The only blog you need to read about college applications

 College applications, the most stressed time of our high school careers. Some might say the process of applying to colleges is more stressful than actually attending college. But after reading Getting In by Malcom Gladwell I learnt the reason applying to college is so complicated. It is so complicated because the administrators of the colleges were racist! Good grades were all it took to get into the best colleges in the United States, but now, if you want to attend these colleges you have to cure cancer on a trip to help impoverished children in Peru. This all started because in the early 1900’s the administration of Ivy League schools decided there were too many Jews at their school. They began to require more information about the applicants: their parent’s name, place of birth, religion, size of their left big toe, etc. They also required students to complete the most god-awful, excruciating task- and my least favorite part of the college application process, writing a personal essay. 

Thankfully, the process is no longer used to keep certain minorities out of their college (as far as we know). Although, top schools still don’t accept students based only on their academics. The process that was once used to filter out applicants of certain races and religions, is now being used to learn more about their personality and character to determine whether they will be a good fit for their school or not.

The College Essay

When writing the college admissions essay, it is most likely the first time someone is encountering that genre of writing. The purpose of the essay is to gain a sense of the applicants’ personality and writing ability. When writing this essay, you are writing for the audience of the admissions committee who are going through thousands of applications, so writing the basic “something traumatic happened to me please let me in” essay is not going to cut it most of the time. I might be sounding like a broken record at this point but, someone is more likely to get accepted with an essay that showcases their writing capabilities and personality even if it’s about them doing laundry or walking to the train station instead of an essay about how you fractured your wrist, because that is essentially the purpose of the essay. College administrators don’t want to know about something traumatic that happened, they want to know more about the people applying. 

The Application Process

The college application process as a whole is a new literary situation to those who are applying to college. You have to think about the purpose for the process, the genres that go along with the whole process, and the audience.

1. Purpose- the purpose of the process is obviously to get admitted into the colleges you are applying to, but, let’s get more in-depth on what the purpose really is. The purpose of your application is to give the admissions officer a sense of who you are and to almost persuade them to think admitting you is a good choice.

2. Genre- the admissions process contains multiple genres with different purposes for each genre: the essays you have to write such as the personal statement, or a short essay specific to the college; the recommendation letters from teachers or someone who knows you well; your transcripts; etc. 

3. Audience- the audience of your application would be the admissions committee who go through applications paying attention to academics, character, and extracurriculars to determine whether they want you at their college or not.

How Social Class affects education

Some people might be lucky enough to have parents or other family members who are literate in this process, any guesses on who those people are? If you said people who attended college, you’d be correct, but I was thinking rich people. Wealthy people are more likely to attend college than those who are not so fortunate because they have so many more resources available to them. For example, a wealthy student is able to afford resources such as tutors, they’re able to afford multiple extracurricular activities, and since their parents attended college they have someone that can help guide them through the process. These are all resources that a less fortunate student would not typically have access to. There is also the fact that less fortunate people simply do not have the money to pay for college even after they receive financial aid and even if they do it is most likely not an elite colleges like ivy league schools, that wealthier people are able to afford thus receiving higher quality education and more career opportunities.