A Moral Dilemma: Rice and Geographical Selection

RedSeven
Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:39:44 +0000

Even if you’re probably not going to attend the school you’ve applied to, it’s not your moral obligation to improve the chances of your classmates by not applying or by withdrawing your applications.

You have every right and responsibility to give yourself the best shot you can at getting into a school you’re going to be happy with, which means you’re completely justified into applying to as many schools as you want to regardless of whether your peers are also applying.

I turned down many schools that I was accepted to and that my classmates had at the top of their lists but were rejected from. That’s life. It wasn’t my responsibility to harm my chances in the interests of accommodating someone else’s. If my application was better, so be it–I earned that.

Plus, you don’t even know whose application is better without the admissions committee’s decision. Too much of it is subjective.