AP Classes Limit Curriculum
BY LAURA QUAZZO Contributing Writer
It is time Deerfield did away with AP courses. We are lucky enough to attend a school where we expect a top-notch education. By forcing students to follow an AP curriculum, making studying for the test an end all be all, Deerfield limits itself. Our teachers are fully capable of creating educational, insightful courses that prepare us for higher learning without help from the College Board. Students are more than capable of earning top marks on standardized tests without dedicating a yearlong course to preparing for it. AP classes are meant to impress college admissions officers. In schools that are less well known, admissions officers often have a hard time figuring out the intensity of different classes offered and can be assured by a standard that AP classes across the country are the same. However, a Deerfield student can have an impressive transcript without AP classes. Fe w students here find an AP class to be their
most challenging one. As Exeter stated in its college profile, “Exeter declined participation in the College Board’s Advanced Placement audit, as all Exeter departments offer coursework that goes beyond the College Board’s AP curriculum.” We should be able to say the same thing. As a reputable prep school, Deerfield already offers this challenge to every student regardless of whether or not they choose to step into an AP classroom. Our school works hard in all of its departments to prepare us for the workload and critical thinking we will need in college. Some colleges allow students receiving 5’s on certain APs to skip levels or receive credit for graduation requirements. Exeter’s college profile gives statistics about the score distribution of students who elected to take the AP test without having taken a specific AP class. This resulted in 69% of students receiving 5’s and only 10% scoring below a 3. Our English department has also proven we are able to score highly on the College Board’s test without a coursse name devoted to it. Deerfield must honor its heritage by breaking free of AP classes so that students can gain a more full perspective on the subjects they elect to take.
The Deerfield Scroll The Meaning of Life If the meaning of life were defined by colleges, life would come after April 1st, childbirth after asking “why us?”— instead of Fitzgerald, the literature filling the Barnes & Nobles bookshelves would be Princeton Review stories of success.
February 6, 2012
Put “College Prep” In Prep School BY CASEY BUTLER Front Page Editor
If Ivy Leagues were to define success, Phi Beta Kappas would run electoral colleges, SAT vocabulary manuals sag the bookshelves, five-year-olds learn to write “me” essays first; unique-tales-about-a-special-rock would be literature, and its theme “community is not me, but us!” All the world would want passports from the US, where internationalism is failed success, where experience is sought to produce literature, to create narratives for top-rated colleges— oh! and make sure your starving children’s charity is the first to have stocked its library with full bookshelves. Learn how to mosey your way around the bookshelves where colleges teach you the ropes of “how to get into us,” so admissions gods might choose you first and make you special, glowing with success, who will be able to write on Facebook: “i am going to college!” and perhaps never again read literature. However, if your unfortunate love is literature, do not roam among the bestselling bookshelves, where all you see is diversity’s success at attending colleges, where being accepted is being able to call your “me” “us,” where losing your own identity is a success, because you will be able to put some sorority first. So perhaps if your life goal is to get that large packet first, before you contemplate any introspective literature, then maybe you shouldn’t expect much success where your name will be lining the bookshelves; perhaps you should consider changing your name to “us” before you apply to those colleges. Whether six or thirty-nine colleges, you have to sell yourself first; Yet you must think in the collective “us” when writing your “me” literature, because of course to make it to the bookshelves, you have to be the perfect story of success. -Stefani Kuo ‘13
When the college advising office announced that they would be offering to meeting with sophomores for the first time, the decision was met with mixed reactions. Some argued that sophomore year is too early to begin the college process, and relatively few sophomores took advantage of the opportunity in the week it was offered. I am of the opinion that this was the first step in the right direction. Students attend Deerfield (and parents send them there) with our impressive matriculation rates in mind and with the ultimate goal of attending a prestigious college. Knowing this, shouldn’t we begin the process as soon as possible? I think that entering students should be assigned a college advisor right away. This way, by the time an advisor is required to write about their advisee, they have known them for longer than three months. Freshmen would meet with their advisors only once or twice, mostly to discuss class choices or co curricular options and their significance. I know that I would have made different class and testing choices if I had the benefit of meeting with a college advisor before my junior spring. While I don’t see this proposal becoming reality in the near future, I am very glad to see the College Advising Office moving in that direction and I hope that the next time the offer is extended, more sophomores will take it.
