Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Setting your sights on the ivy league
Is there too much competition to get into university these days? Do wealthy parents, who can afford counselors like this, have an unfair advantage? Does this process encourage naked ambition and hypocrisy? Are there more worthy goals which high school students should be working towards instead? Is a degree from an ivy league (or any top-notch) school really the be-all and end-all?
The first thing that occurred to me ridiculous was that in the article, there was no information about why Kat is so outstanding as an admission counselor. There was either no information about how many kids of hers got into those “selective” schools. In my opinion, she might be right at what she claims, but on the other hand, I don’t think that all of the admissions officers think the same way. For example, she considered wrong almost all that we, students, are usually encouraged to do. But when I studied in England, we got a talk from the Manchester university admissions officer and she told us to actually do these activities and so did the teachers at the school.
ReplyDeleteNow it seems that it is impossible to get into such “selective” college. And what is more, it seems that the kids have to sacrifice all of their personal life to do such things that the admission officer can’t say no. That is too demanding for a kid, because no-one, even adults, cannot work 24 hours a day.
@Zuzana
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, the article seemed to be missing quite a lot of important information. Most of the arguments were not proved by anything. It's also true that what Kat was propagating was exactly the opposite of what every student is taught and encouraged to do. Furthermore I really do not get why the people in America make such a great fuss about these private counsellors, or so the article says. I seriously doubt that every student who ever got into a prestigious university had one. There are other means of getting there.