College Admissions
Dec 27, 12:22 PM by Eric Allen
In a lot of science fiction movies there comes a scene in which our heroic protagonist comes before the High Council. He (or she) steps into a spotlight in the middle of a dark, cavernous room. He tries to see beyond the light, where he assumes people sit, but it is hopeless. A great booming voice comes out of nowhere and asks random questions as if they were life and death. Often, the outcome is life and death. Our great hero is reduced to tears by the High Council’s interrogation.
That is what we see college admissions as. There is no face to take solace in, no person to talk to, nobody to tell you it is going to be fine. As far as we can tell, we submit a bunch of pieces of paper, especially our “objective” test cores, and back comes a decision we have been taught governs the rest of our lives. These days there isn’t even a letter to open with a signature on it—we just check our “status” on some hard-to-understand website. We spent our lives preparing for this one great challenge and we have no idea whatsoever how it works. We are told that there are these normal people who work in the Department of Admissions who go through the applications and read every one of them. We are told they are normal people, just like you and me, who have normal jobs. Deciding the fate of hundreds of people’s lives is a normal job?! The same people who came to visit my school could never be the people who decide my fate. Those people have to be some kind of gods who sit in their great chamber and debate the future of the world, among other things.
Whatever you have told us, we have felt something quite different. Two numbers make up a good portion of our identities, we’re told: Grade Point Average and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. We aren’t people, we’re machines, with benchmarks. Everything we do before we go to college is about “getting in.”
We as applicants need to understand that these are people we’re dealing with. They have flaws and make mistakes just like we do. They forgive us when one grade slips a little because a teacher was hard on us. These people aren’t out to ruin your life. They’re just trying to do their job: find interesting people that would do well at their college. If you don’t “get in,” it’s not because you failed the test, it’s because you didn’t fit. You will find your place, wherever it is; it just takes some time.
