"A contrarian view of college admissions" or why the process is healthy for our kids

[madville]

And at least finding a spouse doesn't usually involve writing an essay.

C'mon Dad, elloquently well wriiten love letters never hurt your chances with a potential mate!

[Papa Chicken]

hmmm...a peer reviewed paper on this subject...

"How Applying to College Shapes Students: Study Finds "Formative Experience," Frustration, for Brightest Applicants"
9/07
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal...00019b80222449

abstract

The college admissions process teaches students how to express themselves during interviews, how to describe their best qualities in application essays. It may also make them wary of college marketing campaigns, and skeptical of being treated as a statistics, due to the large role played by standardized-test scores and grade-point averages. Such dichotomy has prompted the Education Conservancy, to develop plans for a major research project to explore the messages that selective colleges send to prospective applicants, and how those messages influence the attitudes and behaviors of high-achieving students. The findings of a preliminary, qualitative study suggest that college applicants absorb both good and bad lessons, which may shape how they see themselves and society. Researchers devised a list of questions, including "Why is the college admission process so important?" and "Is there anything you have done just to enhance your admissions probabilities?" A research firm took those questions to eight high schools, public and private across the country. At each stop, researchers posed the questions to chosen groups of 12 high-achieving seniors, all of whom had applied to selective colleges. Among the positive findings was that the admissions process gives students opportunities for self-examination and personal growth. The students in the study also tended to believe they had to make many sacrifices when applying to colleges. Because they felt pressure to be well-rounded, many said they had participated in some extracurricular activities solely to improve their admissions prospects. An independent researcher who worked on the preliminary project, concluded in a separate analysis that colleges may do some things that elicit, or reinforce, lying, cheating, and cynicism among potential applicants, and that aggressive recruitment efforts might convince students that colleges are self-serving businesses, not institutions with educational missions. The researcher also speculated that standardized tests may promote dishonesty and resentment among students who think the requirement overshadows their creativity, hard work, and motivation. One potentially fruitful question of the broader, longitudinal study may be to examine whether negative admissions-related experiences continue to affect students after they enroll in college. The study might try to examine whether elite institutions take too much blame for applicants' competitiveness, anxieties, and tactics, which may amount to a reflection of human nature as much as a result of systemic flaws in admissions. Some higher-education experts believe that the Conservancy project could hold a much-needed mirror up to the admissions industry. At least one college association president feels that colleges would benefit from hearing what more students have to say about practices such as early decision and mass marketing. "Some students have learned not about education or how to think, but about how to build a resume," says one advisor. "What are colleges helping them to learn?"

[mammall]

It's not for wimps, that's for sure. In the occasional calm moments in our house I do sometimes think something good is coming from this for my senior. If nothing else, just multi-tasking in the extreme, learning to solicity support from teachers, community mentors, school administrators. Learning not to get "freaked" by uber-competitive classmates and their parents. Learning to manage me as a useful resource but one that needs boundaries.

[NewHope33]

I agree with Jessie also. If it's true that human beings learn more from failure than success (and I think it is true), viewing the college applications as a learning process seems rather foolhardy.

Full disclosure: I did let my D apply to a school where she was unlikely to be accepted despite superior stats. But at least I explained why acceptance would be an uphill battle BEFORE she applied.

[Papa Chicken]

an article arguing the negative impact of the process:

High-School Students Share a Grim Opinion of College Admissions

Nearly 100 high-school seniors surveyed in Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago characterized the college process as an exercise in "marketing."

They admitted to taking advanced courses and SAT classes -- even cheating on tests -- solely to enhance their candidacy. They lamented pursuing numerous extracurricular activities, instead of a particular passion, to appear well-rounded. They complained of colleges courting kids who had zero chance of acceptance.

Overall, the students described the admissions experience as dizzying, disenchanting and deceptive.

[bethievt]

Papa Chicken

In the cases you describe, it was the students (and maybe their parents) who made the admissions process into something deceptive. My son didn't feel he *had* to do anything dishonest to enhance his chances. He chose schools that were a good match for him and all of them agreed because they accepted him. The process of figuring out who he was and wasn't was very growthful (is that a word?) for him. Choosing colleges because they are at the top of a list in a magazine and then trying to fit yourself into that mold is not growth-producing; it's stultifying and yes, deceptive.

[Nick017]

I think the process is good for smart underacheivers, people who finally say OMG, I'm twice as smart as that guy getting into HPYS, but since I have played WoW for my first two years of hs, I'm headed to a school ranked below 20th. Then the student gets on it, because us smart but lazy people need our ego to be stroked by more than a 2400, so we bring our gpa up, do a bunch of **** we don't care about, like building homes and playing a sport/instrument.

The admissions process gets ppl off their butts, and by job time, most ppl tend to do okay if they learned their lessons.

[GroovyGeek]

The most positive thing about the admissions process is that kids finally get to feel what rejection is like. Our schools and kid sports leagues have devolved to a point where everybody is a "winner" and nobody is being told they suck. Hopefully by experiencing rejections while still in their teens they don't become serial killers when the inevitable rejections come later in life

I can relate a personal episode when my D fell behind with her school and we went to talk to her teachers. She had a C in French at the time, and her French teacher never stopped blabbing about what a great student D is. Great student my ass... it was infuriating to hear a teacher make it look like a C was a perfectly normal and acceptable outcome.