The pull of college has grown exponentially stronger. Students are joining extracurriculars simply because they would look good on college applications, slowly losing sight of their high school years in the pursuit of elite universities.
In a poll of a group of PVHS students, 81 percent of them said they have participated in an extracurricular activity simply because they believed it would look good on a college application, or have felt the pressure to do so. This number is to be somewhat expected, having spiked to that magnitude due to the relentless banter coming down the pipe from universities about the importance of a glorified resume.
An article from the official College Board website reads, “Most college applications ask about your activities. That’s because the things you do in your free time reveal a lot about you — in ways that grades and test scores can’t.” Further down, it states, “Colleges want to know who you are and what you can do. Your activities help you show them.”
The article goes on to tell high school students to “…put down the books and get out there!” After reading sentences like that on a website dedicated to college readiness, one thing is clear: The pressure is on. And for the majority of students, including sophomore Grace Davidson and junior Paris Fietsam, it’s inescapable.
Davidson admitted to joining activities simply because they would look good on a college application, saying of the scramble for extracurriculars that it “comes from the pressure of college being pushed on us so early, and being told all the time that what you are doing now determines the rest of your life.”
Fietsam said for her, the pressure to join extracurriculars comes from “Seeing other people do much more with school, [which] makes me want to be involved more.” She said that not being involved in sports has made her feel like she needs to load up other extracurriculars in order to make up for the athletic deficit on her college applications.
While focusing on college isn’t necessarily a bad thing, becoming so laser-focused and bogged down with extracurriculars takes away from simply being a high schooler. Davidson added, “It definitely takes away from high school because I am worried about the future and wanting to do everything I need to for colleges, that I am not living in the moment and enjoying the moments of high school.”
To many students, it feels like if admission to their dream school is acquired, they’ve made it in the world. Former PV graduate and recent college graduate Maddie Guenzler shot this down. “When I was in high school, I was in activities to prepare my resume for college…and when I was in college I was focused on building my resume for the professional world.”
Unfortunately, she added, “It’s a never-ending cycle.”
