Stop turning college admissions into a prestige game – The Minnesota Daily

College admissions are difficult and complex. The last thing any high school student needs when deciding their life course through the intricacies of the Common Application is societal pressure to only consider “prestigious” colleges.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Because of social media trendsUnder peer pressure and parental influence, many prospective students fall victim to the misconception that prestigious universities, like Ivy League schools, are the only viable path to success.

Like countless other high school students, I turned to social media to learn more about different colleges during the application process. However, the most viewed videos are rarely real advice on finding the best university for you.

Far more popular is the trend of applying to dozens of top-ranked colleges and meticulously crafting the longest applications possible, all to get into a highly competitive school.

Idealizing prestigious universities in this way fuels the idea that they are intrinsically more valuable. In reality, the diploma matters more than the name of the establishment on it.

Sai Tallapragada, a recent University of Minnesota graduate, said many high school students generalize into thinking that prestigious universities are better before they even know what they are pursuing.

“When you’re in high school and you’re applying to college, you’re led to think it’s your best college or nothing,” Tallapragada said. “I think what you really get from a more ‘prestigious’ school is the brand value on your resume rather than the actual value of your education.

However, the impact of brand equity is rarely large enough to measure. Education itself is valuable, no matter where it comes from, and the professional experiences you gain during your years of study are even more important.

Gabrielle Brown Torres, career and college readiness coordinator at Southwest High School at Achieve Twin Cities, a service providing college guidance to local high schools, said experiences are most important.

“I always tell students, ‘The education section is the smallest part of your resume,’” Torres said. “It’s your experiences, your internships and your volunteering that employers look at. »

Nonetheless, the demand for prestigious colleges is stronger than ever with a record number of applications for the class of 2028.

According to Torres, increased peer pressure is a major factor in the demand for prestigious schools. Torres said many students compare themselves to others and apply to prestigious schools because their peers are.

“I had a student this spring who told me he was probably going to end up at the University of Michigan, but he wanted to apply to MIT and other top schools because his peers were doing it,” Torres said. “I just asked, ‘Why? The University of Manitoba is already a very good school with great programs.’”

Nyesha Brown, the Roseville Area High School academic navigator who works with students to explore postsecondary education options, said families also encourage students to focus on certain schools. When a student has a long history of family members attending a certain Ivy League school, it puts added pressure to follow in their footsteps.

However, colleges less glamorous than the Ivy Leagues can be just as valuable and much more affordable.

According to Tallapragada, many state universities, including the University of Minnesota, offer programs of equal quality at a fraction of the price.

Brown said local community colleges are just as beneficial because of the reduced costs of attendance and travel. Community colleges allow many students to get a feel for college and decide if it’s right for them before transferring to four-year universities.

Even the process of submitting applications to prestigious colleges is much more complicated.

“When you apply to about five schools, that’s fine, but applying to twenty schools is just excessive and unnecessary,” Torres said. “It costs a lot of money because of the application fees, and it costs a lot of time for the student because of the extra essays.”

According to Brown, students wanting to study at prestigious schools often try to create extremely lengthy college applications, sometimes participating in activities just to fill out a page of their application. Brown said this can be detrimental because it prevents students from exploring their passion.

“If you feel the need to fill an entire page, then what exactly are you trying to identify with?” » asked Brown. “Kids will burn themselves to the core to make sure they perform everything that will get them accepted into these schools. So I say, ‘Hey, try being a kid sometimes.’ It’s good.'”

However, attending a prestigious university can be undeniably beneficial.

Bhanu Narra, a second-year physics and philosophy student at Oxford University, said he wanted to attend a prestigious university because he believed it would pave the way for better graduate programs in research and in the academic world.

Narra said the college’s prestige benefited him mainly because he was looking for a specific physics program and knew what he wanted to do with it. The prestige of the school would not necessarily have the same value in the eyes of other students.

“I knew since middle school that I wanted to do physics, so I focused on that field,” Narra says. “But if you’re not sure what you want to do, it doesn’t have much value. »

Ultimately, when students are thinking about which universities to apply to, they should look for the one that suits them best rather than feeling pressured by prestige.

“It’s really about the student and the journey they want to take,” Brown said.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting the best for yourself, but gamification of college admissions makes students forget that the best college isn’t the same for everyone.