The college admissions process is a pivotal and often stressful part of the lives of high school students and their families. Between the high stakes and strong competition, it is often an overwhelming and time-consuming part of a student’s high school career. Though there is good information and resources for students to help them navigate through their college journeys, numerous sources spread misinformation to prospective applicants and social misconceptions permeate the narrative surrounding higher education.
One of the prevailing misconceptions is that your GPA is the same at each school you apply to. Though students may think they know their GPA, that number may not be the one colleges are taking into account when reviewing an application. Each college has a different metric for how they calculate a GPA. While some may take all of your classes into consideration, others may only calculate your core classes or only your sophomore and junior year grades. There is no one, universal number that every college sees.
Deputy director of higher-education policy at Education Reform Now and the author of a series of issue briefs on “The Future of Fair Admissions,” James Murphy, commented on this saying, “If students think all that matters is that single number [GPA], on a zero to 4.0 scale, that can be misleading.”
Murphy also said that students should not pay too much attention to a school’s rank on lists like the U.S. News and World Report when choosing a college. “There is no real good way for people to determine whether a college is ‘good’ or not. It is subjective. Students need to know what they want from their school and use that to determine whether it is ‘good’ for them or not. Though it is hard, students should stay away from focusing on rankings and focus more on fit.”
Many factors contribute to an individual’s success, including their passion, dedication, and skills developed during their college years. It’s essential to explore a variety of schools and find the one that aligns with your academic, financial, and personal goals.
Lastly, the belief that participating in more extracurriculars means a better chance of getting into your first choice college is flawed. When considering applications colleges look first at academics, so extracurriculars will rarely if ever make up for a weak academic profile. Additionally, colleges look to extracurriculars as indications of interest, leadership, and commitment. Murphy says, “People in admissions always say that quality matters more than quantity. They call out the student who has 10 clubs in their resume or is president of seven of them… It is glaringly obvious that nobody could be that invested in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 activities.”
Debunking common myths can help alleviate the stress and help students trust that their hard work will pay off in admission to a college that aligns with their academic goals and ensures their future success.
