Unrealistic Standards of College Admissions

As high school students approach a new semester of the 2020-2021 school year, they may be reminded of the selective standards of college admissions. What does it take to be a competitive applicant in today's college admissions process? Are socioeconomic factors involved in the American admissions process?

Top U.S. colleges generally expect students to be well rounded in many areas of their application. If a student has a strong grade point average and strong standardized test scores, but only has a club or two on paper, they could easily be denied due to this alone. Attempting to meet these strict standards is highly stressful for students across the US.

"The admissions requirements are not only unrealistic but are nearly impossible. How can you balance all of these activities and clubs while still managing to excel in challenging AP classes or honors classes? No one can pull that off without cutting corners," said Junior Michelle Maizel from West Career and Technical Academy. While most students build college applications through dedication and hard work, other students and parents go to unbelievable lengths to enrich their applications.

The 2019 college admissions scandal, where an investigation took place on wealthy families and their fraudulent applications to top colleges, gave light to the role of money in the U.S. application process. Some families even paid thousands of dollars to have their children photoshopped into sports team pictures and to have their tests taken for them in an effort to deceive college admissions officers.

While certain wealthy Americans fly under the radar and enter these colleges without actually earning the spot, lower-income households face several obstacles in the admissions process. Students from lower-income households might not have time for extracurriculars if they have to work out of obligation; they also might not be able to pay for ACT/SAT preparation, extra academic help, or school-related fines, such as AP course fees. There is a clear advantage for affluent students in this application process. Lower-income students may feel that they're not doing enough to impress colleges, even when their schedule is completely filled. Why feel this way when the process is, by nature, biased and unfair?

Written by: Andrew Zidzik