Though some of us don’t like to admit it, everyone at Choate is thinking, living, and breathing college. Nearly everything we do in our time here is centered on preparing for and getting into today’s most prestigious universities and colleges. As I observe my peers and myself in classes, sports, and extracurricular activities, I can’t help but think back to my years as a happy-go-lucky junior high student. I often wonder if, somewhere during the process of applying to Choate, I missed the line that stated that I would be selling away my years of blissful childhood for years of fretful worry over my transcript and grades. I’m not saying that a solid transcript is a bad thing, or that we shouldn’t be somewhat concerned about our grades. Rather, I think that when the prospect of selling ourselves to big name colleges becomes the main motivation for our achievements, it becomes an issue.
We’ve all had those critical moments when we’ve had to make decisions based on “looking good for college.” Sometimes the decision is a trivial one, like debating whether you should take that voluntary position or take the day off. Other times the choice is significant, requiring genuine reflection and foresight—for instance, do you go for a great grade in a lower-level class or struggle to stay afloat in the higher-level class? In these and other cases, we are forced to make hundreds of decisions as students that we wouldn’t need to make if we weren’t being scrutinized by the omniscient being that is College Admissions. Our future resumés, and not our own free will, dictate many of our actions, and our parents and families often determine the rest. The idea that we are no longer in charge of our lives seems ridiculous until we catch ourselves stressing out about the future.
You should view college as the next step in your education, not the final affirmation of how well you performed in the thirteen years of your pre-college academic experience. The names of the schools you apply to and get accepted into don’t add more figures to your starting salary, and they certainly don’t define or limit your worth. Sure, some schools are actually better than others in quality of education and suitability for particular students. However, talent manifests itself in an individual regardless of whether others—specifically college admissions officers—recognize its presence or not.
With that in mind, the whole college race seems trivial and pointless. If you can excel and be happy at a school where you actually want to be, why fight your way into “better” schools where you know you won’t be nearly as happy or successful? If you’ve visited the school or heard things about it through people you trust, is it somewhere you’d find enjoyment? Is it somewhere you’d go regardless of its rankings and relative prestige?
When you find yourself making decisions with college in mind, ask yourself whom you are trying to please. As much as your parents may want you to go to this school and not that one, be assertive in establishing that it’s you who’ll be attending the school and not them. Take the classes that you like and do the things you’re best at. Colleges admire passion and genuine interest much more than they do robotic focus and stiff adherence to schoolwork. They want to see the real you, not the image of you that your parents and teachers want to create and sell to the highest bidder.
As important as college is, it should never consume your happiness and youth to the extent that it does for most Choate students. Of the alumni I have talked to, nearly all of them have said that their biggest regret was that they had failed to make the most of their time here when they had the chance. If you spend all your time at Choate thinking about college, you’ll spend all your time at college thinking about Choate. Live a little and make the most of your time here while you still can.
