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The College Question
It is the moment you’ve been anticipating since the first day of your freshman year of high school. You are a senior, and with this title come unimagined privileges. You receive the best parking spaces at school. You are given the option of prematurely ending your day of classes, assuming a free period permits. Most importantly, you and your grade are revered as the “leaders of the pack,” the group that demands admiration and fear simultaneously. All of these things, however, can and will be immediately overshadowed by the dreaded, reviled, all-important “college question.” For many, the college question begins much too early, and those students spend every waking moment of their quickly passing high school careers planning in detail the GPA and SAT scores necessary for receiving admittance into the best, most illustrious universities. Others, in an attempt to salvage some part of their limited sanity, opt to take it easy, waiting until the end of junior year or perhaps the beginning of senior year to seriously contemplate their respective collegiate futures. Either way, each and every high school senior will receive “the college question” more times than seems physically possible before it’s all over. “Where are you applying?” they ask. Although you know the answer, a sense of shame immediately ensues—you recognize the fact that you will not receive acceptance into many of your top choices. Questions and self-deprecating comments race through your head. Did I take enough AP courses? Was my schedule the most challenging possible? Did I participate in enough activities? How can I possibly compete with these other amazing applicants? I have wasted my high school years and now it is too late. I am worthless, and I have failed life.Believe it or not, such banter will occur every time you hear the word “college” for the next seven months. Thankfully, it comes to a quiet end the day you are safely enrolled in a school. At this time, reflection will occur, and I challenge you to take a look back on your college application experience. I have found that the college process, as innocent as it may seem, tends to disallow teenagers to be themselves, manipulating them into the super-human force that most schools look to accept. The pressures created by an enormous applicant pool often generate an atmosphere of high competition and even higher stress. Students begin to substitute classes in the arts for classes in the AP sciences, simply because it gives them an edge. The demand for straight A transcripts and high GPAs often causes those with poor time management skills to choose less than honest solutions when completing work. Students will frequently overload on leadership roles and after-school activities, unable to say “no” to commitments for fear of losing an advantage over other applicants. Even the essay, ostensibly the most personal aspect of the whole process, is becoming a carefully controlled art form. Just last week I attended a workshop held by a highly respected Dean of Admissions outlining how to write the essay guaranteed to get you into the college of your choice; what subjects to avoid and how to get on the good side of your reader. While I enthusiastically attended with pen and paper in hand, and while the workshop itself was quite informative and helpful, it raises an important question. If colleges see the essay as an “eye into the soul,” who are they to decide that our own personal experiences and words are not good enough?For those who have yet to endure “the college question,” enjoy every moment of your high school years. Work to the best of your abilities, but don’t let anyone or anything change your opinions, ideas or interests. If you remain strong in yourself and your beliefs, nobody will be able to stop you from pursuing what you enjoy. A teenager’s life can easily become a complicated preparation for the ideal college. Instead, present yourself just as you are, not who you think someone else wants you to be. Become strong in your own pursuits and principles, and make the college prepare for you.

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