For the Class of 2006, the obstacle course known as undergraduate admissions is over. But for the rest of Uni's students, the application process awaits. Will they resist the siren call of overhyped schools?

JESSICA STARK
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Opinions

SECOND SEMESTER OF senior year is supposed to be the easiest and most relaxing part of your high school career. But then the letter from your top school comes in a small, thin envelope that sends a clear message: Your application was denied.

For some students, especially Uni students, this seems like an impossibility. They're smart, get straight A's, and have amazing test scores. But then the letter from Stanford or Princeton or some other top-rated school arrives in that ominously tiny envelope. How does that happen? If they can't get accepted, who can?

The more exclusive and selective colleges and universities are becoming more and more particular about the students they admit. This year, Harvard had the lowest percentage of applications accepted at a mere 9.3 percent. Why are these colleges so picky when it comes to admissions?

It may have less to do with their becoming choosier and more to do with the increase in students applying. Top colleges like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are referred to as the “HYP schools,” so called not just because of their initials but because of the hype they generate among high school seniors who apply simply to see if they are “good enough” or “smart enough” to be accepted.

Of course, colleges can only admit a certain static number of students each year, so as the number of applications rises, the percent of acceptance falls and only the applicants with stellar résumés and nearly perfect academic records seem to get in.

As Samuel Freedman put it in an April 26 New York Times article (“In College Entrance Frenzy, A Lesson Out of Left Field”): “Among the top tier of private liberal-arts institutions, application rates have grown by one-third or more during the last five years alone. Meanwhile, the available spaces have remained the same and the number of high school seniors, the baby boomers' baby boom, has hit its peak.”

So who does end up being accepted to these premier schools? Students with 4.0 GPAs and perfect scores on their standardized tests? What average student can hope to compete with that?

Freedman states it effectively when he writes, “The system is broken, even in the estimation of its participants, and it is so thoroughly broken in so many ways that counselors, students, parents and deans can agree on little else than that somebody is at fault — somebody, invariably, other than themselves.”

So yes, the system noticeably has its flaws, but there is something you can do about it. Ultimately, you are in complete control of the thing that these potentially “broken” admissions committees will consider — your application.

The first thing colleges will consider, as they have traditionally, is the student's academic record. This is defined as the high school transcript (GPA, class selection, and rigor of courses taken.) Then there are the standardized tests, which students have often viewed as the biggest obstacle to overcome. However, these tests are now viewed to be “coachable,” as college counselor Lisa Micele puts it.

“With the numerous review books and preparatory classes availiable for both the ACT and SAT as well as access to tests from previous years,” Micele comments, “higher scores are now more common.”

Also, now that more and more students are doing well on standardized tests, admissions committees are giving the other parts of the application much more weight.

“[College admissions committees] truly perform a holistic review process,” Micele says. “Standardized test scores are never the sole decision. Colleges are looking for students with distinguishing characteristics (authentic extracurriculars; passion; growth; initiative). They are looking for students who are passionate about certain things to build a well-rounded class.

“Typically 85 to 90 percent of applicants have ‘the numbers' — ‘passion and depth' are therefore key for students to surface to the top,” Micele continues. “Colleges will also look at what resources the student had availiable to them and how they took advantage of them. It is truly a contextual review process.”

But how important is it to be accepted to these elitist schools?

“When it comes to finding a college, it's more important to find a fit,” Micele says. “College is not a prize to be won. … Students should be looking for a place where they will grow and have a genuine interest to be engaged on the campus (both academically and socially) for the next four years.”

So, being the innovative thinkers that Uni students are, here's a new idea to consider: If people stop applying to these elitist schools, will the schools still be able to afford to be so exclusive?

With the vast number of other academically challenging colleges out there, there's no need to add to the hype surrounding admission to schools like Harvard and Yale. The sooner students stop applying to these schools, the sooner the HYPs will be forced to bring their lofty admissions standards back
down to earth.