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The admissions process is an admission of hypocrisy
Every day, I head out to the mailbox and bring in more evidence that the college admissions process is an exercise in fairly shameless hypocrisy. As a teacher of high school seniors at a prep school, I’ve seen mounting evidence of this for decades on a second-hand basis. As the father of a high school senior this year, I get to see the contradictions literally pile up on my kitchen island every day.
I should note early on that what follows refers mostly to the admissions process at fairly “selective” private schools; of course, most students don’t go to these kinds of places. And, very importantly, the students who don’t go to these “elite” colleges have just as fulfilling lives as those who do. But many students at least want to apply to them, and, crucially, these institutions set the tone for the whole process, which to my mind is a cruel exercise that is designed to help adults in college administration at the expense of teenagers.
The messages in the college mail we’ve received often amount to the idea that these institutions have the best interests of my son in mind — that’s why we should send them unthinkable amounts of money over the next four years. But it’s plain that the admissions system that these colleges have collectively set up does not have my child’s best interests in mind. Almost every part of the admissions…
