Disillusionment, Anyone?

Posted on 02. Jul, 2009 by John in Blog

Hello LEV blog readers, my name is John, and I’m a summer LEV intern. While my weekly topics may vary slightly, as a rising senior in high school I’d like to focus on my experiences applying to and selecting a college.

College has always been, for me at least, the gateway to adulthood—both  developmentally and temperamentally. We not only learn to live on our own, but also to discuss and formulate multifaceted ideas on the subject of our choosing. This is something that I consider an important adult capability. It also holds the allure of being an opportunity to learn and grow free of juvenile restraints—like parents and curfews.

This is not true for every kid. While it may be my choice to go to college, this is not in any way the necessary or correct path for everyone.

But is believing all that crazy hoohah naïve of me? Are those ideas utopian and unrealistic?

Obviously, not everyone who wants to go to college can. It is not a perfect system, and the worst part of that system, the financial part, is certainly not helped by our recession. Nevertheless, articles like this one I found in the New York Times the other day are disturbing, to say the least:

“PORTLAND, Ore. - The admissions team at Reed College, known for its free-spirited students, learned in March that the prospective freshman class it had so carefully composed after weeks of reviewing essays, scores and recommendations was unworkable.

Money was the problem. Too many of the students needed financial aid, and the college did not have enough. So the director of financial aid gave the team another task: drop more than 100 needy students before sending out acceptances, and substitute those who could pay full freight.”

Admissions, already a scary topic for prospective students, just got a little scarier. The nightmares that fill highschoolers’ heads during the fall of their senior year just got a little clearer in detail and subject matter. What makes it worse is realizing the solution is complicated. For a college like Reed, which promises to meet all of admitted students’ demonstrated need, the choices are few. They can either not meet their promise and risk tarnishing the school’s reputation and allure, or do what they did here. Of course, they pretty much tarnished themselves all over again now that we know what happened.

One commentator hit it right on:

“While I appreciate the transparency offered by Reed’s disclosure, I have to imagine that this happens behind closed doors at a number of institutions. The implication that the wealthy face a less strident admissions process to some of our best schools disturbs me. It seems like we are moving towards a society where class and economic status matter more than ever.”

It is certainly difficult for me to reconcile my childhood image of college with the one described here. It raises a number of questions: Did they select the best option possible? Kids are still being educated, and the institution, which is by all accounts a good one, can stay afloat. Should they have opted to break the college’s promise of meeting all of students’ needs instead? Should transparency like this be mandatory for college admissions? What about all of the universities that say they are “need-blind”?

Every college tells you something different, and they can spin it however they need to, as evidenced by this response to the article, published a few days later, where the college President makes it sound like everything is just fine. While I think this independence and choice of colleges is one of the highlights of our higher education system, another highlight is diversity and equal opportunity. The college experience is in many ways a symbol of the United States: people can and do come from all backgrounds and cultures to study and learn. I personally feel that my education wouldn’t be complete without everyone’s voice at the table.

I’m still excited about the application process. But I don’t see the problem that Reed had as being an isolated case.

Tags: college, college admissions, higher education, reed college