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| Are You In? Choosing the Right College by: Caitlin Emmons |
| For the students that will be the class of 2012, being accepted to the college of their choice is no easy task. This year alone the number of students who applied to Yale early rose 35%. Top tier colleges across the nation saw similar increases. Part of this is a result of Harvard eliminating its early decision program, in other words students who would have applied to Harvard early sent in applications to other Ivys and schools of that kind. But it represents a larger trend; more and more people are applying to college on the whole. In 2006, Northwestern received 3,000 more applicants than ever before. But as getting in gets harder, it begs the question - why does it matter? |
| College is meant to be a learning experience. For many it is the first time they have lived away from home and many choose to travel to different cities, or even states. While college is an academic experience that is not all it is. College is about finding yourself as a person, finding your place, and picking your future. Unfortunately too |
| many students seem to be of the persuasion thatonly Harvard and Yale or other schools that have been deemed “the best” can provide this opportunity. What students fail to realize is that if you shove yourself into the mold of what a school wants you actually will have more trouble figuring out what you were meant to do. This isn't to say that everyone who goes to a top teir school has changed just to get it, just that when applying to college make sure you have found a school that fits what you want. Moreover, as more students attend undergraduate schools the workforce is more competitive than ever before. For most professions where you went for undergrad is irrelevant so long as you were in a good graduate program. As for graduate schools, they too are placing less emphasis on the actual school attended and more on the student's achievements at that institution. Students can still get the job they want regardless of whether they went to Princeton or a state school. |
| Why then, are students still pushing so hard to get into those elite schools? First, the media has not caught up to the changes in the admissions process. As a high school student I have always been taught that if I want to succeed in life going to an Ivy is key. The press does not cover the outstanding liberal arts schools across the nation, leaving many students with very limited knowledge about their options when the admissions season rolls around. |
The second contributing factor is the use of ranking systems by groups like Newsweek. This magazine uses surveys from the colleges to generate the information they print. These surveys ask basic questions but they also give schools the chance to rank one another. If you thought that students trying to get into college were competitive, take a guess at who is the most competitive. Admissions officers want their schools ranked well; it creates prestige and pays the bills. Rival schools will often rank each other lower in order to alter the results. Also, many smaller liberal arts schools have pulled out of this ranking system. The moral of the story? College is about growing up. If you feel the way for you to grow is to attend Harvard, go for it. But if you find that Ivy covered walls and frigid east coast weather are not for you, explore your options. Finding the right college is about figuring out what you want from the experience. There are literally thousands of schools across the nation, and if that is not enough you can attend an international school. The most important thing to remember is, however, do not lose yourself in an attempt to be a school's dream candidate. If you don't think you would fit in somewhere as you are, you probably were not meant to go their in the first place. Most importantly, remember that regardless of where your diploma comes from you are the only one who can change your future. |
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