As Juniors, we all have to deal with similar problems. I'm sure those of you reading this just had your parents hassle you to do your homework, take out the trash, or mow the lawn, just like mine do. But the hardest part of Junior year isn't the growth of responsibilities (but its up there). No, the hardest part is keeping your grades up for, and preparing to apply to, college.
College is the kind of thing that can measure your social status, academic prowess, and maybe even your athletic ability. But how do we approach this future-making experience? Some juniors chose to take the pragmatic stance on this issue. They apply to two or three "safety schools" and then one or two "dream schools". As we have learned from "Logler", this is not a bad way to come at this situation. However, colleges like to think that you want them, so early decision is the way to go for the idealists.
These are the risk-takers. Idealists walk the high-wire when it comes to applying for colleges. One of my idealisitc friends said to me freshman year: "I'm going to Stanford". At that time in my neophytic high school career, I considered this statement both arrogant and stupid. Now that I see his incredible drive and determination (he's a straight "A" student, and on various sports teams) I can't envision him going anywhere else. You can bet he will be applying early decision.
So there you have it. Quanitity is the pragmatic's "ace in the hole" and quality (early decision) is the idealist's. Which one will get you to your dream school? You decide.
5 comments:
Great post Chip!! This is a really interesting concept. As we've talked about in class, too many think school's sole purpose is to get them into a "good college". And you're very right that it seems the dreamers aim for early decision where the realists apply to both safety and reach schools. Seeing as getting into society's standard of a "good college" holds more pressure than ever for one's reputation and social status, do you think more students are going to be forced to take the pragmatic approach to searching for a college to ensure their dreams become a reality?
What is the main point of any high school let alone New Trier? In our motto, it says "to commit minds to inquiry," and isn't the best way to accomplish this, to get students into good colleges so that they can thrive? Personally, I don't think that I will remember everything I have learned over the last couple of year at New Trier, but I will definately remember going to college. Although New Trier offers so many great things to its students, isn't one of them getting 99.9% of its students into college? So in a way isn't the point of high school to get into good colleges? Shouldn't all students adapt a more idealistic goal and apply to rigorous colleges?
I agree with the point that it makes sense for high school students, especially those coming form New Trier, to take the idealistic approach to applying to college. As stated in the article, using the early decision option does not limit a student from applying to safety schools and other reach schools, it just limits the student from attending those other schools if they do happen to get accepted into the school that they apply early decision to. Therefore a student can easily be both pragmatic and idealistic at the same time when applying to college.
Nice Post Chip!
Your idealistic and pragmatist viewpoints of getting into a good college are interesting. The pragmatist applying to both safety and dream schools, and the idealists applying early decision.In this situation, I have to question, what viewpoint is better? The pragmatist approach will ensure the student a safety school, and a fairly unlikely dream school, while the idealistic approach gives the student a better chance at the dream school. In this particular situation, I agree with David,the idealistic approach is better because it is more likely students will get the school of their choice.
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