The College Admissions Game is Changing! For the Better!

I have watched the pendulum swing for college admissions from super easy to ridiculously difficult matriculation rates.  Back in the day, most students got into colleges simply by meeting the colleges’ eligibility requirements.  Today, perfect GPAs and SAT/ACT scores don’t guarantee admission at selective colleges, which has created a super-crazy frenzy amongst high school students (and their parents) to do whatever it takes to get into great colleges.  This has caused students to overdo just about everything – sports, music, AP classes, clubs, volunteering, and more. Know anybody like this?

As a college advisor, I see all kinds of students.  Some are Stanford or Harvard bound, while others are simply trying to graduate from high school before they turn 20! So you could imagine the transcripts I review.  Parents and students keep pushing themselves to take more AP classes each year, which virtually makes it impossible to do meaningful things like projects – that by the way, are much more impressive to college admissions officers than a boat load of AP classes!  I’ve also seen resumes filled with 15 clubs and 3 sports!  As if the colleges would really believe that these students spend 40+ hours doing extracurriculars while going to school full time. P-L-E-A-S-E…

So it’s refreshing to see Harvard, Yale, and other top universities changing the rubric for college admissions by only inquiring about 2 or 3 extracurriculars to give students the opportunity to demonstrate how they spend their time doing meaningful things.  Colleges are also playing down the importance of taking dozens of AP classes. They know that AP classes force students to spend the entire year preparing for one exam. 

Students don’t get to immerse themselves into their studies and research interesting areas because they spend all their time memorizing useless information like the years each American president held office or learning the differences between ethos and pathos!  Many colleges aren’t requiring SAT or ACT scores as part of the application process anymore; it’s optional. Colleges are moving towards looking for students who aren’t robots scheduling their lives away in AP classes, SAT prep classes, and dozens of clubs.  They realize now that rote memorization and studying for tests don’t necessarily produce successful students in college.  Instead, many of these students become depressed and often resort to delinquent behavior and substance abuse.  Hmm. Not the ideal entering freshmen class that they were hoping for.

That doesn’t mean you can toss out your SAT prep books and take the easiest classes offered at your high school.  What this means is that colleges are really looking for genuinely interesting students. Instead of loading up on AP classes and extracurriculars, focus on doing something that will show your integrity, passion, and concern for others.  Delve into new things and explore things that spark your interest.  Try to solve some of our impending environmental, medical or social problems.  This is what colleges are looking for… Not some burnt out kids who have lost their zeal for learning and contributing to humanity.

Source: [reallearningct.com]