Stressing About College Is a Waste of Time BY SELDY GRAY ’11 Contributing Writer
Actually, You Don’t Deserve It BY SAMMY HIRSHLAND Opinion/Editorial Editor “You deserve it!” is what people often say to seniors who have just been admitted to their first-choice college. It’s great to hear congratulations from people close to you, but the truth is that “deserving” doesn’t have much to do with whether or not a college lets you in. While good grades and wellwritten essays obviously help, there are many factors out of our control. We can’t really decide the state we’re from, who our parents are, or our ethnic background, yet these can all contribute to whether or not we get into the schools of our choice. It’s not fair. Can it ever be? Not really. Would you want to go to a college that based admission solely on grades and test scores? I wouldn’t. There’s a good reason for affirmative action and admissions preference based on geography. I wouldn’t want to go to a school where everyone looked the same or was from the same place. While I recognize that it’s true that this may hurt my chances of getting into certain schools, I also recognize the importance of diversity on school campuses. As for legacy preference, in some cases it’s a necessary evil. In many cases, it’s a way for schools
to get money, although I don’t think building alumni loyalty should necessarily be a priority over what is best for the current student body. So, yes, I agree that it’s completely unfair for two people who are equally qualified for admission at a particular school to be held to two different standards, but I also think it’s sometimes necessary. Even without affirmative action or legacy preference, the college admissions process would never be a true meritocracy. Some students are great test-takers, while others find that their SAT and ACT scores don’t accurately reflect their academic abilities. Some students have parents who can afford to hire tutors, while others have to balance a job and school work during high school. The list goes on. It’s hard for a college application to show someone’s character. Admissions officers don’t know how you are when no one is looking, and some people face challenges that don’t necessarily show up on a college application. While you might be thrilled to get into the college you want to go, do you “deserve” it more or less than the person next to you? Probably not. And that’s fine, as long as you recognize that you cannot attach success or failure in this process to who you are as a person.
College: it’s probably all you’re thinking about. And it’s not your fault. Almost every adult conversation I had from the beginning of my junior year till the end of my senior year was about colleges. Ivy League or NESCAC? Big school or small school? East coast, the South, or California. (Forget the middle… we know there are only cornfields there.) For two years your present has been about planning your future. So let me tell you something I know now: It’s mostly a waste of time. Allow me to backtrack before I get a wave of angry emails— college is important. You should probably go. But the college you end up going to is about as significant as your freshman year Sadie’s date. Think back—you got all excited to be set up with this hot senior so you bought an overpriced costume and you styled your hair and you planned out the conversation you were going to have during the five minute walk from your dorm room to the gym and then…you ditched each other. Maybe that only applies to girls, but you get the idea. We do the same with colleges—we build up this idea of the place we want to go to, put it up on a pedestal, and then try our hardest to get in and fulfill the dream. But the acceptance letter you all will receive is not the key to a blissful future, but to a door of opportunity. And there are a lot of great doors to choose from. What’ll make you stand out is is what you choose to do after you walk in.
I wanted to go to Yale but I didn’t get it. In fact, I had one of the most horrendous college application experiences possible (Go ask Ms. Lyman if you don’t believe me, I give her full permission to pass along all the gory details). I applied to 21 schools. First piece of advice: do not apply to 21 schools. I got into around four or five. And for those of you who don’t know me, it’s not because I didn’t give Deerfield my all—I had a 91% GPA, took AP classes, went to Thailand with Round Square, served on the DC, played varsity sports all four years, was in the Acting Tutorial, was a Big Sister…you get it. But the college admissions
College is not an idea to fall in love with; it’s a school, a group of people, a vibe, and a mindset process is ruthless and it tore me down. Nothing makes you feel more worthless than a pile of rejection letters and a call from Ms. Lyman over spring break telling you to apply to schools in the UK because your prospects aren’t looking good. But I got through it, and to the Seniors still waiting for that letter of good news, you will too. I’m currently a sophomore at the University of Michigan. It’s a big, Midwestern state school with top-notch academics and boundless school pride, Google it sometime. I’m studying film, I’m a member of the Michigan Student Honor Council, I produce and correspond for a weekly TV news show, I have a part-time job, I spend my Saturdays with over 100,000 fans cheering on the Wolverines, and I’m super happy.
True story. I got rejected by my dream schools and I’m thrilled. Because, like I said, there are a LOT of great doors out there, and because you’re a Deerfield kid a lot of them will open for you. But you have to find the one that opens for you. Confused? Here’s what I mean: colleges may accept you because you’re smart. Or because you can play lacrosse. Or because you’re one-of-a-kind juggler. But other schools will accept you because fifteen people in your family went there. Or because they have a dorm named after you. Or because your mother dated this guy back in the day whose brother is now the head of admissions. And that school might be number one on U.S. News & World Report. But it’s not necessarily the school you should go to. When you walk onto a college campus you should feel at home. Not intimidated. Not obliged. If you choose a college because someone else says you should, you’re doing yourself a grave disservice. You will not thrive in an environment where you were let in as a courtesy. You will find success at a college that accepts the person you really are. I got lucky because almost every other door had to be slammed into my face before I walked through the right one. But maybe you’ll be smart enough to choose that school on your own. I certainly hope so. Let me leave you with this last thought: College is not an idea to fall in love with; it’s a school, a group of people, a vibe, and a mindset. And there’s no right one for everyone. Find your door and walk in with your head held high. Your future is yours. Own it.
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