College Admissions: Hazardous to Your Health?

Applying to College
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<p>“Hopeful parents are so eager to purchase the latest “best colleges” issue of U.S. News and World Report that bookstores give the magazine its own display case. Meanwhile, a recent article in the Health section of The New York Times (one in a seemingly endless series) examined the negative effects of the college admissions process on adolescent health.”</p>

<p>[Philip</a> Rocco | Preparing for college (admission) - Opinion](<a href=“http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/07/31/Opinion/Philip.Rocco.Preparing.For.College.admission-3396083.shtml]Philip”>http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/07/31/Opinion/Philip.Rocco.Preparing.For.College.admission-3396083.shtml)</p>

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<p>Good article. But are parents to blame? Hmmm…we could do a PhD thesis on the phenomenon. Societal issues…excessive narcissism and credentialism by corporations, private and governmental employers (even the US government is hoodooed with Ivy League-ism), which filters down to college admissions officers and high school teachers and counselors. Yes, parents are guilty, but we are not alone. </p>

<p>Life WAS simpler 30 or 40 years ago. We all didnt live in McMansions. We all didnt believe that having a Volvo or BMW in our driveway (or new Chevy Tahoe) was EXPECTED, not a status symbol. We all didnt spend money like there was no tomorrow on our kids, believing that the more you spend the happier they will be. Most people lived in homes that were under 2200 square feet. Now that is considered a paupers home. We drove Chevy Impala’s and Buick Century’s. We had two bathrooms in the home, not 5. We shared bedrooms with our siblings…now its like “ewwwww! you have to share a bedroom?” We had ONE television in the home. Now we have 5 or 6. We had typewriters not computers. We read books, magazines and newspapers, not surfed the net and pretended to be reading or pretended to be researching.<br>
How can you call it research if the search engine is doing the work FOR YOU???</p>

<p>I digress.</p>

<p>People scoffed at Orwell’s 1984 and Big Brother and HAL. But its upon us in more ways than people will admit.</p>

<p>Getting into State U was considered a good thing years ago, now its like “My State U is better than YOUR State U and my STATE U is higher ranking by USNWR than YOUR State U.” As if…</p>

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<p>It does not <em>have</em> to be that way, even if you’re applying to top schools. It wasn’t that way for me.</p>

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<p>Oh noes, the technology! It is teh evil!!1!</p>

<p>Seriously, you think that <em>computers</em> are a sign of societal narcissism and decay? And what do search engines have to do with whether someone is doing research or not? Do you know what research <em>is</em>? Whether you are doing research has absolutely zip to do with how difficult it is to find your sources.</p>

<p>Astoundingly, everyone today does not live in a McMansion or drive a BMW. And today is hardly the only materialistic era in our society. What about the Gilded Age? What about the Roaring Twenties? What about the conspicuous consumption of the '80s? Conveniently, in this modern world, you can look up all of these phenomena on the Internet. ;)</p>

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<p>"Life WAS simpler 30 or 40 years ago. "</p>

<p>I bet that’s exactly what your parents were thinking as you were growing up. The world changes, and while it might seem to be getting more complicated, it’s also becoming better in many ways. And while we might fatasize about the romanticism of the 19th century, would you really want to go back to a time where most people didn’t have indoor plumbing and even the royalty only took baths once a week?</p>

<p>“It does not <em>have</em> to be that way, even if you’re applying to top schools. It wasn’t that way for me.”</p>

<p>I agree. I don’t think I felt any more stress in applying to top schools than I would in applying to only local LACs and state schools. I’ve never been to an SAT prep class, and I certainly did not pay 1500 dollars/week for bogus pre-college programs.</p>

