Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture: To (All) the White Girls Who Didn’t Get Into the College of Their Dreams,
I’m not gonna lie. When I applied to Brown University back in 2005, I was positive that I was getting in. I didn’t care what my college counselor was telling me. “Reach” my ass.
I was a legacy. An African-American legacy. An African-American legacy applying from a New England boarding school where I was also a legacy. My academic record wasn’t perfect, but I arrogantly told myself that “not perfect” at boarding school basically equated to public-school excellence. I had fantastic SAT scores, and I had great extracurriculars. In addition to varsity sports and stage crew, I was a Black competitive figure skater!
4 comments:
Wow, that is quite a bitter attack. I see both sides of this argument, and I feel for college admissions offices that have to make these terrible decisions. I was one of the lucky white girls who got into her first choice college (not an Ivy League - shocking, I know) and therefore does not have to complain about it to the world, but I saw many of my friends go through some very rough admissions processes. There are countless books out there telling high school students the correct "formula" for getting into the college of their dreams, and when these books don't work they feel sore and let down. Where is that balance between being "you" and being what the colleges' ideal student is? How do you stand out among thousands and thousands of other people who are, in most ways, just like you? There will always be someone better; it is a game of chance, of luck, and it is one of the hardest there is.
I think that the opinion presented in this article is much more intelligent and reasonable than the first one, however it still gives a rather entitled and snobbish opinion. To stand out to colleges, you have to do something unique. By definition, taking generic advice will make you generic, and therefore not stand out to college admissions officers. I am of the opinion that people should work to earn what they want. By working hard to get something, they will hopefully get it. There is no such thing as deserving to get in to a specific college based on race, grades, or social class. People deserve what they work hard to get.
I agree with Dan that this article is better presented than the first. I don't think the "white girls" part of it was needed. When I was applying to college, our counselors were pretty tough. The first day we had counseling meetings, they told us that we probably won't get into any Ivy League Colleges and that very few of us would get into colleges outside of Arizona. I think we all kept that in mind, and challenged ourselves so that we could prove the counselors wrong. We ended up being the class to have the best college acceptances at the school. One thing they told stuck out at me. That was, it is colleges are not looking at 2nd or 1st generation Americans as they used to. They used to think of them as diverse, but there are so many now that apply to these schools, that they are no longer diverse. I don't think this article should be addressed to only white girls, but I think this message is important for everyone applying to schools. Plus, she uses a Mad Men quote. That makes her an awesome person in my books
I both agree and disagree with this. I think her opinion gets alittle blurry when she starts to incorporate other peoples opinons. It seemed to start out genuine then switch into something bitter and hateful. Going through the college application process was different for me because i only applied to one school, ED. I was very lucky to have been accepted I did think about how race was involved and how diverse CMU was. Being a middle class white girl with average everything wasn't very encouraging but i was accepted non the less. leading me to believe that they really took who i was into consideration and not just everything else that most think is what it takes to get into college. i want to believe that colleges are racialy blind but even that i feel wouldnt be far.IDK HOW TO SOLVE RACE PROBLEMS.
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