“The whole college application process has been stressful. There is always a little pressure surrounding getting into a ‘good college’,” says senior Jillian Rhodes. Recently, students have received their early action and early decision responses from colleges. They have also been preparing to hand in their regular decision applications if they have not already. The pressure is high as these students ponder where they will spend their next four years.
Students applying to colleges this year have every right to be nervous. In 2014, a study conducted by the University of California Los Angeles’ Higher Education Institute found that only 57% of the country’s college freshman were attending their dream school. This means 43% of the country’s college freshman were at their second, third, or even fourth choice. These percentages are scary. When there is around a 50/50 chance you’ll attend your dream school, it’s no wonder the college application process can keep students up at night.
But what are colleges looking for? This is the question that keeps students on their toes because if they knew, they’d get in. The truth is that no-one knows what colleges truly look for. Is it perfect SAT scores, a 4.7 GPA, legacies, excessive hours of community service, going through many hardships in life, or finding the cure for cancer? Just about nobody knows. The only people who know are the admissions officers and honestly, they probably do not know either. It comes down to luck. The moment that a college application is placed into the hands of an admissions officer it comes down to if you have what they are looking for. Sometimes, they’ll want a white upper-middle-class girl who had the privilege of having SAT tutors that helped her perfect her scores. While, other times they will want a Hispanic boy who did not have the best family life growing up and therefore did not necessarily have access to privileges that helped him perfect his college application. It all comes down to what the admission officers want in the spur of the moment.
However, while the college application process is nerve-wracking, it is always good to remember the bright side. The bright side is that, hopefully, at the end of the admission process there will an acceptance letter that the student receives. While the acceptance letter may not be from a top school it is still enabling access to higher education and isn’t that what the process is all about?