<p>Does anyone else think the whole system of applying to somewhere and getting rejected because you really want to go to that school sound unfair?</p>
<p>I think its wrong that colleges reject someone based on their “passions” and “ec’s” and stuff. They wont be college material. What happen to the days of giving everyone who is passionate to attend a college(otherwise they would not be applying) a chance to further their education there. I mean, I just think its really unfair that colleges can judge people as unworthy of even taking a class at their prestigious enterprise.</p>
<p>but, you are missing the point, these people want to go to top colleges because they want an amazing education, yet they are denied education simply because the college doesnt like them. why should these people be forced to go to half class colleges and get a mediocre education simply because a top college doesnt “think” they will be a productive part of the college(i doubt anyone is a productive part of a college besides like 3 people who discover something)</p>
<p>Most colleges (maybe not the elitist ones) would offer anybody who wanted to further their education a chance to succeed at their institution - especially state schools. The problem is, if you let everybody who wants to attend in, you end up with an absurd number of people and need to either 1) hire way more profs, forcing the college to lower their standards for profs, or 2) increase class sizes drastically. Either way, a student’s educational quality decreases sharply.
The US system is unique in that everybody who wants to get postsecondary education has the option too - unless finances prevent them. It could be going to a CC then transferring, but for most hard working HS students there are multiple schools out there that will educate them as well as an IVY if they’re willing to compromise on getting a name-brand school.</p>
<p>the top schools except students based on passion, if they prove also they can academically handle the work. JHU says they accept based on personal qualities/potential rather than just SAT scores - they actually mention SAT is not as big of a deal in decision making on their website. A lot of top schools - except maybe most ivies - have wide ranges of SAT scores/GPAs b/c they deny tons of kids with top scores but except slightly lower ones who do have passion instead.</p>
<p>moviemania: frankly your assertions are a bit off IMHO. Pretend for a moment that you’re sitting on the commitee of a top ten college. You have 1200 slots and you pull in 19000 apps this year. You get 100 students that look exactly the same metrically and fully qualified (GPA, transcript, SAT/ACT) and you have 30 slots for this batch of kids. How do you magically produce 70 slots? </p>
<p>Well?</p>
<p>Then what do you base your decisions upon? Coin flips? Dart board?</p>
<p>Selective college admissions is an art and surely not a science (as they’ll tell you). It’s also absurd to think that these 70 rejected kids “won’t get an education”. The fact is a higher percentage of American kids go to college than probably any other country in the world. Just because the physical limits of the so-called “top” schools exists doesn’t mean that people can feel entitled to getting a slot into one of them.</p>
<p>“why should these people be forced to go to half class colleges and get a mediocre education simply because a top college doesnt “think” they will be a productive part of the college”</p>
<p>Why should students get to judge schools but schools not be allowed to judge students? There are a LOT of good schools out there.</p>
<p>your posts here and elsewhere on cc reveal an urealistic and high degree of self-entitlement. </p>
<p>If a college is not in demand for whatever reason, it will be very easy for a student to get admitted.</p>
<p>However, if a college is high demand, there are only so many seats in a college (believe it or not, tuition does not pay for the entire cost of providing the college education!!!). There is not an unlimited pool of money that exists to expand the number of available seats to accommodate all who apply! Therefore, a college has to select only a subset of those that apply to be accepted. </p>
<p>And when colleges guess wrong about how many accepted will attend, and many more show up, all of the entering students have a lower quality of experience (overcrowded dorms and inability to get into the classes they desire).</p>
<p>a tufts admissions officer described it to me this way and i really liked it</p>
<p>he said that they are trying to create an “artificial community” where they have all walks of like represented. they want all these different people to make this educational community culturally broad and expansive. they dont just want homogeny on there campus. they wants all sorts of different ideas and beliefs</p>
<p>so at the end of the day…those people who get into top schools obviously have shown something that admissions officers want in their community. so it isnt really as random as people say. while i will admit that lots of top schools are random in a sense of “are you what they want in their community” getting in isnt random. the people who really express themselves and come across well through their apps are the ones who get in</p>
<p>stop complaining…and just work on your applications. be unique. make them really really want to meet u. and talk to you.</p>
<p>You think that the college application process is unfair? Go read the thread about how they do it in South Korea. Or I can tell you about how it’s done in China: there’s ONE day each year (no make-up dates, even if you’re dying in the hospital; just gotta wait 'til next year!) on which you can take the uberhuge college entrance exam. You are only allowed to apply to 3 schools. You list them in order then the colleges see how they ranked on your list. Did I mention you have to do this BEFORE you actually receive your scores? The only things that colleges base your acceptance/rejection on are 1) your score (which you don’t get to find out before you apply) and 2) where they rank on your list. </p>
<p>High school grades? ECs? Community service? All count for NOTHING.</p>
<p>And that is how slews of applicants each year with scores good enough to get them accepted into the Chinese equivalent of HPYSM will sometimes end up not being accepted into any college at all.</p>
<p>There now, doesn’t the US college application process seem much more fair?</p>