Every year, students across the United States submit applications to thousands of colleges and universities. From there, they wait anxiously, often for months at a time, while colleges file through the millions of applications and select students who meet their requirements for admission. This process includes analyzing grades, test scores, extracurriculars and the general well-roundedness of applicants. Beyond these easily quantitative aspects, they also look into the character and personality of an applicant. No one quite knows what specific qualities colleges look for since it simply comes down to the opinion of an admissions officer or committee on a given day. This leads to many situations where qualified applicants may be denied and less qualified applicants are accepted due to an arbitrary characteristic that an admissions officer happens to be looking for.
A process that should be used to decide who is qualified based on their work has become impossible to understand. If a student has near-perfect grades and has demonstrated exemplary time management skills through participation in extracurricular activities, then why should they be denied just because of their personality?
While unfair, there are reasons for this process. If admissions were just a contest for the highest grades and most participation, then colleges may find themselves filled with dull students. If it were only the most qualified, it would be all the same people. People who prioritized academics high above any chance to have fun and live their lives. Unfortunately, the world is not just about having fun and those who work hard should be rewarded. Indeed, there is a balance between these two traits. An admissions process where only those who are qualified are considered, and among those people, only the most interesting are accepted.
A potential solution is this: if a student doesn’t have good grades, they shouldn’t even be considered. To specify, if someone is not within the top ten percent of their class, a prestigious institution should not even waste time considering their application. The vast amount of time that could be saved would allow much more careful consideration of those who are actually qualified and have worked hard to earn the opportunity. Realistically, this will never happen, but if these institutions could at least shed some light on what they are looking for in applicants, it could save a lot of time and remove so much of the unnecessary stress around applying to colleges.
College admissions are an unfair process, and they likely always will be. Not just because the world isn’t fair, but also because college decisions are fundamentally subjective. There’s no way around it; real people are being compared to each other. However, there’s still hope for change, so the process of applying to colleges can be less unfair and stressful than it is today.
