Passion and College Admission

Passion and College Admission October 21, 2013 Highly selective colleges do not seek out well-rounded students. Theres an interesting editorial in The Wall Street Journal entitled The College Admissions Passion Play written by M.N. Stabler that we thought wed bring to the attention of our readers. In her editorial, Ms. Stabler discusses how its kind of ridiculous that highly selective colleges like the Ivy League colleges search for students with singular passions. She sarcastically writes how so many parents like herself werent thinking clearly when they let their children engage in a lot of different activities so they could discover themselves better and just try out things in their childhood and teenage years. Instead, she sarcastically writes, she should have been encouraging them to do only one activity an to hone in on that activity as their passion. Ms. Stabler is making reference to the fact that highly selective colleges do not seek out well-rounded students but instead search for exceptionally talented individuals in a specific passion area to together form a well-rounded class of talented students. She writes about how there really arent any kids who have this singular interest (wrong!) and how her daughter certainly doesnt. But then she mentions her son and how he does have this sort of singular interest (although he forgets his lunch and would essentially lose his head if it were not screwed on). Ms. Stabler how can you say these students arent out there when your son might be one of these students? It doesnt matter that he has the traits of an absent-minded professor. Colleges dont care if he forgets his lunch. What do you think of Ms. Stablers editorial Is it sour grapes because her daughter might have a hard time getting into the college of her dreams? Let us know your thoughts by posting below. We look forward to hearing from you!