katescollegeprocess-blog

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Fordham College at Lincoln Center, McKean Hall

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Colleges I Am Applying To

1. Fordham University (Private)

2. New York University (Private)

3. CUNY Hunter (Public)

4. Eugene Lang College @ The New School (Private)

5. Marymount Manhattan College (Private)

6. CUNY Baruch (Public)

7. Manhattan College (Private)

8. CUNY Brooklyn (Public)

9. St. Joseph’s University Brooklyn (Private)

10. Iona College (Private)

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CUNY United! protester @ Baruch College

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COLLEGE COSTS

How is it that Manhattan college, one of my potential schools, went from a 3,000 dollar yearly tuition to one nearly 60k in just a few decades? This is an unfortunately common thread. 

The cost of private colleges in America is another aspect of the process suited perfectly for the rich. My top school, Fordham University, costs around 60,000 a year- which is far, far out of my family’s financial reach. While I am hoping to attain merit scholarships, it is easy to notice how that too is unfair to low income students due to the reasons previously discussed on my blog. It is much easier to attain a high GPA and standardized test score when you can afford a private prep school, top notch tutors, and prep courses. 

Thankfully, in 1965, following the introduction of Affirmative Action--FAFSA was established to provide government aid to potential students based on family income. While it does not eliminate all problems and some universities are still not attainable even with government aid, it was a stride in the right direction. 

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New York University, New York

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THE SAT DILEMMA

The college board was established in 1899 as a nonprofit organization. However today it makes millions each year off of students paying to take the SAT and send their scores to colleges and universities around the globe. Right away, we can infer how this poses issues to a child from a low-income household. The test is expensive, and while fee waivers are offered, they are not exactly advertised in neon lettering. Each score send, unless you approve to send your score without review, costs 12-30 dollars. The ACT is a similar process.

 9/10 schools I am applying to require an official SAT/ACT score report to even have your application reviewed. These tests are weighed just as heavily as your entire GPA. For me, this was insanely difficult as the test is composed of one English section and one math. While I scored in the top 1% of the country in reading/writing, it took me three tries to hit average in math. And that was with a math-intensive SAT prep course! However, some students cannot afford to take these tests numerous times and surely cannot afford tutors or courses that can be upwards of 300 to 600 dollars. Seeing as a student at an underfunded public high school is already at an academic disadvantage, their inability to afford SAT/ACT help leaves them less prepared for tests which are major factors in determining their college eligibility. This is just further proof the college process is deeply flawed and aimed towards the success of the financially advantaged. 

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The New School, Stuyvesant Park Residence

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some quick citations!

Kirkland, Anna and Hansen, Ben. “‘How Do I Bring Diversity’ Race and Class in the College Admission Essay.” Blackboard, uploaded by Patricia Calhoun, September 2018, blackboard.syracuse.edu/.

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How About GPA?

For the colleges I’m applying to, GPA scores are crucial- and an often debated topic is how to ensure they’re are weighed fairly and accurately. For example, it would be foolish to assume a child attending a public high school in Queens has had the same academic environment as someone attending one in Pleasantville. Different factors greatly affect a student’s success. A 98 at a low-funded school in a financially disadvantaged area is likely harder to achieve than a 98 at a private prep school with the highest quality teachers and technologies. In 1961, Affirmative Action was established to fight against this kind of inequality due to race or class, and to address the need to view a candidate’s background and learning environment paired with their overall average. Writers Anna Kirkland and Ben Hansen discuss the positives to come from this kind of diversity with the following quote, “Most educational, political science, economic, or sociological research on the effect of diversity looks at the student/citizen as an outcome...Educational researchers have continued to study the question of diversity’s effects in the college environment, with most evidence pointing towards modest positive effects of diversity...on reducing bias and helping students to gain other cognitive and interpersonal skills.” This “diversity insurance” has proven to have positive effects, and has in turn provided disadvantaged students with the proper recognition in college admissions.

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Bettina Graziani modeling Fall college clothes for Vogue photographer Frances McLaughlin-Gill on the Hunter College campus in New York. Photo by Gordon Parks for LIFE magazine.

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some quick citations!

Warren, James. “The Rhetoric of College Application Essays: Removing Obstacles for Low Income and Minority Students.” Blackboard, uploaded by Patricia Calhoun, September 2018, blackboard.syracuse.edu/.

Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the University.” Blackboard, uploaded by Patricia Calhoun, September 2018, blackboard.syracuse.edu/.

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MY PERSONAL ESSAY STRUGGLES

Touching base on the idea of a deceiving prompt, I wrote my essay on an individual/experience which triggered a period of personal growth. For me, it was my mom being sick. However, upon completing my first draft, I realized I had spent way too much time discussing her and not enough time at all discussing myself. It had basically become a narrative of her life rather than a reflection of the change I experienced almost losing her. Sitting with my English teacher, we both discussed new ways for me to tackle my prompt--to show colleges I had matured through my experiences and therefore had become a better candidate.

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THE COLLEGE ESSAY

The college essay is the epitome of deception, providing prompts of a nature totally different than what they seem to request. Author David Bartholomae touches base on this by approaching the idea of a “university language” a student has to adapt to in order to successfully present themselves as a college candidate. On the topic, he wrote,  “He (the prospective student) has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community.” As students grown accustomed to fulfilling every aspect of a task, admissions officers expecting an underlying response outside of the realm of the provided prompt throws us a major curveball. We must remember we are attempting to “sell ourselves” to colleges, and while they may ask us to describe an influential person or moment in our lives--they actually want to know how it changed us for the better and shaped us into the type of student they desire. Professor James Warren described it as a “high stakes competitive writing task that can make the difference between college rejection and acceptance.” We are not writing as students, but rather as potential ones--which should greatly alter our approaches. However no student, regardless of class, race, gender, or education, can know exactly what an admissions rep wants to take away from your piece. You can hire every tutor, be the smartest in your English class, live in Yorktown or the Bronx, and still be unaccustomed to the nature of the college essay. However, Warren does discuss the benefits of being a student at least familiar with the “academic game”, for it is that one step up you may need to succeed. 

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welcome

The college process is, to say the very least, a difficult affair. While I have been fully applied since October 1st, the journey to reaching that point on my own while simultaneously navigating senior year was far from easy. Through this SUPA blog, I am hoping to convey not only some of my issues with/thoughts on the college process but also genuinely address its shortcomings and blatant institutions of inequality towards disadvantaged students.