Is the College Admissions Process Fair?

    

   Is the College Admissions Process Fair? 

    College. A place where dreams are possible through education, effort, and ingenuity. Many people such as myself dream of getting into a good college. A good college leads to success later in life, as my parents and many others seem to say. The only problem is that many applicants get denied from their dream school. While some may call this bad luck, it may be due to the fact the the process colleges use to admit applicants is not fair or at the least, very complex.

    To begin with, an interesting aspect that colleges look for in applicants is financial stability. As stated by Angel B. Perez, referenced by New York Times, "We're an institution, but we're also a business." This quote shows that colleges will not always base who they admit on their academic qualities, but rather their financial status. What this means, is that students with lower financial stability already have a smaller chance of getting in than students that can contribute more financially to the college. Another thing that colleges look for that may not be as apparent is where an applicant lives. Some colleges seem to care what state someone may be from, as they are looking for geological diversity. Additionally, an applicant's ethnicity, race, and lineage can be a factor. These aspects of an applicant are pretty uncontrollable and therefore it is unfair to judge an applicant based on them.

    While it may not be so clear that colleges look for financial stability and where an applicant lives, it's obvious that colleges are mainly looking at grades, right? Although this is partly true, many schools don't always take a straightforward approach. Eric Hoover implies in "What Colleges Want in an Applicant (Everything)," that colleges probably consider the questions, "Did they attend low-performing high-schools or well-resourced ones? Did they participate in extracurricular activities? Do they have leadership experience?" These questions cannot be deemed as "unfair" to ask about the applicant, but they do complicate things. In my opinion, it is good to ask these questions, as people with varying interests and abilities can be considered even in cases where their grades may not be as sufficient. But these considerations may also put people with high grades but no extracurriculars/leadership roles at a disadvantage. All in all, I believe that this system does allow for a broader range of students, but puts more pressure on applicants.

    Some other instances of universities becoming more specific in who they pick are in colleges like Trinity College, Olin College of Engineering, and M.I.T. According to "What Colleges Want in an Applicant (Everything)," many schools have started using alternative ways of picking applicants. One examples of this are Trinity College, which considers applicants based on their characteristics like curiosity or empathy. Another is Olin College of Engineering, which includes a live admission process in the application. There are many other examples of schools that look for things like Emotional Intelligence, or including a place where students can share videos and written work with the admissions team. In my opinion, these alternative ways of admission can allow for various types of students to be admitted but again, can make the process all the more specific.

    Ultimately, the college admissions process cannot be defined as "fair" because of all these factors. While this is all my opinion, colleges are very specific in who they admit. First of all, colleges look for factors that an applicant cannot control like their financial status and geological diversity. Secondly, these institutions look at what exactly the applicant did in high school, like extracurriculars and what type of high school the applicant went to. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, schools have started to take complicated approaches in who they admit. I believe Now more than ever, students must strive to go through all these hoops in order to be admitted to a college, putting some better-off or more inclined students at an advantage and others at a disadvantage.

Works Cited

Gonchar, Michael. “Over 1,000 Writing Prompts for Students.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Apr. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/learning/over-1000-writing-prompts-for-students.html. 

Hoover, Eric. “What Colleges Want in an Applicant (Everything).” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Nov. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/education/edlife/what-college-admissions-wants.html.