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<p>Let’s not label the actions of one university as a trend. One of the best changes in the pre-college experience from a generation ago is the proliferation and acceptance of academic summer programs. Many years ago, I was invited to a summer program for gifted students at Northwestern. My parents turned it down without asking me because they thought, “summer is for relaxing and having fun.” In contrast, my kids have benefited tremendously from attending summer academic programs, none of which wasted time on SAT prep or shepherded them from campus to campus. I am not disparaging that kind program, if that’s what a student wants or needs. But to not distinguish that sort of uber-prep from marvelous summer programs like William and Mary’s History Scholars or PROMYS at Boston College, or CTD at Northwestern is to do the latter programs a great disservice. Philip Rocco, how about an article on the colleges that do offer a great intellectual and growing experience for high schoolers?</p>

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<p>To answer Jessie, part of the exercise of research is spending time in a libary and reading books and then finding further sources…a lot of kids today use search engines, cut and paste and start “typing” their papers on their computers…often with no outlines etc. Its a mockery of the exercise. </p>

<p>I do know a thing or two about research. I have an advanced degree, thank you. Technology is helpful to us all in some ways, but it has a dark side that nobody seems to want to discuss honestly. Its like the technology police have made a rule: thou shalt not criticize technology and thou shalt never challenge conventional wisdom or status quo on technological issues or God Forbid! Challenge the NEED for technology.</p>

<p>Just because something is faster and “easier” doesnt make it quantitatively better. Search engines have replaced a lot of the thinking process in FINDING the appropriate research on a project and there is value, high value in my books, of learning HOW to research, just as much as the end result of what was researched. But I digress.</p>

<p>The real point I was making was that life was simpler back then. Call me a dinosaur. Guilty as charged. Or a Romantic on “The Way they Were”. </p>

<p>As for the Roaring Twenties and Guilded Age, we can argue that point here as well…but it would be a huge digression from the original point of the OP. No, not everyone is blessed with a BMW and McMansion. But I can assure you that in the immediate generation behind me…the 30 something people with kids now entering middle school…its definitely the standard of what they call normal expectations. </p>

<p>Another example. My D works in a large department store…40 hours a week, to earn her spending money and discretionary money and her books for college. She takes some student loans because we insist that she be invested in her own future. She has scholarship money as well. We cover the residual which isnt small. But some of her friends this summer exclaimed, “Your parents make you work during the summer and at Christmas break? Ewwww!” If that is not the epitome of spoiled brat, I dont know what is. One girl who did that is at Princeton. Another is at Furman. Sorry, its just the honest truth.</p>

<p>So yes, I do have a certain “point of view” about the good old days. Both my spouse and me came along the old fashioned way. If we didnt have the money, we couldn’t afford it and we simply waited or didnt get it. We both put ourselves through college by working, student loans etc. Our parents didnt buy us cars…at age 16, 18, or even college graduation gifts. But I am not griping. I wouldnt change a thing about how we came along. We both found jobs on our own, without some relative or close family friend helping us. Went to graduate school as well. Paid for our own home, invested our own money etc. It was the “norm.” It seems it isnt anymore. Admittedly we are upper middle class and perhaps see the world through the pink lenses of our own “spoiled” neighborhood and friends with kids in prestigious and expensive schools. The McMansion crowd. I just query whether we are doing the right thing by our kids. We are trying to get them to appreciate their “privileges” and earn their keep as best they can. </p>

<p>But the original OP article was about the obsession with prestige and the extent to which parents are going to get their kids into “that big name school.” And what that does to kids…not letting them be kids. Our kids have enough fun in the sun. Believe me. But we also make them work and they will ALL take SOME student loans as a matter of course to ensure they understand…its their future, their life they are investing in…and if they blow it, the loans come due and so forth…</p>

<p>And we dont feel “superior” to anyone either…nor is it feigned humility going on. Its just a matter of fact way of doing things. But judging from a lot of kids we hear about …and some parents, we may not be in the majority.</p>

<p>You may or may not agree with my views or position on colleges.</p>

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<p>to nocousin: the same kids that cut corners when it comes to using the internet for the research would be cutting the same corners if they didnt have the resource. you cant blame the times or the technology, just the individuals who let it take them over.</p>

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<p>“I do know a thing or two about research. I have an advanced degree, thank you.”</p>

