<p>The issue I have is not that they want students who are passionate about math and science and who want to apply that passion to their lives, but that they expect to see it as early as high school. I’ve always viewed high school as a time to experiment with a broad range of interests of activities. I love math and science, but I also love art, the classics, music, literature, philosophy, a number of other artistic and academic disciplines. As a result, I have dedicated a lot of my time to interests other than math and science. I always thought that that was a good thing – there are other valuable things in the world besides math and science, after all! But now I feel like the fact that I didn’t choose my major in 8th grade and plan my high school life around that is hurting me. The fact that one hasn’t dedicated the majority of one’s time to a specific field in high school does not mean that that person can’t specialize in that field later in life and make significant contributions to it. I think colleges should focus on interest and potential more so than full-fledged passion – if you have fully-developed and applied passion that early, that’s great, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong if you don’t.</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m distorting what colleges are looking for, but that’s how I’m feeling right now.</p>