College Admissions

The Atlantic article “College-Admissions Hysteria Is Not the Norm” written by Alia Wong examines the competitiveness and exposure that extremely selective schools receive from the media. Every year, there are reports on the acceptance rates of the Ivy League and other competitive schools. However, it is important to recognize, Wong argues, that many of the schools that students attend accept “more than half their applicants.” Wong is criticizing the fact that the majority of schools that students will actually attend do not receive the same amount of media attention. I find this to be important because many high school students feel that in order to become successful, one must attend one of the high-profile schools. However, success is determined by the amount of effort one is willing to put into their education and their career. It is not always about the name of the university you attend; rather, becoming successful is determined by your connections and your experience. The information in the article is organized well and a graphic was provided. The graphic was beneficial as it laid out the information about the competitiveness of all types of universities clearly. The most number of colleges exist are those with an acceptance rate between 50% and 75%. Therefore, this allows universities to possibly have a larger student body that can provide their own views on campus, whether this is in the classroom or not.

Since the college admissions scandal broke out, I have found great interest in what makes a student choose a certain school. With the scandal itself, there was a heavy focus on the University of Southern California. USC is an extremely competitive school to apply to, and many students dream of attending. However, this situation did put many student’s life on hold, and other students now attend a different university after receiving a rejection letter. Wong touches on the fact that those in the 1% are more likely to attend these schools. As this article came out a month after the college admission scandal broke out, it is important to recognize that there is a focus on the 1% attending these highly competitive schools.