Class of 2016 alumnus Farbod Moghadam owns around 20 items of Stanford apparel: Stanford hoodies, caps, shirts, “nerd glasses” and a watch.

From a young age, he would visit the Stanford campus with his father, a Stanford alum, just to walk around and go to Jamba Juice there. He attended nearly every football game and was a season pass holder from 2009 to 2015.

So when he received the generic letter from the university with its impersonal “We regret to inform you … ” he was crushed. But he was hardly alone. Almost 44,000 applied to the school, but just over 2,000 gained admission for the Class of 2020.

At the Speak Up for Change assembly on Jan. 17, Moghadam spoke to the school through a video about dealing with his tough rejection and finding his passion in politics.

Moghadam said that his mom and dad responded extremely positively, which was one of the greatest comforts he had. His friends, some of whom had also gotten rejected by their top choices and who knew about his Stanford obsession, consoled him, telling him the rejection was “Stanford’s loss.”

After all the support he received, Moghadam began to see his rejection as a much-needed wakeup call, giving him insights about how he should have been approaching the college admissions process in the first place. He realized that he should not be concerned about the stigma surrounding lesser-known universities.

“Not getting into my dream school was an important reality check and forced me to become a lot less concerned with prestige and more with practical value,” he said.

Moghadam said he has come to appreciate the simple joys in life rather than getting “stuck up on a few obsessions” like being a “straight-A student, having a sky-high GPA and getting into a prestigious school.”

Moghadam eventually chose to attend the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), a school that he did not consider to be one of his top choices at the time of his application. Looking back, it was a choice Moghadam is proud to have made.

Moghadam said upon stepping onto the UCSB campus, he began to fall in love with the school. This quarter, he has started tutoring local elementary school students, as well emailing professors to take part of the numerous research opportunities offered at UCSB.

His passion for politics grew exponentially as the 2016 election progressed, and during the Democratic presidential primaries, Moghadam participated heavily in the Bernie Sanders campaign, doing whatever he could to spread the candidate’s message.

By presenting at the Speak Up For Change assembly, Moghadam hopes to relay to students that though there are certain standards and pressures in society, people should be content as long as they know they are giving full effort toward their progress.

“In regards to colleges, it is important to find the school that is the best fit for the student even if it may not have the brand name, because ultimately, that does not matter,” he said.