Why are college Admission's Getting so Hard

    

     As a Senior myself, going through the whole admissions process is a nightmare. There's so many things to do and to balance with your normal day to day life it feels like you're drowning in work. Getting into college is already hard and it seems to be getting harder and harder and I'd like to explore why.

            Applying to college seems pretty straightforward, but when accounting for trying to balance it within your already busy schedule it ends up becoming really daunting. It starts when you're trying to figure out what you want to major in and work for the rest of your life. Telling a 17/18 year old to pick what they want to do for the rest of their lives is very overwhelming and can seem like a super crazy task. This can lead to many not being sure what they want to do and stressing on picking something. Even after they think of majors they might want, then they have to worry about trying to find the school that works best for them. There are a vast amount of colleges and universities out there and so just choosing a few that fit your needs sometimes seems impossible. Now lets say they do find a couple of schools that work for them and their major, then they have to worry about if they can even get in in the first place. Then the final thing students like myself have to worry about is the Admissions essay/ process. The admissions essay is supposed to be a way for colleges to get a better insight as to who you are as a person other than what your transcript says, but not knowing who your target audience is can lead to many feeling lost or uncertain of what they should or shouldn't bring up in their essay. Overall the whole process of applying to college is already super difficult and stressful, so why does getting into college seem to be
getting increasingly more difficult?

As years have gone by, colleges seem to be getting more and more selective making many feel like they aren't enough or underqualified for most schools. This can lead to many bright students not even applying to reach schools that they actually could get into. Some people also just have an advantage when it comes to those ivy league schools. People of higher social classes have a better chance of being accepted to ivy league colleges than lower classes because of their advantage. The people of the higher social class might have more money so they can provide more opportunities for their kids leading them to be some of the smartest kids, while people of lower classes might not be able to afford such opportunities leaving them to not be able to reach their full potential. People of higher social classes also can have more connections and have legacies at the ivy leagues and other top schools allowing them to already have an advantage when it comes to applying. 

I feel that no one should have such an advantage over another. Everyone should be able to have an equal opportunity to succeed. Without equal opportunities even the brightest minds can get overlooked due to someone having a lot of advantages over others. In some way, that is the case. Malcolm Gladwell Stated “And they found that when you compare apples and apples the income bonus from selective schools disappears”(Pg. 7). This is discussing when researchers looked at two people with the same SAT”s and one got into an ivy school and the other didn't, the one who got in was overall more successful. But when we look at two people who got into the Ivy League but one didn't go the difference in success was not that big, so it begs the question on whether attending an ivy league school is really necessary when it is that much harder to get into.

The college admissions process has changed a good bit over the years. The Personal essay wasn't always a key factor of getting into college but with colleges being more and more selective it has led to them using the essay as a way to keep their schools how they want it, as said by Malcom Gladwell in “Getting In” he said: “The personal interview became a key component of admission in order, Karabel writes, to ensure that undesirables were identified and to assess important but subtle indicators of background and breeding such as speech,dress,deportment and physical appearance'"(pg.4). In my opinion the personal essay should be a way for colleges to get a better understanding of your character and your personality, it shouldn't be used to marginalize people they don't want.

The college admissions process has definitely changed and gotten harder over the years. Many factors come into play as to why that is, but getting into a college or not doesn't measure your success, that is defined by you and what you want to become and what you want to do with your life.