Dear Ms. Suzy Lee Weiss,
In March, you wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal criticizing the college admission process for its inherent unfairness, and I have to say, it was an excellent piece of writing. But what you have written was practically a denigration and a personal indictment against those high school seniors who did succeed in being admitted to their dream schools.
As one of those students, I found it a bit upsetting to read your article. Basically, you’ve labeled all the things I’ve done the past four years as meaningless, superficial, and insincere. You’ve portrayed all the students that did get into Harvard or Princeton as mere resume-builders whose past four years have been dedicated to constructing the best-looking application. You sardonically write: “I also probably should have started a fake charity. Providing veterinary services for homeless people’s pets… raising awareness for chapped-lips-in-the-Winter Syndrome.”
Well, maybe you should have.
If you knew that it took all these “meaningless efforts” to be admitted to these prestigious universities, my question is this: why didn’t you do them? College admission is simply another game that you have to play, and you just have to play by the rules. Losing the game means that there are people who played the game better than you did.
Further, you partly blamed your inattentive parents for your lack of success. But there are many other students with inattentive parents who are willing to make more sacrifices than you. If you think college is an omnibenevolent deity who will take into consideration all your personal problems, you should think again.
Now I’d like to address the most sensitive topic you bring up rather bluntly in your article: race and ethnicity.
To avoid this spiraling into a partisan debate on the merits of affirmative action, I’ll state my view very simply. If you think you’ve been victimized by being a white female applicant from Pittsburgh, try putting yourself in the shoes of an Asian-American who’s competing against a pool of applicants with statistically higher GPA and SAT scores. Yes, affirmative action will help some and hurt others, but what is more important is the ability of students to strive and succeed in the context of their own circumstances.
Life isn’t fair. The college admissions process is just another checkpoint for high school students transitioning into a period closer to adulthood and therefore closer to the harsh realities of life. In the future, you might lose a job opportunity because the company wants “diversity” or someone who has cured cancer at the age of 14. Well, at least this time you will be prepared for it.
With May, the deadline to commit to college, right around the corner, I hope this experience was as helpful for you as it was for me. You might say I’m inconsiderate for speaking in such a favorable way about the process, disregarding many whose dreams have been crushed by one rejection letter. But to those, I say – shhhh, you’re watching too many reality shows.
Yours Truly,
Charles
