Thoughts on college culture
by Sarah Steiner
As I write this, we are days away from December 15, when the majority of early college decisions will come out, and I have never felt so anxious in my life.
The tension in the school is tangible. The entire senior class is on edge, waiting for the emails from colleges that will accept or reject them. It’s the only thing anyone seems to want to talk about, from my friends- who are just as tense as I am- to my family, whose first words when they see me are inevitably, “So? How many more days?”
I could say I’m panicking, but that’s not strictly true. Nor am I really nervous for the decisions themselves because whatever they are, they’re out of my control. It’s the social pressure that comes from everyone around me that I find really stressful.
The pressure surrounding college is like nothing I’ve ever seen and nothing I ever expected, and it comes from all sides. Social media is a huge contributor; with the ability to see where your peers have applied or gotten in, there’s bound to be competition and envy- if you want to read about that, Hi’s Eye did a piece this week on the impact of social media in our college culture. But it’s not just the competition the college process creates.
The main problem is this: The colleges you choose to apply to say something about your character to your peers. They become just another way to judge what kind of person someone is- a way to assign adjectives like ambitious or lazy, smart or dumb, pretentious. Of course, schools market their particular ‘personalities’ to certain people; but the personality of your chosen college becomes your personality.
This is a strange and alarming reality, and it’s an extremely unhealthy environment to be in. As a student, it makes me uncomfortable to have my academic value measured in the schools I’m applying to; as a teenager, it’s frightening to be judged for it. It’s a huge amount of social pressure.
I’m not saying that competition can be eliminated from the college process; that’s a nearly impossible task. I do think, however, that judgment can. Everyone’s college choices are theirs alone to make- and they generally don’t say anything about their personality. The social pressure surrounding college is intense, but unfounded. We as a group need to think maturely about our peers, our educations and our own lives.
