Improving
college admissions is a constant topic of debate. What has become obvious to me
is that many opinions are formed from a solitary point of view. Something I
agree with changing are all the options in the way the student can apply. The
ones I can name off the top of my head are Early Action, Restrictive/Single
Choice Early Action, Priority Applications, Early Decision I and II and Rolling
Admission. I can understand a couple different options, but come on…
What about
demonstrated interest? Some colleges say that they place value in demonstrated interest.
That means that the student has made contact with the college and inquired
about the possibility of gaining admission; the more times the better for favorite
colleges. Shouldn’t all colleges be interested in students that are interested
in them?
Standardized testing
is another subject experiencing change and has been under the microscope for
years. Each year more and more colleges are making test scores optional.
Something that could derail the movement away from standardized test scores is
more school districts not ranking their seniors. We can’t talk about test
scores and rankings without talking about statistics the colleges publish. Top
colleges want to toot their own horn to perspective students as well as to
organizations that rank colleges. Those numbers create their own kind of stress
for students who teeter on the edge of “the middle 50%” admitted to any
specific college.
There are also
those who question the value of pursuing a college degree at all. There is
really no question about how beneficial it can be financially to earn a college
degree. This question is best answered by the individual and what they want to
do. Cost should not be the deciding factor in making this decision.
One of the
biggest arguments presently is whether merit should be the only consideration
when accepting students. If that plan was put in place all our elite colleges
would be transformed to overwhelmingly female populations who are mostly
international, Asian or of Middle Eastern descent. Of course, it wouldn’t take
very long for a system to develop where wealthy families pour large sums of
money into private schools and testing organizations to produce superior grades
and test scores. Oh wait, that’s what we have now…