It’s good to be old. I have many college degrees, a decent job, wife/kid/cat, homes in the South Bay and Montana. Thank goodness I’m not still in high school.
The last month has been the time of Yes! you’re amazing and we want you at our university, or No! you’re amazing but too many other amazing people applied to this university, or Congratulations! you’re in to our private school, hope you saved your pennies. The first and third option is no big deal–it’s been that way since the beginning of higher education. It’s the middle one that blows.
Imagine you worked fairly hard in school, did well enough to get over a 4.2 GPA, did just fine on your standardized tests, and didn’t get into your state university choice. Yes, your STATE university choice. We’re talking Long Beach, San Diego, San Jose, Fullerton, Northridge–state schools.
Imagine you worked even harder, did well enough to never get a B in school, did just fine on your standardized tests, and you didn’t get into UC schools that you thought were safe. I realize UCLA and Cal (Berkeley to some) are held in high esteem, but Santa Barbara, San Diego, Irvine, Davis, Santa Cruz, Riverside, and Merced have to take you, right?
Not always the case. Really? State schools reject kids in the Top 25 at our school, UC’s turn their backs on students in the Top 10 (and we’re not just talking UCLA and Cal here), and all the students are left with is a letter or message in their online portal that they weren’t selected because blah blah blah number of kids applied for blah blah blah number of spots.
I’ve seen two numbers. One of the major state schools claimed 93,000 applied for 8,500 spots. One of the not-even major UC schools claimed that 78,000 applied for fewer than 5,900 spots. I’m pretty good at math. That puts the state school acceptance rate at one in 11. That puts the UC rate at one in 13. And, I get it, these are only two examples, but both of these were safe schools for many students.
Some might say, “It teaches these kids a life lesson. Not everyone gets what he or she wants.” Stellar reasoning, to be sure.
What bothers me enough to write again on this blog is that this is happening to good students. They tried for four years and, though they were bummed they didn’t get into their dream school, they knew they could fall back on something down a few rungs. Now, they’re staring at being down a few more rungs, and students who teachers dream of having are contemplating spending some time at junior college level, where they will dutifully put in another two years (maybe one) for a decent school to take them.
I went to Long Beach City College for three years, got an A.S. degree and transferred to Long Beach State. It wasn’t competitive, I didn’t give it much thought–it seemed a natural progression since I was living at home and my folks had no money. I have no beef with the community college system. Now, more than ever, it seems like a viable option to get to a dream school and go cheap for two years (or less).
But there’s this. I have a boy who’s entering high school next year. The wife and I are not at odds with our decision for him, but our feelings have changed over the last two years. He will go to high school, take as many honors classes as he wants, get good grades (or else), but also take whatever else he wants to take, whether it “looks good for college,” or not. He will not be pressured into taking all AP and honors classes–next year he’ll take Intro to Culinary Arts instead of AP Computer Science–and when it comes to applying for colleges, we’ll see where he’s at.
The bottom line is this–no matter where he is at, junior college is always an option, a means to an end. Technically, he could get straight D’s in high school, have a great time learning but doing little work, go to El Camino College, and be at UCLA after two years. Is that any worse than my students who worked for four years in high school, maybe got in somewhere after their dream school rejected them, and ended up going to a school that wasn’t really their choice?
Work four years, get good grades, get good test scores–MAYBE get into the school of your choice v. do high school without stress (you can still take hard classes, but you don’t have to stay up until all hours tearing your hair out over homework), take some classes that interest you even if their not on “the college path,” learn everything you can, and prove yourself at the jc level.
Or, maybe the culinary arts class leads him to become a chef.
Or, maybe he tires of playing the high school game early, takes an easy exit exam, and enters El Camino when his friends are still juniors in high school.
Crazy talk from an old man. But old people know things, right?