Originally Published in The Hindustan Times Education Supplement
Applicants I worked with last year have completed their first semester
of studies abroad. Most of them come back to talk about how eye-opening and
enriching the experience has been. In a nutshell, the resources, exposure and
peer interaction they have encountered over the past four to five months has
far exceeded their expectations. What is even more wonderful is that this
feedback comes from students at all caliber of institutions – from the Ivy
league to the large pubic college to the ‘third tier’ private colleges. All of
this happy news comes at a time when current applicants are agonizing over
unexpected early admissions results, mid-term grades and SAT/ACT test results –
will it all be good enough? Can I make it to my dream college? These are
understandable worries for applicants and families, but it is also important to
remember that aiming for the best college possible does not mean that something
less is failure.
Recently Melissa Chen, a college admissions counselor from California
published an article for the Huffington Post in which she says that she
encourages students to spend less time trying to be perfect for colleges.
Instead she claims that students should use the extra time they save on studies
to explore other pursuits, get to know themselves and become truly interesting
people in ways that guide their lives in a direction of success that is
meaningful to them, not just to Colleges. While I always advocate that students
create a strong foundation of academics and emphasize that school performance
and testing create the base of a competitive application, I also acknowledge
the truth of Chen’s claim that competitive students, with their eye on
selective admissions “have literally maxed out on all numerical measures of
comparison. And the vast majority still won't get into their top choice
schools.” So if we admit that being perfect isn’t enough, should a student
really strive for perfection? It does give him/her the best chance, but without
any guarantees is there a valid argument for permitting or even persuading
students to abandon the goal of perfection?
Chen argues that “not being perfect is not a point against an
applicant's chances.” And indeed this is true, but what is the definition of
not being perfect? Is it one B in 9th grade? Or is it 2 B’s and a C in 11th
grade or low ICSE board marks surrounded by an otherwise perfect report card
and strong SAT scores? I have seen relative success in all cases: In my first
year of counseling students, I met a boy who had done “badly” in school (weak
CBSE scores) but he managed to do reasonably well in SAT and wrote some nice
essays about being inspired by out-of-the-classroom science work. He attended a
highly ranked engineering college in the US where he has thrived. I’ve also met
a lot of students who couldn’t crack the SAT or ACT but found amazing options
at test optional colleges. Even students with less-than-perfect academics can
make up for it with highly accomplished talent in music, sports or other
pursuits and attend very good colleges, though not the most selective, for
these students other colleges are ok. They are happy. And they are the ones who
discover and grow the most in their new environments.
Chen’s is spot on when she says,
“The problem with the all-out sprint to the Ivy League is that it makes so many
students look the same.” To me, it is
the sad that colleges in the USA are looking at academically strong Indian
applicants and seeing a homogenous pool. I know our students have more to offer
than this – some revolutionary thinkers, some innovative scientists or
brilliant artists are all there among our best applicants. And most
importantly, the students I meet who are well adjusted, successful and happy
through the admissions process are those who know themselves, can express
themselves in writing and don’t necessarily conform to what school, counselors
and society expect of them. These are the most successful products of Indian
education, whether they end up in the Ivy League or not.
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