Advice for Students: Take a vacation

The following entry was first posted on Quora.com in response to the question:

What advice would you give to a high school student starting college applications?

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 The previous answers that the Quora community has provided to this question should be put together and sold as a book. Some of the writers have had great success getting into schools that take less than 10% of those who apply. My first piece of advice then would be to listen to the winners. I am not talking about only those who got into the name schools, but those who learned that maybe not getting in was all that big a deal either. You have examples of both thanks to the people on Quora.

I write quite a bit about your topic both on Quora and my blog and I will put up a link or two that might be of use. Given all that’s already been written, I will focus on a couple of things that often get left out of discussions about applications and the choice of schools.

On a panel I was on at a top prep school in the northeast, a collge counselor said to the students and parents; "You can make the college application process a death march or a beautiful vacation". I think the speaker was overstating the poles, but he is on to something worth hearing. A glance at the numbers will help. The number of colleges and universities throughout the US and the world means you have a place waiting for you. In fact, if you are motivated and have worked hard then you will have a huge number of schools that want you.  From this perspective you are in a great position. The schools need you more than you need them. And this is far truer than you might expect.  It does not take long at all to look at acceptance rates and see that most schools outside about 50 accept more than half of their applicants.

                                                   How admission decsions are made

A number of years ago Chris Anderson made some headlines by showing why Amazon was so successful. He called the phenomenon "The Long Tale". Amazon makes money not because it carries best sellers, but because they have books ready to go that only a very few people in the world would ever buy. Think of education in this way. There is a huge funnel at the top. At the very tip of the tale are those schools, like the Ivies, Cal Tech, MIT and Stanford that only a very few of the millions of students can ‘buy’ (in this case, earn their way into).  But here’s where things swerve away from Johnson’s point. Virtually all the media attention and definitions of success about colleges are driven by a tiny number of schools at the very tip of the tale. This is unfortunate because it misleads people into thinking that only a handful of schools will prepare you for success. It is ironic too. The schools that actually matter least to the education of most people in the US and the world actually take up most of the space in media of all sorts. The elite schools get far more press than other schools, except in most cases for sports (Stanford is a huge exception). This tail wagging the dog does not help present the biggest issues facing most students today. 

I call this the big lie (actually, one of the big lies) about admission and education. If you remember nothing else I write, at least think about this: It does not matter which school you go to; it matters how you do wherever you go. One of the chapters in Gladwell’s “David and Goliath” follows the path of a student, fictionally named, Caroline Sacks. She decides to head to the school of her dreams, Brown, instead of the University of Maryland. At Brown, in amongst star science students, she can’t keep up, and loses her passion for science. Gladwell uses the story to show, with data, that the bell curve for science students happens at Brown or at any school. What’s important to note, however, is that a student who is in the bottom of Brown’s entering class will often have the preparation to come out at the top of place like Maryland. And a student who comes out near the top at Maryland, in science or anything else, will have better chances at getting in graduate schools than students who ended near the bottom of an Ivy. The big fish little pond concept is nothing new but there is data to back it up when it comes to choosing schools. I write all this as I think you should, first and foremost, begin the process with these words in mind: where am I going to shine?

What will make you great is not the name of the school, but the skills and talents you bring with you and continue to develop once you are there. Maybe you could be a star at Harvard. Or maybe at some place I have not heard of. The important part is to approach the process from the point of view of achieving success wherever you are. This approach is even more important now than it ever has been. In many ways a college degree is what a high school degree was several generations ago. Most people who have high goals will need to pursue graduate work. If you are in this group, then it is more important for you to pick a school where you will be a star than the name of the school.

Finally, here’s a way you can make what often is a painful expense of time into something fun. The next time you attend an event with lots of parents of students your age try the following. When the inevitable question comes up “Where are you applying?” give some different answers to different people. Watch the faces and note the reaction when you say to one set of parents ‘Yale”. Watch and listen to the reaction with a different set when you say “Grinnell”. Watch and listen when you say to a third set: “Foothills Community College”. You will learn that much of what we value often comes from the reactions from other people. (Jacques Lacan sums it up this way "desire is desire 'de l'Autre'" with the 'de' in French meaning both 'of' and 'by' the other.) We are wired for this, so it is not a character flaw as much as it is the world we live in. If you can escape the name game so that you can focus on your own academic passions and interests, if you can know that you have great schools out there that want you, and if you spend time writing up a great application, then you will have, if not quite a vacation, then at least a chance to learn about yourself in positive ways that won’t be full of self-doubt, stress, and second-guessing.

Parke Muth, consultant: The Ideal Student: Plato, The Ideal, and Get Real: Part 1

Parke Muth, consultant: How many schools to apply to?

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For those of you who read my posts on any regular basis you will see that I often refer to Quora.com. This on-line community does not have ads, does not have bells and whistles, and is based on a very simple premise: Ask and answer.

By asking and answering questions, I have been introduced to some exceptional people from around the world. Some of the them are exceptionally talented in their fields. Some are just starting out in life. But most of what I read represents the honest attempts of people trying to help one another. From Astrophysics profs at Stanford to students at Fioerlla LaGuardia High in New York, from many places in India, to some great folks in Russia, China all the world over, I learn new things. Some just make me smile but some have changed the way I look at myself and the world around me.