As high school went by, I began to worry that I was not measuring up to what would make me a competitive candidate in the college admissions process. While I was able to get good grades, I found myself at a loss for finding a passion, while others around me seemed to have transformed into all-star athletes and musical geniuses.
The buzz about passion eventually persuaded me to begin participating in science research competitions as a final attempt to save my resume. It was my entry into this field that exposed me to the truth behind the "passions" of my peers. It was my research partner, who was experienced in how these things worked, who trained me on how to present to a judge at science competitions. I can still hear her yelling, "Don't just point at the graph! Don't you want to get into college? You have to say This project is going to revolutionize cancer therapy!'" I remember looking blankly back at her and saying "But it's not." We then proceeded to argue about how I was going to cause her to be rejected from her dream college, as usual.
She's at Yale now.
As I began to have frank conversations with her and others around me during junior year of high school, I realized more and more that many of the passions people were planning to write about in their college essays were actually superficial and pursued solely for the purpose of getting into college. The genuine interests I thought people had in sports, music, community service and even academics mostly turned out to be fake. Few people I talked to told me that they actually enjoyed doing these things or wanted to continue with them later in life. When senior year rolled around, quite a few students from my high school were accepted to highly selective colleges, ranging from the University of Michigan to the Wharton School of Business to Dartmouth. Following their admission, many proceeded to drop their extracurricular activities, cease participating in community service projects and even sleep through the AP tests in May. At the same time, I saw others who worked hard until the end and pursued things they were genuinely interested in rejected from their top choices because they did not craft their resumes to make them seem like they were better than everyone else.
This is the consequence of the competitive college admissions process today. Instead of selecting people who are truly interested in and passionate about learning, many colleges are really just picking the best liars for admission. The higher education system in America is unknowingly training the younger generations to be good at deceiving and showing them that this is the key to success.Maybe it is the key in some respects; I don't know. I was waitlisted at Dartmouth. If I had lied and played up that our five-week science project was going to "revolutionize cancer therapy," maybe we would have made it to a national science competition, and maybe I would have been accepted with the regular applicant pool.
I think it really depends on how you measure success. A lot of people in high school see success as getting into college. With college students it is more varied, but still there are the standard goals of medical school, law school, a graduate program or getting a job through corporate recruiting. But what about finding a real passion and discovering who you are?
As I see the tired faces of prospective students on campus tours, I have to wonder if the things it takes to get into a college like Dartmouth are really worth it in the end. In retrospect, I really wish I had spent more time in high school doing what I wanted to do, rather than listening to other people tell me what I should be doing to get into college. Luckily, I still have plenty of time to explore my interests in college and beyond. I worry, however, for those people here who still think in this unhealthy goal-obsessed mindset and will continue it throughout their lives.
Although we would all like to think we're genuine and original, the truth is that many of us are not. The motivations behind so many of our actions are solely due to other people and how we want them to perceive us. But that comes with a cost. While you may attain a good social status, win an election or maneuver your way into a job you don't deserve, you will never truly be happy if you're not being yourself. And I think my Dartmouth experience will lead me to success without buying into this competitive nature, because I've come to realize that I define success in my own way. As long as I'm myself, nothing else matters.
