Standing at the Juncture

By TONY WANG ‘20

The Vice Provost for Enrollment at Dartmouth University, Lee Coffin, addressed Class II this past Sunday to kickoff the college process. For many, his message constituted both a warm introduction and a solemn caution. Though college admissions statistics look increasingly daunting from year to year, colleges are still looking to follow an open attitude in their admissions, actively searching for the unique strengths of each student in an application. As Coffin himself joked, he is not the “dean of denial,” though applicants may perceive him as such;  he told the Class II students that his goal was to admit students, and that he took no pleasure in the unavoidable byproduct of denial.

Setting aside the college admissions perspective, however, the entire process does pose a highly intensive and stressful challenge for students. From standardized testing to school grades to essays, each part requires painstaking precision and an enormous time investment. With the current seniors engaged in a race against upcoming deadlines and a battle against demanding applications, we as juniors can only imagine the strain that these extraordinary quantities of work will impose on our lives next year.

The college process does not seem all negative, however. Certainly, some parts of college applications include work that feels superfluous and adds unnecessary stress to the already laborious procedures, but the other portions may actually benefit applicants; much of the college process will likely benefit students for years to come by motivating them right now to both plan and prepare themselves for the future.

The prospect of college applications inspires students to work diligently and inform themselves from early on. Milton students are highly self-motivated generally, but college applications add an extra incentive that stands as a future “reckoning” for which students should work in the present. This prospect also adds weight and value to our time here—not only are our classes, sports, and activities enabling us to learn, improve, and have  fun, but they are also preparing us for the sweeping evaluation near the end of our high school careers. Grades are certainly not the be-all, end-all of academics, but the pursuit of better grades often leads to better understanding of a course’s material, which does coincide with the goal of courses.

In addition, the college process compels students to spread out the large amount of planning and introspection that lie in their futures. In an age of increased focus on planning and organization, accurately recognizing oneself (and adjusting accordingly) at the critical high school/college juncture can help us far into the future. College applications provide an engine for this process; writing an essay and building a résumé can push each student to look inwards in search of passions, strengths, and weaknesses. Often, we do not answer key questions about our experiences and inclinations even as we pose them to others. For example, if we were to work solely in one profession for 10 years, which field would we choose? The diverse nature of high school often precludes us from seriously considering such a question, but we cannot avoid it forever.

As we move on in life, our efforts and endeavors will need to become more focused in scope and more profound in depth. The pursuit of a subject area which fascinates and motivates us will become a critical factor in the enjoyment of our future work. Though it induces unhealthy amounts of stress, a strict 650-word limit on a Common App essay compels one to search broadly and then filter the crystals of the mind into succinct, valuable ideas, considering or even discovering anew what one finds captivating and indispensable. Additionally, planning early for the future leaves room for adjustment or complete change later on. As such, college applications create a waypoint on the path forward where we start to funnel our interests and passions from past experiences down to a few that we especially enjoy and will continue to pursue intensively. Though the college process is, by all accounts, laborious and stressful for our current seniors, the long-term benefits of preparation and self-discovery will hopefully accompany them years into the future.