College admissions have long been a beacon of meritocracy and upheld the promise that hard work, dedication, and talent would lead to success. However, the reality of college admissions today is a departure from the utopian belief. A reality marred by intense competition and lack of objectivity.
The Race
The primary catalyst for this behavior is the escalating competitiveness of college admissions. With acceptance rates at top-tier universities plummeting into the single digits, students and their families feel enormous pressure to distinguish themselves. The result is arms race where genuine achievements are often overshadowed by inflated resumes. The notion that only exceptional students deserve a place at these institutions has led to a culture where any means of standing out, including fabrication, becomes justified. This belief drives parents to push their children towards exceptionalism, often at the expense of authenticity, and sometimes leads students to exaggerate or outright falsify their achievements.
The college admissions process has spawned a lucrative industry of consultants, coaches, and preparatory programs that often encourage embellishment, compelling students to invent leadership roles, community service records, authorship in research, or starting a small business. It’s a norm to pump thousands of dollars to adorn the college resume and garnish the essays with tales of achievements that are often exaggerated and sometimes far from the truth. The college counseling business model thrives on the anxiety of families, promising hopes of a lofty career that originates in admission to a highly selective college. The industry’s existence reinforces the idea that success can be manufactured, further distancing the process from genuine personal development. A normal teenager who likes to play Minecraft and watch movies must put on the garb of a student with a vision of a future. Only that vision is a borrowed one, one that is defined for them, not by them.
Societal and Parental Pressures
Parents often subscribe to the notion that the prestige of a college exerts a make-or-break influence on their child’s future. Parents play a crucial role in perpetuating this trend. They provide every luxury possible to these teenagers, asking only for good grades in return. The value placed on taking innumerable APs has grown erroneously and led to the culture of taking APs for APs’s sake and not for intellectual curiosity or learning.
This environment has detrimental effects on students. It is frightening that the pressure to fabricate achievements fosters a culture of dishonesty and undermines the value of genuine effort. Students learn to prioritize appearances over substance and are forced to start mapping out their careers from early on. This chips away the joy of self-discovery and exploration and from their personal growth.
A Call for Change
A fundamental shift in how we perceive education and success is necessary to address this issue. The fallacy that admission to an exclusive college is the be-all and end-all to a happy ever after must be debunked.
Admissions have increasingly become more non-standardized and subjective and need to be recalibrated to a more standardized approach. High school rigor and grades are important indicators of student consistency and performance. Standardized testing remains an important tool for assessing the caliber of the applicants. We cannot undermine the value of on-the-spot entrance tests and problem-solving skills in analyzing meaningful applications. Essays are important in analyzing a student’s characteristic traits but may serve that importance better if unscripted. The ability to acquire paid writing counselors widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The applicants’ socioeconomic status must be factored in to promote inclusivity and reward hardship and resilience. Each student must have the same tools to prove themselves.
In conclusion, the college admissions process has become an industry where students are compelled to display an outstanding track record, transformational leadership, selfless community service, altruistic goals, and talents all by the age of 16. For the well-being of future generations, it is imperative to promote authenticity and integrity and work towards making the admissions processes more transparent, objective, equitable, and inclusive for all applicants.
- usa