Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: DePaul University (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The College Admissions Process. I capitalize all the letters because at this point, the concept has become deified for students. Yet within the labyrinth of supplements and scores lies an often-ignored theory. Students should be applying where they will excel.
My college process was different from most students. As discussed earlier in this blog, I went through a ‘stupid phase’. And so, I turned to my sports as an outlet. Beginning of my junior year I committed to DePaul University in Chicago, IL for soccer. Loomis told me that DePaul was a good fit for me, athletically and academically. With a ranking of 512 overall for colleges in America and an acceptance rate of 64%, it seemed like where I belonged. But I was never happy with this decision. I understood my grades and my scores but I wanted more.
So, ironically, to attend a more elite college I transferred to a lower ranked high school. When I realized I would be able to take more AP courses and challenge myself academically at Pomfret School, I de-committed from DePaul University and committed to Connecticut College instead. I wasn’t concerning myself with rankings or scores or acceptance rates, I wanted to attend Conn and I was willing to work for it.
And yet. Somehow, I was still considered to be going to an “OK” school. I was told Conn was the, “stupid people NESCAC.” That I should be talking to Columbia or Dartmouth for soccer. Suddenly, I had jumped from near-community college standards to expectations of attending one of the top elite schools in the nation.
Rankings swarmed my head. I began to memorize acceptance rates. Obsess over them. Harvard: 6%. Bowdoin: 16%. Bates: 27%. Conn: 32%.
I went from believing I deserved minimal to deserving the best. The only thing that mattered was the prestige the name carried. I wanted to be able to say I was attending, _______ College, and have anyone anywhere say, ‘Wow.’
But how much weight do these rankings actually hold? Are they misleading students? Parents? What are the percentages we should be focusing on?
The answers to these questions should be more important than the Forbes ranking of a school.
It's not you harvard, it's me 