“We overwhelm teenagers with advice about choosing a college. Go big. Go small. Put prestige above cost. Do the opposite. We inundate them with tips for getting in. Spend summers this way. Write essays that way. Play a niche sport. Play an obscure instrument. And then? We go mum, mustering less urgency and fewer words for the subject of actually navigating the crucial college years to best effect. It’s strange. And it’s stupid, because how a student goes to school matters much, much more than where.”
The Soul-Crushing Student Essay (NY Times)
What The People Who Read Your College Application Really Think - NPR
It's college application season, again. To a lot of students, the process seems wrapped in a shroud of mystery. What exactly happens when you send your application out into the unknown only to ... wait? Well, here's a glimpse behind the curtain at one school.
One way to write a great college admissions essay? Tell your story out loud. (WA Post)
Most application essays aren’t memorable, admissions experts say. A few are so awful they stand out. And some are so powerful that they change a student’s chance of acceptance, or help win scholarships.
Common App’s New Leader Ponders College Access — and Holographic Video Interviews (Chronicle)
[note: subscription required]
The Chronicle caught up with Ms. Rickard, now vice president for enrollment at the University of Puget Sound, in Washington state, to ask about her plans for the nonprofit organization behind the widely used admissions-application platform.
How to Survive the College Admissions Madness (NY Times)
For too many parents and their children, acceptance by an elite institution isn’t just another challenge, just another goal. A yes or no from Amherst or the University of Virginia or the University of Chicago is seen as the conclusive measure of a young person’s worth, an uncontestable harbinger of the accomplishments or disappointments to come. Winner or loser: This is when the judgment is made. This is the great, brutal culling. What madness. And what nonsense.
The Absurdity of College Admissions (The Atlantic)
How did getting into an elite school become a frenzied, soul-deadening process?
Acceptance rates at highly selective colleges have plummeted in recent years. Exclusivity has always been baked into their brand: Only about 3 percent of 18-year-olds in the U.S. go to schools that admit fewer than half their applicants, making the “college-admissions mania,” as The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson once put it, “a crisis for the 3 percent.” Still, it’s a mania to which more and more teensare subjecting themselves, pressuring applicants to pad their resumés and tout superficial experiences and hobbies, convincing them that attending a prestigious school is paramount. And critics say that mania has even spread into and shaped American culture, often distorting kids’ (and parents’) values, perpetuating economic inequality, and perverting the role of higher education in society as a whole
Greater Competition for College Places Means Higher Anxiety, too (NY Times)
As the frenzied college application season draws to a close, and students across the country mull their choices, many colleges are trumpeting that it was the most selective year ever. But high school guidance counselors and admissions experts say the heightened competition has turned the process into a anxiety-ridden numbers game.
Our Push for ‘Passion,’ and Why It Harms Kids (NY Times)
At some point in the last 20 years the notion of passion, as applied to children and teenagers, has taken hold. By the time a child rounds the corner into high school, the conventional wisdom is that he needs to have a passion that is deep, easy to articulate, well documented and makes him stand out from the crowd. This is madness. Read more...