<p>I too “have an advanced degree” and am ROTFLMAO!</p>

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<p>It doesn’t have to be the way depicted in that article. </p>

<p>I have two kids in very selective colleges. We never bought US News and World Report and my kids were unaware of college rankings. </p>

<p>My kids didn’t choose ANYTHING with “college admissions” in mind, except that they did choose to do as well as they could in school with the idea of going to a fine college some day. But all of their activities (and they did a LOT of them) were chosen because they wanted to do them and would have done the same exact things had they never gone to college. (and they have continued those interests in college as well) They did attend summer programs but never any pre-college or academic programs. They pursued their interests in summers because they wanted to without a care or thought about the college application. When they applied to college, they documented the things they had done over the years. They didn’t choose anything to “look good for college.” Ever. They had very successful college admissions (as well as grad school) outcomes. They did what they wanted, did it as well as they could (are high achievers) and the rest followed. </p>

<p>I am not against academic summer programs if that is indeed what a kid truly has a passion for. My kids never considered such programs, even though they are very strong academic students. They used their summers for other interests and chose activities and programs around what they loved to do. People should know that one need not attend any pre-college programs to get into college. Do what you love, do it very well, take on significant roles in your endeavors and strive to reach your goals. There is not a formula to get into great colleges. And great colleges are not defined by the rankings. My kids do not even know where their undergrad schools ranked.</p>

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<p>I still don’t understand how online research is any less legitimate than research in a physical library. It’s not like you use your brain any more when you flip through the pages of a book than if you just look for different ways to formulate your search query to get better results. Yes, you don’t have to travel to the Library of Congress or wait for three weeks for an ordered book to come in when you are looking for a rare text online, but what is the point of waiting anyway? You don’t somehow become “lazy” just because information is readily available to you.</p>

<p>I agree that working during the summer is to some extent necessary. I just don’t feel right about going out to eat or spending on “extras” in college when the money comes from my parents. However, I’ve worked very hard in school for the past four years to get into a school that would offer me generous financial aid. If I had work during the school year, it would mostly likely have cut either into my ECs or my academics. If that had happened, my first-choice college would never have accepted me, and my financial aid would not have been nearly as high as it is now. I believe the same will be true for my college. At least initially, I want to get acclimated by joining clubs and succeeding in classes without having to worry about going to work or taking out loans. I believe it will make me more successful in the end, socially, academically, and financially. If you think I’m not a responsible or independent person because of that - that’s your opinion. But I believe that I am being responsible in looking toward the future.</p>

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<p>Many students do not know how to properly research something online. They don’t know how to differentiate valid online sources from untrustworthy ones. Studies have shown that people tend to read online material in a different way than they read books–online they scan rather than read word-for-word. The accessibility of cut-and-paste also increases the trend of students copying and pasting. I suppose this discussion could go on the CollegeConfidential Cafe rather than here. The book to read is “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future” by Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory. It’s a great book. You can read the whole thing in a day at Barnes and Noble.</p>

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<p>Exactly.</p>

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<p>So blame the people who failed to teach them this, not the tools.</p>

<p>I think we’re in sort of a transition period right now. Maybe in future generations this sort of thing will be part of the curriculum from the primary grades on.</p>

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<p>That was a very interesting article–I can’t believe that high school seniors would get so little freedom and have to have their “college experience” during the summer program truncated by SAT prep. </p>

<p>I am a high school student and I have had very good fortune with all of the summer programs that I have been involved in. Like midwesterner said, the William and Mary history program is amazing–I got to travel around to different historic sites in Virginia and live next to Colonial Williamsburg for 3 weeks. This summer, I am doing chemistry research through a university affiliated program. However, coming to the lab every day is my only responsibility–I get lots of free time to roam around the city. I’d like to say that my great success in finding summer programs that do not squeeze all of the fun out of summer while still being educational comes from my willingness to really search for a program that was in line with what I wanted. I think it all comes down to the student being willing to search and to know his/her interests and expectations before showing up.</p>

