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“After carefully reviewing your application, we regret to inform you that we are not offering you admission to ___.”
This simple sentence has crushed the hearts and dreams of countless aspiring teenagers applying to college worldwide. Undeniably, the college application system can become a central part of high school, as students across the country and globe compete for a spot at their dream university. While the system may seem to offer an equitable process for all students, the truth is that the college application process doesn’t accurately assess students’ strengths or give them a chance to foster genuine interests.
One of the worst aspects of college admissions is that it discrepantly accounts for socioeconomic status and factors, which strongly influence student performance and perceived potential. The disproportionate advantage that middle to higher-class families have in accessing tutoring services or leading a stable life erodes the equity of college admissions, as the process fails to acknowledge the struggles that lower-income households face. Students in low-income families may have to work after school, decreasing their time spent on schoolwork and extracurricular activities, which strengthens a competitive college application. It is not to say that one can’t work an after-school job and build an impressive resume. Still, the lack of opportunity and time necessitated by working for a family business only perpetuates a cycle of intergenerational struggle.
Even worse, college applications encourage high school students to create a fake persona around a singular passion or external achievements. To remain competitive, students must develop and show a continued love for one subject of expertise throughout their high school career. This is highly unrealistic since it burdens adolescents to decide the trajectory of their entire lives before they have fully matured.
The resulting system fails to reward authentic passion and exploration while giving an upper hand in admissions to artificially crafted facades of students seemingly destined to pursue their stated major.
Students take some AP classes only to maximize their GPA instead of pursuing a genuine interest in a subject, which isn’t reflective of students’ interests. Students feel forced out of fear to take many challenging classes, as they may miss out on a higher GPA. This motivation can contradict the true passion of the student. Even in extracurricular activities such as math, chemistry or other olympiads, students often participate in hopes of achieving awards, instead of genuinely wanting to learn about the subject. Even in many high school volunteering organizations, students usually have ulterior motives, such as desires for leadership positions, undermining the very principle of community service. Ultimately, students are forced by competition to craft a fake persona that isn’t reflective, and strive for awards instead of true learning.
Despite this, some still argue that college applications are crucial to reward those who put in hard work and effort. Although this is true to an extent, the present system rewards an artificial effort that can never reflect student potential. Additionally, students are more motivated by fear and competition rather than genuine interest, which should be rewarded much more. Filtering out these students due to grades, AP classes or specific extracurriculars proves that the college application process can never reflect a student’s true potential.
Over the past couple of years, college applications have only become more challenging and will, unfortunately, most likely continue in the same direction. Still, it shouldn’t be this way. Along with encouraging artificiality, the college application process favors families with higher incomes and is flawed in its ignorance of unique household struggles. Hopefully, society, particularly the college admissions process, will soon begin to view intellectual curiosity instead of mindless labor as an actual test of a student’s potential.
