michaelstanblog

[michaelstanblog]

my object

this is my minion night light that I used as a child. There is much history between me and this nightlight. I used it to battle the scariness of the night as a little kid. The minion glows up when the power button is hit on his right leg. This object is significant to me because it gives me the security to know that I am always safe when I am around it. I remember battling the monster under my bed back in 09 with this night light. It was a very scary event at the time but through the power of the minions I got through it ok. This is my minion night light and it is my favorite object.

[michaelstanblog]

College Applications: It's a Mystery, and It's Stressful!

College. 

The institution that the majority of high school students apply to get into after high school. It's proven that people who go to college, on average, make over a million dollars more in their lifetime compared to their non-college counterparts. Many of the most successful people in the world have attended college, most of them attending the elite ones. 

With this knowledge, the college application process has become increasingly competitive year over year. Now, elite universities only accept less than 10% of applicants. For example, Harvard in 1984 accepted about 16% of students. Now, Harvard admits less than 4%. The process also got more complicated over the past few decades. Before, colleges would only really ask for your SAT score and GPA, while now colleges will ask for a personal statement, two supplementals, an activity list, and much more. The increase in competitiveness for college leads to a very stressful process for students.  Students now have to make up answers to questions even though they have no clue how to answer them to please an admissions committee that doesn’t state what they are looking for. 

The reason the college process is more competitive is simple. As more people want to get into college, colleges can ask for better students. Malcolm Gladwell, author of “Getting In: The Social Logic of Ivy League Admissions,” proposes that schools like Harvard are not interested in students and graduates who go on to be “relatively happy” and good at everything; instead, they want “superstars.” Colleges want the perfect student who has perfect grades and has already started to change the world, rather than the above-average kid who hasn’t been dedicating his life to looking good for colleges and had a grade slip up in his freshman and sophomore years. Colleges want the kid that will become famous and make a major discovery to add to the excellent reputation that they have as an institution. This makes the process stressful as a student is compared to the perfect student rather than being and congratulated for their personal accomplishments. 

Another aspect that adds to the student's stress about this topic is that most students have never done anything like writing a personal statement. Personally, it is very difficult for me to write about myself interestingly and compellingly, which shows how I am the best student that they can accept. This process is also unfair as those of a higher social class are often higher “experts” in the college admissions field to help them situate their essays. Paul Rudnick, author of “College-Application Essay,” comments on the process by ending his essay with the revelation that it was written by “ a bitter thirty-eight-year-old with a useless doctorate in English Literature to write the essay for him?” Pointing out that some students don’t even write their own essays; instead, they have other qualified people write them for them. 

This again leads to a more competitive and stressful situation for the average student who is just trying to get into a good college without having to sell two kidneys to afford to pay for college. Then colleges will ask about your “diversity” or what you can contribute to the college community. How would I possibly know how to answer this question accurately? College differs significantly from high school, so I don’t know what I can contribute. The only thing I do know is that some of the classes I've taken in high school are probably harder than my college classes.

The diversity questions make little to no sense for me to answer. I understand that colleges want a diverse community that is rich in diversity and is a safe space for everyone. But I am unsure of how I can quantify how I can do that. Anna Kirkland, author of “How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admission Essay states that most nonminority students look for “that dramatic moment you will need to work for is the shining realization that we are all diverse, a characterization best captured by individual uniqueness theme”.  I haven’t exactly had a singular experience that made me think that we are all diverse. It has just kinda always known that we are all different in our own unique way. 

Overall, the college application process is now as stressful as ever, where students try to answer questions that they don’t have the answers to, to appeal to the college admissions team to let them get a spot in their institution.