With college decisions rolling in, the halls are flooded with students who have been waitlisted, deferred, rejected, accepted, or are still waiting to hear. Turn the corner and you’ll hear, “You need a 4.8 GPA to get into the University of Georgia” or “Taking AP Physics next year will look so good for the University of Wisconsin.”
Rumors and speculations about what colleges prioritize run rampant among students, with 60 percent of South students having heard conflicting information about college admission statistics, according to a non-scientific survey conducted by The Oracle of 322 students.
The moral of the story is, we don’t know exactly what will get us accepted into a college.
Every year, colleges look for different things, and just because one student took a specific path to gain admission doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the only way in. This varying information can cause stress among students.
When students hear a certain statistic linked to a college decision, it can be easy to instantly spread that information to their peers. However, the reality is that there are many factors that go into these decisions, and most of the time, we aren’t considering the entirety of a student’s admission statistics. Usually, these conversations only include a few of the factors, such as GPA and test scores.
Problems arise when we take information, such as a student with a 4.8 GPA getting into the University of Georgia, and assume that it is the only reason for their acceptance. These assumptions can cause any student worrying about college to panic and compare their own statistics to those of a random student. In fact, over half of South’s students admit to feeling stressed over the differing information caused by college applications, according to the same non-scientific survey conducted by The Oracle.
Juniors, as they select their classes for senior year, might consider which course load “looks the best” for colleges. Conversations about which classes helped students get into certain schools can pressure others into making choices based on speculation rather than personal interests.
Extracurriculars can also affect college applications, raising questions about how much time someone should be involved, and in which activities. Many say that colleges prefer students who are well-rounded and involved in academic, special interest, and athletic activities, while others say colleges prefer students to focus and excel in one area. Rather than trying to predict what colleges might want, students should prioritize what genuinely interests them, since no one can know for sure what admissions officers value most.
There is no singular, guaranteed path to college acceptance.
Even if a student may seem like they have all of the answers to what colleges want, the truth is, they don’t. No one can know everything, especially involving applications where so much is taken into consideration.
During these college-decision-heavy months, we need to be mindful of how we share admissions-related statistics with our peers; there is no one ‘right’ way. This doesn’t mean that we need to stop sharing information altogether, but acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers can help reduce misinformation as a stressor.