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<p>“They don’t know how to differentiate valid online sources from untrustworthy ones.”</p>

<p>As if that were any different from people who can’t tell a trustworthy book from pages and pages of garbage. Printed literature is not always the holy grail of knowledge that it’s made out to be.</p>

<p>“Studies have shown that people tend to read online material in a different way than they read books–online they scan rather than read word-for-word.”</p>

<p>Even if that is true, so what? Most adults read non-fiction literature by scanning. You can save time by skipping over unnecessary fluff. It’s efficient.</p>

<p>“The accessibility of cut-and-paste also increases the trend of students copying and pasting.”</p>

<p>Which doesn’t mean that the same students wouldn’t just take a book and retype the portion of it they need if internet weren’t available. And then, it would be a lot harder to detect, since sites like turnitin.com only scan online databases. It’s not about the tool - it’s about the ethics - and it’s not like our generation invented plagiarism.</p>

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<p>Re article in OP’s post…I went to a summer college program a generation ago; kind of slept through class and went out drinking every night (our “counselors” went with us!). I think the institutions who run such programs are now very concerned about their liability to minors and have to assume the role of strict parent. And that involves not letting them wander around the college city by themselves. It’s hard to duplicate a college experience for a bunch of high school kids when their parents expect that they will be supervised.</p>

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<p>Muffy, </p>

<p>I think that is a good point. I think parents of HS students who send their kids away to programs in a city will expect a certain level of supervision because it is not yet college. That’s why it is called “Pre” college. :D</p>

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<p>“Which doesn’t mean that the same students wouldn’t just take a book and retype the portion of it they need if internet weren’t available. And then, it would be a lot harder to detect, since sites like turnitin.com only scan online databases. It’s not about the tool - it’s about the ethics - and it’s not like our generation invented plagiarism.”</p>

<p>Indeed. Search engines are an incredibly powerful tool in the battle against plagiarism.</p>

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<p>Nocousin, I cannot agree with you more. Thoreau said it best when he wrote there is more to life than speed. Add size or rank and you get what he meant. Or was it Gandhi? Thoreau did say that our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end. </p>

<p>Yes, there are less frenetic summer programs and one parent mentioned how his/her child had profited from one. How do we know when one has gained from a particular program? The child is happy? Or enthusiastic? I respectfully suggest that cognitive dissonance theory explains all this rather elegantly. The opportunity cost of such programs is too steep: the idle summers lost, the boredom not endured, the squirrels not chased, the grandmother not listened to, the imagination not run wild.</p>

<p>Online research is certainly not the same as research in a physical library with physical materials like books. The reading, the sorting, the reflecting are all different. One reads a book differently than an online article simply because these two items are produced differently, edited differently, reviewed differently, have different goals, different life expectancies, different audiences.</p>

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<p>nocousin, the 30-40 years ago sounds, for the most part, like my life now and the lives of most people I know. A lot of the things you mentioned seem to just have to do with the fact that you’re doing quite well financially. BMWs, big houses, kids doing summer programs? Not common at my school.</p>

<p>I suppose in response to the article I should be partly grateful that my family was far from what this article mentions. I never did any summer programs because of what colleges might think, and I know practically nobody from my school that did either. I can think of one person who has done a summer program at my school (Teluride). I never even considered a “top school” until my senior year, well after I’d already committed to all my courses and extracurriculars. It was nice that my interests lined up well with what colleges wanted without any of the pressure other students seem to have. This is all truly unheard of around here, and CC has been an entirely different world for me.</p>

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<p>Hardly. No BMW here, two of my kids share a room, and we all figure out a way to share one shower. It’s really not that unusual. Some of us live in old-fashioned city neighborhoods by choice, no McMansions in sight. In fact we’d consider them to be a curse not a blessing, but to each their own.</p>

<p>Perhaps this admissions stress is an extension of “affluenza”. Most people I know are more worried about how to pay for very average schools over getting into top tier ones.</p>