The Mystery of College Admissions

Timothy Arena

Having witnessed two older siblings go through the college admissions process, I have had a first hand account the stress and anxiety that this system exerts on teenagers. With my turn just around the corner, I am now left to decide what I should focus on to give myself the best odds with schools. Whether we acknowledge it or not, much of our lives have been focused around building a resume that we will one day send to colleges and universities around the nation. While everyones’ path to this stage is different, the process of applying to colleges is one that most students will one day experience. As a junior, these days are fast-approaching and with them, the questions regarding what makes the “ideal applicant” have started crossing my mind.

For some, hitting submit on Harvard’s admission page brings a sense of relief as the four strenuous years of hard work, good grades, and extracurriculars might finally pay off. For others who might not value education as much, the idea of a shining resume might entail much less AP courses and awards. Either way, if you spend your time trying to forge yourself into the “perfect candidate”, you will never summit the mountain. In one ear you’ll have those telling you to focus on clubs and sports but in the other, people are whispering to focus on the standardized tests. At what point do you accept that nobody is a perfect candidate? At what point do you prioritize activities you enjoy over activities that you think will please a college?

Unfortunately, the universal code that all schools look at to measure an applicant surely does not exist and frankly, never will. It has also become very evident to me that there are millions of other kids around the country who are reading the same blogs and same reports and who, just like me, are wondering what makes them special. To begin with, it’s no secret that the most emphasized factor on the application is your high school GPA. However, because of inflated grades and gaining an unfair academic advantage, some people will discredit the true accuracy of high school grades, especially given the knowledge that every school operates off of their own grading policy and many don’t even use the same GPA scale. Therefore, comparing grades to other towns and even other students within one’s school only adds to the stress levels. Instead of focusing on yourself, you're now worried about competing with others who are looking at the same colleges.

However, to expand on the notion that grades maybe shouldn’t be as important as they are in the college admissions process, people like Alfie Kohn, author of “The Case Against Grades”, have preferred a system where grades don’t exist at all. When asked how this would affect their college acceptance rates, they respond with the assertion that schools look at students on the basis of narrative reports and detailed descriptions of the curriculum which tell more about a student than a GPA will. However, it can’t be forgotten that although your grades may not define you, they indeed are very important in your college search as well as your life after college. I agree with this viewpoint that you can’t directly associate someone with what letter grades they receive, but nonetheless you can’t overlook these measurements of success and effort. Those who pretend to not take a certain interest in their grades are only hurting themselves because colleges look at grades, scholarship organizations look at grades, and employers look at grades too (College Express) .

If at any point this essay starts to sound confusing, welcome to the college admissions process. For most kids who create their list of safety, target, and reach schools, they probably have been obsessing over every little point throughout their high school career because they know that’s the one thing all universities examine closely. Continuing on with this idea, in the article “Top 10 Things Colleges Look For in a High School Student,” author Judi Rabinovitz cites grades as the number 2 factor. However, she argues that colleges prefer “grades that represent strong effort and an upward trend: Slightly lower grades in a rigorous program are preferred to all A’s in less challenging courses.”. While grades in themselves can tell a lot about a person’s character, the idea of course selection also gives colleges major insight into what a student is truly like. Someone who goes out of his/her comfort zone to take AP level classes shows a student who values education and is willing to learn. This type of mindset is very difficult to teach and is something that should be taken into significant consideration. Now, by no means is this meant to suggest that a student should outstretch beyond one’s capabilities to impress a college. In fact, that is the mindset I believe we need to move away from. However, I am arguing that you should take more difficult classes in order to test yourself and push yourself to maximum potential. In other words, take the higher level classes not to please colleges but to please yourself.

On the other side of this argument, there is the counterclaim that given the current climate of college admissions, it is nearly impossible to avoid falling into the trap of doing something with the motivating factor being your resume. As for myself, I am also guilty of this mindset. Although my experience with my siblings opened my eyes up to the importance of building a resume that reflects your interests/hobbies/character, I have struggled to do just that. However, when you analyze the data, it should be no surprise that kids are becoming increasingly obsessed over “padding the resume.” For example, many schools are even saying that getting into college has become an uphill battle, with each new freshman class eclipsing the one before it. According to The Atlantic, in 2014, the University of Pennsylvania announced that the class of 2018 was the most competitive class yet, as UPenn’s admit rate had dropped below 10 percent for the first time in its history. And a day later, Harvard said that it had accepted 5.9 percent — 2,023 of 34,295 — of the students applying for the incoming class of 2018. Unfortunately, those numbers are only getting smaller as the standards are sky high. Here begins the struggle between which path to accept: the one where where you became just another applicant with a bolstering resume or stay true to yourself and do what you love.

Moving forward from the assured importance of grades as well as course selection, the rest is much more difficult to predict. For this reason, there are situations such as when Student A gets into Boston College but not Villanova and Student B gets into Villanova but not Boston College. As someone who likes direct answers, this idea of not knowing what a school wants doesn’t sit well with me. More specifically, the idea of having all the credentials to be accepted into a school but not being accepted also doesn’t sit well with me. However, colleges aren’t oblivious to said issue either and for this reason, some are transferring to a more data-driven process that will give students a better understanding of their chances. According to the New York Times, some colleges, such as West Virginia University and Houston Baptist University, are already using sophisticated statistical methods to predict which students are most likely, if accepted, to matriculate and, therefore, where recruiting efforts should be focused.

Moving back to the main focus being the application, an article from Harvard Admissions referenced, in order: growth and potential, interests and activities, character and personality, and contribution to the Harvard community as some of the top considerations . Under this large umbrella of possibilities, this is where you make yourself pop to the person reading your application. This is where you try to glow through the paper so that you are not skipped over. In order to achieve this goal, people will spend 4 frantic years trying to join whatever clubs and extracurriculars available. Unfortunately, this has resulted in less effective clubs as well as caused a decrease in the actual depth of involvement of the students who join clubs just to fill another line on the application. While this potentially serves as a reference to your interests and personality, it often times is over exaggerated in terms of its reflection of who you are. Additionally, knowing that many schools don’t even require an interview, the question of personality and character is more difficult to determine because if you’ve never met a person, you’re judging him by paper which is oftentimes inconsistent.

The significance of enjoying yourself in high school and doing your best is what’s most important. If you’re someone sacrificing happiness or memories for continuous stress, it isn’t worth it. If being a member of 10+ clubs is just who you are or if it’s in your blood to love learning, then pursue it. This essay isn’t meant to discourage those from being well-rounded and what people would classify as an ideal applicant. However, it should never be about doing something for the sole reason of wanting to go to college somewhere. While that most definitely is a reason behind why you want to do great things in high school, it can’t be the driving force or else you’ll find yourself unsatisfied.