College Admission Process

In response to Barry Scwartz's essay, I completely agree and can relate with the fact that teenagers face one of the most stressful times of their lives when facing the college admission process. I speak on behalf of all high school seniors when I say that it is truly overwhelming to attempt to balance classes, extracurriculars, jobs, and college admission processes at the same time. However, I disagree with his proposal to finalize the colleges' decisions by chance. After 12 years of hard wok and dedication, students should be able to shine as bright as they possibly can, not meet a minimum standard and leave the rest to "a roll of the dice." 

That said, the question is whether or not there is an alternate method for reduction of the pre-college craziness. Schwartz makes a good point that students are pressured to take the most challenging courses available, not the most relative. A student interested in photographied may be scared to deviate from taking all AP classes in order to follow his heart and, in turn, lower his gpa or class rank. It is this problem that colleges can easily fix simply by changing admission criteria.

To conclude, Schwartz makes valid arguments but lacks a valid solution to the problem of college admissions. Until a better system is decided, we can only try our very best as seniors to get into the best colleges.

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Erin, this is a very good response, When you're in high school, people are contantly telling you about how college is expensive and to be grateful that you don't have to pay for much. At the same time, when you're in high school you're so ready for college that all negative talk goes in one ear and out the other. Once you get into college though, it's a different story. Even when you live in the dorm and are on a meal plan where you have three or more meals available to you, college is still expensive. Before you even are allowed to start classes, you have to pay for tuition, room and board, meals, books, and any other finances they can take out of you. By the time your first class starts, you're already out of money, but that's not acceptable. There is still the social side of college. You have friend's birthday parties to throw, dates to go on, parties to attend, shopping to do, the list goes on and on. Now many would say that the simple solution is to just get a job, but life is never that simple. Sometimes it is the lack of a car that prohibits you from getting a job. Other times it's the amount of classes and homework professors bind you with. Maybe it's the lack of jobs available, especially with the declining economoy. Whatever the case may be, getting a job is not the answer to all college financial issues. There really isn't an answer. Unfortunately, unless you're wealthy or have a four-year full ride scholarship to any college you want, college is going to be expensive. The idea of the "broke college student" is not an idea, it's a reality. I wish that college could just be paid for and that money could be used for other things in life. To all the expensive colleges and universities out there, believe it or not, students do have other things that have to be paid for, and not every one is welathy.

[Kayla Ferreira]

Erin, you make several good points in your response to Barry Schwartz's essay. Schwartz introduces several good points about the effects of college applications and his extreme solutions make the problems more apparent. However, as a collage applicant, I feel that a variety of criteria, including tests and grade point average, can collectively show a good picture of the applicant. There is clearly no black and white method to this, but applicants are worth more of a look than the glance of probability.
As you said, All involved in the college admission process have to deal with stress at one level or another. Such pressure can be counterproductive, generating students who look great, but in reality rely on “easy A’s” or test preparation courses.