Rejection

News item: Colleges are rejecting kids in record numbers!

I dread the week-and-a-half pocket of time in which my students get their "Dear John" letters. I work with a lot of neat individuals. Intelligent. Talented. Humorous. They're not perfect, but I know I'm fortunate to work with kids the caliber that I see in my school.

And nearly all of them will get rejected by at least one college.

Perhaps the most perverse of perverse incentives: It's in the selective colleges' interests to get many student to apply. Then, they accept the number they were going to accept anyway, which means the percent of applicants to whom they say "yes" falls and they become even more "selective." Gheesh.

One student who I hold in high regard told me of how she had been a victim of "yield protection." Revolting. These are children, not bonds.

I've often counseled my students to not let this system turn them into a number, which is what the college admissions process does. I guess that number isn't necessarily the kids' GPA (modified, weighted, or not), class rank, or SAT score. It's the number they become when they become one of the 90-some percent who get told no.

Surely the madness will be done in 2024 when it's Sam's turn to go through this process, right?

Right?