College

One in A Million – Applying to Top Colleges in Today’s World

The college application process is terrifying. Each and every year the standards increase, the admissions rates lower, and the cost of top colleges becomes even more expensive. Even students who are at the top of their class find it difficult to stand out to admissions officers.

It’s difficult to see others’ success and not feel that your chances at admission are hopeless. There are kids performing research with University professors, starting non-profit organizations, and changing the world before they’ve even learned how to drive.

One of the most common discouragements for students today is the internet; There are plenty of sites full of students with no more knowledge about college admissions than any other “chancing” college hopefuls about their shot at their dream school. This internet culture is toxic for students, enveloping them in negative thoughts about their successes.

In reality, the college admissions process is not exclusively stats-based. Of course, everyone you see online posting “The Stats That Got Me Into Harvard” has exceptional scores and extracurriculars – because they want to let you know all about them. In reality, many students get in without perfect scores, or starting their own charity, or anything of that sort.

The current college admissions culture for top schools is encouraging students to participate in extracurriculars and courses that they think will get them admitted, not what they actually enjoy. Since college admissions are more or less a crapshoot, what happens to these kids when they’ve done everything right and still don’t get in?

The answer is simple: You don’t want to be another STEM major with a SciO background, or a Journalism major who’s received a Quill & Scroll award – you want to be different. The truth is that we are all, inherently, unique. In trying to make yourself stand out to admissions officers by doing “exactly what you should be doing”, you’re actually making yourself exactly like everyone else.

The best way to make yourself stand out is to be exactly who you are. If a college doesn’t want that, then that’s their loss – and you likely wouldn’t have been very happy there anyways. If it’s the school for you, you’ll end up there without having to jump through hoops and waste the last four years of your childhood trying to impress some guy in an office who’s been reading applications every day for months.

The college process today has convinced students that we need to be someone we aren’t so that we can get into a school where we supposedly belong. Instead, spend your time being yourself and enjoy high school; Don’t spend four years trying to be someone you aren’t just so you can continue the facade for 50k/year for the four years after that.

Remain true to yourself, and you’ll end up where you belong.

xoxo, tori ♡

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