Saturday, April 13, 2013
Suzy Lee Weiss: To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me
WSJ.com: Like me, millions of high-school seniors with sour grapes are asking themselves this week how they failed to get into the colleges of their dreams. It's simple: For years, they—we—were lied to.
Colleges tell you, "Just be yourself." That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself! If you work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team, consider taking your business elsewhere.
What could I have done differently over the past years?
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5 comments:
There appears to be this widespread belief among many (not all, but many) white seniors applying to college and their white parents that one can only get in to their dream school if they are *insert minority here*. This is what this article is alluding to and I dare hope that this is meant to be a satire, because if it's not this girl is just exposing her bitterness and narrow-mindedness to many, many people.
Just a few weeks ago, I heard several women discussing this very topic. One of them was explaining that her son did not make it into any of the medicals schools he applied to because he was white, and that it's well known that good schools only accept minority students. My friend had to keep me from going up to them and suggesting that maybe her son's flaw wasn't being white, but simply not being good enough instead.
This is such a sly form of racism; it implies that minority students who got into college didn't truly deserve it, and simply benefited from their skin color/ethnicity/upbringing. It implies that the students she mentions "who by age 14 got their doctorate, cured a disease, or discovered a guilt-free brownie recipe" didn't deserve to get into college.
Claiming that being white and "not diverse" is the reason she didn't make it to the college of her choice is complete delusion. Yes, colleges want diversity. I would too, if not looking for "diverse" students meant accepting self-entitled and self-centered students like Suzy Weiss.
I recommend reading this article responding to Weiss's: http://www.racialicious.com/2013/04/10/to-all-the-white-girls-who-didnt-get-into-the-college-of-their-dreams/
This article was the whiniest, most self centered piece of drivel I have had the unpleasant experience of reading on this blog. The author is quite obviously bitter about not getting into her dream schools, but that in no way gives her the right to make extremely racist implications about the minority students who in her view, are automatically accepted into the top universities based solely on their ethnicity. This is not just untrue, it is downright racist. She seems to take extreme issue with the idea that being yourself is the best way to get into a school. In my view, she seems to misunderstand what that advice is saying. To be yourself means to not misrepresent yourself to schools. It does not say anything about the activities or skills you may or may not have or be involved with. Basically, she seems bitter because she did not do ridiculously well academically, and was not involved with activities or sports. These are no fault but her own.
I really enjoyed reading this article because not only was it funny but it had layers of hidden contrary. I was defiantly worried about this when I applied to college and although I aired more on the side of feeling ok about the activities I had done and knew that most of the places I applied did not matter because I was going into theatre it still consumed my thoughts that I would not get into a college because I did not lose more sleep by joining extra clubs. This article also addresses the problem of race in colleges. I do not believe that people should get into or get more scholarships based on their race. That is a form of racism. Colleges are giving benefits to people based on something they do not control and in the same aspect did not work to get. So people can write or even talk about it where as people who are majorities cannot get in because they never had that, even if they had harder struggles in their live than race and sexuality which at this point are almost social norms. I think we stop accepting people bases on race and spend more time on quality of work.
This girl and I should be best friends. I completely agree that applying to college when you aren't particularly different from any of your peers that are applying to the same schools as you are, can be frustrating and challenging. I don't necessarily think it is fair to completely blame the colleges for not accepting a student that has no interest in extra activities or for not admitting a student who failed to realize that putting effort into their grades the first two years of high school is important, but I also can't stand how letters and numbers on a paper that a complete stranger looks at means that can determine an entire future for someone. I don't believe in destiny or fate, I don't believe that a rejection just means "it wasn't meant to be", it means that a rejected student is wasting time moping about a school that doesn't want them, when in reality they shouldn't want to be in a place where they aren't welcome.
I agree that this is a tad whiny, sometimes students don't get into any colleges and it isn't because they didn't put in the effort. My best friend from high school was battling a lot of family issues as well as severe depression and many hospitalizations from our sophomore year through our senior year. She applied to nine schools and was either rejected or wait listed at all of them. Mind you, she is probably the smartest person I know, a math genius, and had her sights set on MIT at the age of seven. She worked harder at school (when she was able to attend) than anyone I know and she deserved to go to college more than anyone I have ever met, and she is a minority. Half asian, with a terminally ill parent, a custody battle, and severe depression issues to overcome, (all the things that are gold for writing college essays), she was still rejected from every school.
It's easy for us to say that the author of this article is whiny because all of us were accepted to college. We were accepted to one of the best colleges in the country, and I can bet we were all accepted to number of other fantastic places as well. Yes, maybe the author should take some responsibility for not working harder, but I also think that college shouldn't be a privilege, I think everyone should have the right to a high education, and not having the opportunity to have a high education because a kid was going through a rebellious phase, isn't fair.
Articles like this remind me of an interview Morgan Freeman once had. He was asked how he thinks racism could be ended. His response was "Don't Talk About It." It is true that colleges have become more specific in their admittance and are looking for more and more diverse students. But the fact that some students are giving extra opportunities because they are a minority IS racism. I think the only true way would be to not even ask the question in the first place. Shouldn't the application process be blind to your race or ethnicity?
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