It is a pleasure to share our amazing college admission/enrollment list with you. We are so proud of the seniors. I know you join me in congratulating them.
We are often asked about the percentage of students accepted into their “first choice” school. It can be hard to calculate this figure, as “first choice” is a moving target. During the college guidance process, as the students become better educated and informed, as they meet with college representatives and arrange campus visits, as they take tests and write essays, and as they develop a deeper understanding of self, “first choices” change, becoming increasingly accurate representations of the “best” school for each student.The best school is also a moving target. Does “best” refer to the school that is objectively the best school for all students, for some students, or for a particular student? Or is “best” more of a subjective determination? There is a small group of highly selective schools that are rated by a number of organizations, according to a variety of criteria, as the best schools. They are also culturally accepted as the “best” schools. Though not an expert, I have to admit to having some concerns about the rating methods. However, it is clear that one reason that these highly rated schools are at the top of the lists is because they are really very good at what they do, no question about it, and have been so for a long time. A number of the most highly rated schools have names that have become synonymous with educational excellence, and with excellence in general. These institutions confer a high degree of status along with their diplomas. This status is an important component of what makes them so desirable, of what makes them the “best.” However, are they the best schools for all?
To address the set of rating criteria for a moment—for example, the value of tests and test scores in a ranking process is questionable. There are ongoing changes in the standardized testing landscape, with some highly selective schools continuing to require a number of tests, some making tests optional, some dropping tests altogether, and with the tests themselves undergoing significant changes. Yet, these scores continue to be relied on to identify the best schools. In addition to test scores, schools are often ranked by their acceptance rate—calculated by comparing the total number of students who apply to the number the school accepts. An institution can improve its ranking by having a lower rate, achieved by adding to the number of applications while not increasing acceptances. Using the Common Application, as most schools do, will accomplish this. Other colleges have dropped their application fee so that there is really no opportunity cost for the applicant. (Truth be told, LREI has increased applications by joining a growing pool of schools using an online common application.) Does decreasing the percentage of applicants who are ultimately admitted by adding to the pool, and not necessarily with more talented or committed students, make the school a better school? I am not convinced.
So, if the pool of the “best” schools is made of institutions that have proven themselves, year after year, to be excellent, and of a group of schools that prove themselves to be the best through the use of a complex series of ratings—some of which are questionable—and thereby land at the top, are there other schools that are crowded off of this list, schools that are overlooked due to lower ratings by questionable criteria and society’s fixation on the best for all rather than the best for each? It stands to reason that there are. We join many others who see the best school, carefully chosen through a significant process, is the school that supports and challenges the individual. Not an aggregate rating but an estimation of the school that will result in the best experience, the best education, the best future, for that child.
How to find the best school for each individual? The list of criteria is long and varied. Students consider reputation, size, location, program offerings, social life, extra-curricular offerings, graduation rate, alumni experience, and an amorphous sense of which school is right for them, among other factors. Slowly but surely, the outline of the best school for each particular young adult emerges. These criteria guide a student’s choice of schools to which to apply and, once admitted, they guide a student’s choice of the right school to attend. Weighing these criteria against each other can be challenging. How does a student balance attraction to a school with the fact that it is far from home? Which academic interest is the most important when evaluating which school has the best program? How do you value the social life and culture of an institution in comparison to the academic offerings? For some students admitted to the most highly selective schools, is it better to struggle mightily to be at the “bottom” of the class or to work hard and to excel at the school that is challenging but might be less competitive? We have seen this answered both ways. Finally, students have to layer the cost of the institution, financial aid packages, and associated expenses onto all of the other factors going into this decision. Criteria determined, criteria evaluated, criteria ordered – a student can choose the best school for her/him. The greatest obstacle to a successful process being falling prey to the sense that someone else’s criteria should guide one’s choice. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of all joy.”
Daunting as it sounds, LREI’s seniors, and their compatriots in other schools, complete this process, choose the right school for them, and head off to do great things in university. Again, we are so proud of this year’s seniors and so excited for what the future holds for them. Thank you to Carey Socol and to Kellen O’Gara, the Dynamic Duo of college guidance. We so appreciate your leadership and guidance.
Onward to commencement!