Suzy Lee Weiss, a senior from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, is getting quite the attention from the media, teenagers around the country, and ironically colleges. In her letter to the Wall Street Journal entitled “To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me,” Weiss pens her frustration with the college acceptance process, using sarcasm and satire to speak the truth. Having been rejected by all of her dream schools, Weiss reflects on what she could have done differently during her last four years in high school, offering advice such as “raising awareness for Chapped-Lips-in-the-Winter Syndrome,” or “go[ing] to Africa, scoop[ing] up some suffering child, tak[ing] a few pictures, and writ[ing] essays about how spending that afternoon with Kinto [was life-changing.]”
With the competitiveness at an all-time high, many seniors have dealt with the rejection and frustration of having not been admitted to their dream school. And it’s understandable. We are told to “be ourselves” and following the advice of college admissions officers, we were. But being ourselves just wasn’t good enough.
We have jumped through hoops, bent over backwards, hopped on one foot while patting our heads with one hand and rubbing our stomach with the other hand to show colleges and universities just how badly we want to attend them. A few years ago, you sent in an application with a few letters of recommendation to the one college you wanted to attend and presto! You were accepted. Not today. Students and parents are forced to travel cross-country to attend Open Houses and tours to show those admissions officers just how serious they are about attending that school. But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no. Students must forge networks and contacts by talking to admissions officers, alumni, and currents students without coming across as annoying, needy, and desperate. Universities and colleges require interviews, expecting you to dazzle and amaze them by answering their obscene and often foolish questions. On the application, seniors must answer two long essays, six short essays, include personal artwork or other creations, sign in blood, and promise their first-born child just to apply.
It’s ridiculous and it’s only getting worse. More pressure is being put on high school students than ever before to attend a prestigious college or university, and as we can see, that requires a lot of work, sweat, blood, tears, and in all actuality, a miracle. Eventually, kids who deserve to get into top-notch institutions will not be admitted at all because the person in front of them just found the cure for cancer, or solved all of Greece’s economic woes, or insert another extraordinary accomplishment. In the end, all the hype and emphasis going to college has been getting lately is only going to give more power to colleges and universities, who will keep robbing more and more deserving teens of their rightful acceptances.