<p>I was standing in the Dartmouth Bookstore today when I had a realization. I’m here as part of one of these requisite, week-long, multi-college trips that just about all of the 30,000 high schoolers seeking admission at highly selective colleges do at some point in their junior (or even sophomore) year. You know, just another facet in this stupid college rat race. I had just been on Dartmouth’s tour and attended their information session, which were good, but pretty much exactly the same as any other good college. While browsing the bookstore, I picked up “The Science of Liberty” by Timothy Ferris, a book about the relationship between enlightenment political ideals and the scientific revolution, and how that relationship has played out since the enlightenment. It was something that I immediately found fascinating, because I’ve always loved books that explore the consilience between science and the humanities. All the sudden, I got extremely excited at the prospects for the coming afternoon. There’s a big snowstorm here in Hanover, so we’re staying here an extra day before driving back home to New York. I thought I would be spending the day curled up in a hotel room filling my head with knowledge and insight that I would never get in any of my high school classes. </p>
<p>But, alas, that’s not what I’m going to be doing this afternoon. No, I have to spend my time writing a series of 25 minute essays on extremely broad and general topics, so that I can be prepared for my tutoring session this coming sunday, so that I can marginally improve on the already very good score I got on the writing section of the SAT, so that I can, supposedly, have a better shot of getting into a school like Dartmouth. It’s pretty ridiculous if you ask me.</p>
<p>I already got a very good score on the SAT, normally I wouldn’t be so vain as to post it, but apparently that’s de rigueur here on College Confidential (and, just knowing the type of people who post here, I’m sure as soon as you read that I was at Dartmouth, immediately questions like “what were his SAT scores? GPA? Extra currics?” came to mind). I got a 750 on math, 750 on reading, and 730 on writing. I thought I was all done with this test, but apparently not. Apparently, the dictates of the college admissions process say I should continue to immerse myself in mind-numbing SAT preparation, not anything as useless as, like, actual learning. Like I said, it’s a rat race.</p>
<p>I fancy myself a pretty intelligent guy, but I don’t have delusions of grandeur, I know that my high SAT wasn’t really indicative of my intelligence, or even of any factor that relates to how good a college student I’ll be. It’s indicative of the fact that for about two months before the December test, I took one SAT practice test every week. And if I marginally improve that score, it will only be indicative of the fact that I sacrificed time where I could have been actually learning in order to play this stupid college admissions game that we all play. </p>
<p>But, personally, I don’t think the student who continually sacrifices time to do something truly useless like SAT preparation and gets a 2350 deserves to go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton more than the student who took the test once, got a pretty good score, and then said “screw it” and did something real. In fact, it’s just the opposite of that. The first student has his priorities all wrong, he doesn’t realize something that I think the regulars of this site need to hear: college is not everything.</p>
<p>Actually, that’s not enough. It’s not that college isn’t everything, it’s more that college isn’t anything. Learning is everything. Knowledge is everything. College is just a particularly effective means to that end. The problem is that kids don’t realize that, they think college is the end in and of itself. First they do things that they think will look good to colleges. But then they hear college admissions officers parrot that clich</p>