College admissions

Applying to universities today has completely changed since I did it in 2007. YouTube has offered me a glimpse into this fascinating world, and it’s honestly quite entertaining. Prospective students put all their hopes and dreams toward this idealized fantasy of what college means and, as so often happens, their life momentarily gets shattered when the decision letter comes back. It’s like drama or reality television at its finest. I can’t really poke fun of these kids too much because I’ve been there too. To this day, I still wonder what trajectory my life would’ve taken had I gotten into my first choice as the school that I ended up going to and my top choice did have very different strengths, which would’ve heavily influenced my field of study.

Nonetheless, given this new competitiveness and marketing of these “brand name” schools, there must and has been a surge in the popularity of the exam prep industry and the admissions coaching services. One cannot help but wonder that these businesses are turning education into something like a sport–I can tell you as an educated person that it is certainly not. It’s gotten to the point where students who go to these ivy leagues and highly regarded public institutions will start businesses coaching their younger peers on how to take standardized exams and/or fill out admissions applications. This industry is booming I image at the moment. Yet, I wonder what the consequence of all this is? Is this not a form of justified cheating for those who are able to afford these services? Academic cheating, as defined on most academic integrity websites, is the gaining of an advantage over others through deceptive or unfair means. I think this is an issue that society has to grapple with. I wonder how this will evolve in the years to come.

Then there’s the question of are these highly regarded institution really worth it? I think there was a time just a few generations ago that if you wanted to go to Harvard, and you were an above average student, then you just went to Harvard. That certainly isn’t the case nowadays. To go to these schools, you have to be either very privileged, very accomplished, or just a very studious student. You need to be in the rarefied air of the top 3-4%. It’s an elite club of individuals who either come from a certain class of society, who are just really impressive, or who’ve just gotten lucky–to put frankly. Once again, I don’t pretend that I myself am immune to the draw of these schools. There’s something about the way they are presented to us in society that make us think that attending a school like Harvard, MIT, or Princeton could be the panacea to all our professional woes.