don't get this stuff. The work I've done might be impressive, but I don't have any way (e.g. awards or attention) to quantify that to non-programmers. I haven't publicized my language much because it isn't "done" yet, so it doesn't have users. My downfall was expecting that my language would be an impressive activity. My mom explained that a professor might be impressed, but to a layperson, this stuff isn't as impressive as say, a robotics competition, even if my language is actually more technical. If only I could talk to a professor instead; they would surely understand!
I'm scared about my future because the purpose of my life had been to pursue type theory, which requires me to get into a good college as an undergrad, then get into a good grad school. If this doesn't pan out, I don't know what I'll do with my life. I won't be able to stand four years at any random college, where none of the professors know PL theory and there are no PL courses. If I don't get into one of my top choices, I don't know what will be waiting for me once high school ends.
What should I do to make sure that I get into a good college? How would I explain what I want to study to a college admissions officer?
If I don't get into a college that does PL research, how can I get involved in research on my own?
And I need a contingency plan if my plans as a PL theorist don't work out. How can I find something else to devote my life to instead?