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June 21, 2006
College Admission Fear Factor
Will I get in anywhere?
Is anyone accepting women?
Do I have to take 9 AP classes to get into college?
Am I unique enough to be accepted?
What activity or club should I add to my resume to make me standout?
Princeton only accepts 13% of its applicants!
I’m sure you have all read articles about how competitive college admission is becoming. The print, electronic and television media have glorified the process and are striking fear into every family. Prime time news shows enjoy glamorizing the Ivy League selectivity because they know anyone with a child under the age of eighteen will watch to get pointers on how to get in. Fear produces viewers but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
NEWS FLASH: There are only eight Ivy League schools and maybe another thirty in the entire country with similar admission criteria. That represents less than one-percent of all the colleges and universities across the country. Yes, these colleges weed students out through the admission process because there is not enough room for all the students that wish to attend. Yes, it is ultra competitive. But this cannot be considered the norm.
What I would like to convey to anyone who is examining the college admission is that if a student is academically and socially prepared to take on the rigors of higher education and motivated to do so there will be a college or university that would be glad to enroll them. A large portion of college admission processes are created solely to evaluate if a student is prepared to make a successful jump to college and are not designed to stand them up against thousands of others to select a small portion of students that best fits what a college thinks their needs.
Feel free to read the articles, watch 20/20 and Primetime exposés. But please realize that these stories do not apply to 99% of you and the colleges that students eventually attend. But the Fear Factor is interesting entertainment!
Posted by Chris Boehm at June 21, 2006 9:59 AM