The college admissions fever is upon us. Common App. Coalition. UCAS. Some seniors have already submitted applications, while many others are just weeks away from their first deadlines. No matter what, it’s a stressful time for everyone. Unfortunately, WIS seniors’s predominant attitude towards college is destructive. We as WIS seniors need to unite around this common experience, not tear each other down.
At least once a day, I hear some form of college-related competition among students. I hear seniors express concern about applying to the same schools as supposedly “better” students. I’m worried. Person X mentioned they’re applying to my top school. Their grades are amazing. Translation: They’re going to steal my spot. Similarly, I hear seniors’ dismay after learning that they might go to college with someone they don’t like. I hear seniors name-drop and joke about schools they don’t consider to be “good,” not considering that someone in the room could be applying there. I hear students compare GPAs and guess each others’ standardized test scores. I hear students predict where other students will end up. And I’ll willingly admit, I’m guilty of these too.
Of course, these attitudes aren’t coming from nowhere. We have too many sources of input in the college process: a process that should be our own. I’ve learned to accept that, whenever an adult finds out how old I am, they’ll ask, “So, what colleges are you looking at?” I’ve gotten lectures from people who barely know me about where I should apply. On a national level, the highest-ranked schools on U.S. News and other rankings are automatically considered the “best” schools, where everyone should aspire to attend, even if they aren’t best suited to a student’s interests or way of learning. Our individual decision-making process takes on layer after layer of external pressure.
So it’s to be expected, then, that we’ve absorbed the attitudes around us. I know I have. I consider the prestige of my future school and spend too much time worrying how others might react to where I end up. But even if we can’t rewire our brains to think differently about college, we need to stop encouraging those attitudes in our peers. Every college has a certain reputation, but we need to collectively acknowledge that prestige doesn’t necessarily translate to the best education. In fact, the US News ranking system itself is biased towards wealthy and already-prestigious schools. Besides, every student has their own goals. Only they know what they are and what schools will provide the opportunities they want. We need to stop comparing grades or college lists or Early Decision schools. We need to stop dismissing certain schools as “bad” schools. We need to stop asking our peers what specific schools they are applying to and allow each other to share the parts of their process they want.
Everyone’s process is different. Some of us have held onto a “dream school” for years. Some of us have no idea where we’d like to end up. We need to talk in terms of “college”: a place and/or time that we’re excited about and that our friends or classmates are excited about. The college admissions process is tough, and we need to support those around us to help everyone get through it.
By Elise Naftulin
