Point of View

By Luke Gialanella

The first thought I have when I wake up in the morning and the last before I fall asleep are the same: “When will this be over?”

“This,” of course, refers to the college admissions process, an undertaking I have been going through for the past few months since I began my junior year of high school. Sure, it might seem dramatic, but so is the process itself. Attending college has been the objective my entire life. And not just any college, but a great one. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to seek higher education, yet this process and the goals I’ve set for myself have felt constricting and upsetting. I am more scared than ever that my life will be a failure, simply because I may not be able to meet my own high standards.

It’s hard to go on a drive without seeing a car with something like “Proud UCLA Mom” or “Go Trojans!” plastered on its bumper. This pride and competition, which I call bumper sticker culture, represents a key issue with the college admissions process. This culture is one of name and logo recognition. When someone utters the word Harvard, people are quick to point out that they, or their child, attended the elite university. There’s nothing innately wrong with taking pride in your college — in fact, it’s school spirit that’s a selling point for many applicants. However, it’s the fight for spots at “name brand” universities that turns school spirit into a culture of competition. I have seen firsthand how these cultures form and how friendships break over attempts to get into top universities.

There’s a website that my school provides that ranks colleges I’m interested in into four categories, based on my GPA and standardized test scores: unlikelies, reaches, targets and likelies. This website consumed my life for the first few weeks after I was given access. Schools bounced between these color-coded tiers, and I kept track of all changes. The more I reloaded that same screen of colleges, the more apprehensive I became about the entire concept behind the site. How could four years of my life — actually, my whole life — be decided by two numbers? I’ve been assured this isn’t the case, but from what I’ve learned through extensive research and communication with those in the know, GPAs and standardized test scores are perhaps the most important aspects of a student’s application. Yes, extracurriculars and essays are important, but many applications are immediately discarded by admissions teams if those two numbers are too low. Additionally, I’ve learned that schedule-planning for your junior and senior years of high school is more important than many have been led to believe. I elected to have a free period this year (my junior year), and now that decision might have permanent consequences on my GPA and the colleges I might hope to attend. So, how can we improve this process? For starters, parents need to stop setting lofty expectations for their children from a young age. Of course, this doesn’t mean to stop setting expectations altogether; just don’t tell your child that they need to become the president, cure cancer or go to Yale. Next, schools need to be more transparent with their students about what colleges are interested in and start having conversations earlier. Personally, I feel as though I heard little from my school about college during ninth and tenth grade, and now I am being thrown into a new and scary world. College counselors and administration should set students up for success, rather than telling them to “worry” about college later. If only they’d been more communicative, perhaps we wouldn’t have to “worry” at all. As I search for somewhere I’ll be happy, where I can find people who I’ll truly bond with, dozens of conflicting interests are piercing me. Some want me to attend a state school, some want me to attend a small rural liberal arts school; others hope I attend an Ivy League. The truth is, I don’t know what I want. And I don’t know if I can. After a lifetime of expectations being set, I just hope I’ll find somewhere I can be happy, and hopefully get in there as well.