Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

  • admissions.blog

The Most Essential College Admission

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Patrick O'Connor Leave a Comment

He was on his way home from just having dropped all his classes at the local community college.  Having graduated from high school sixteen months ago, every one of his postsecondary plans had failed to come to fruition, and the drive home from campus gave him time to ponder what would come next.

As it turns out, he didn’t have to ponder long.  He came across a home construction site on the route home, and had always had an interest working with his hands.  He swung his car up to the site, got out, and asked the first hard-hatted worker just what it might take to get a job like this.  The worker turned out to be the contractor, who said that anyone who had the guts to pull up and ask was worth taking a chance on.  Find yourself a good pair of boots, he was told, and come back tomorrow.

That was the beginning of a postsecondary plan that stuck.  At age nineteen, he took on a job that paid $42,000, less than the median household income for his state, but far more than he would have earned working at the local sandwich shop.  His brief stint at community college left him little debt to be concerned with, and while his short-term plans doubtlessly included continued residency with his parents, it wouldn’t be long before he could afford an apartment of his own—and after that, his own home.

This is a remarkable story for several reasons, but what’s most noteworthy is the response this story receives from the school counselors and college admissions officers who hear it.  To nearly a person, they are convinced this young man has thrown away his future.  Citing countless personal and professional histories, they speak with clear certainty that he will regret his choice by the time he’s twenty-eight, only to find himself saddled with a mortgage or the well-being of a young family, unable to go back to college on a full-time basis, and therefore destined to be trapped in a job that appeared to pay well in his youth, but will limit his opportunities later in life.

This story comes to mind as we are weeks away from headlines that decry a different kind of postsecondary story:  the headlines of another round of record applicants to a handful of the most selective colleges in America, where statistics suggest admission is less likely than being struck by lightning.  Every seat in these colleges will be filled this fall by a promising, eager student, but the headlines turn their attention to the vast majority of exceptionally bright students who also had the potential to do great things at these colleges—except the college ran out of room before they ran out of quality applicants.

The way most stories tell it, these hapless applicants are victims of the postsecondary wheel of fortune, destined to try and make do at a college that likely is still highly regarded, but not quite as highly regarded, forced to devote part of their lives to perpetually looking back, and wondering what would have been if they had been one of the fortunate few whose cell phone had played the school’s fight song when they opened their emailed admissions decision.

Much has been written about the need for reform in America’s higher education system, and while there is ample agreement that the current system has need of correction, there is no clear consensus what that correction should look like.  Not surprisingly, testing companies insist the answer is more testing at an earlier age, while advocates of test-less admissions policies are convinced their approach is the only one that will open the gates of higher learning to a wider audience.  Others advocate for stackable college credentials that measure a semester’s worth of work as the only way to make college affordable, while developmental purists fret this approach would reduce the developmental benefits young people receive in the delayed gratification that is part of the four-year college experience.

These arguments make for interesting intellectual exercises, but they do little to help the students who had to “settle” for studying at the honors college of a four-year public university, or the students whose knowledge of geometry put college out of reach, but made them experts at framing walls and cutting pipe.  Our current system of higher education has many challenges, but the biggest one lies in changing the perception that there can only be a handful of winners once high school is over.  Different talents and different needs require different plans, and honoring those differences doesn’t require us to sacrifice the quality of the unum, simply because we honor the talents of the pluribus.

Our country is supposed to be a tent of opportunity.  Let’s advance that idea by seeing all our high school graduates as residents of the big top.

Subscribe to our mailing list

Trending Posts

Rice University adds new 500-word required essay to its application

Dear 12th Grader: Don’t Blow Your Ivy Chances Now

Avoid Tuition Anxiety: Put Strong Merit Aid Colleges on Your List

8 Ways to Reduce the Cost of College

Most and Least Popular Common App Essay Prompts

Comparing Undergraduate Life at University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University

Many high school counselors mean well but…

Tulane’s acceptance rate is 13%. Only 34% are male.

10 Best Colleges for Smart Skiers and Snowboarders in North America

2025 Admissions Cycle Brings Change at US Naval Academy

Top 20 Undergraduate Business Programs at Mid-Sized Colleges in the U.S. South

Most Overrated Private University and Public University in America

Building Your Best College List

Make the most of a college visit this spring

How to Deal with Anxiety During College Admissions (Especially Now)

Digital SAT: All You Need to Know

5 Smart Summer Tips for Wise Rising Seniors

First Impressions of Digital SAT

Dear 11th Grader: Don’t Screw Up Your Ivy League Chances Now

The 5 Most Ridiculously Underrated Colleges in America

Top 5 Ways Applying to US Colleges is Different than Applying to UK Universities

Wesleyan University Ends Legacy Preferences in Admissions

Rolling Admission vs. Regular Decision

You CAN apply Restrictive Early Action and Early Action under the right conditions

UNC and a tale of one – make that four – acceptance rates

30 Summer STEM Camps for High School Freshmen

Oh, Canada! The Definitive List of Canadian University Application Deadlines

Making the most of the summer before senior year

The Perfect Gifts to Celebrate Getting Into College

Search Posts By Topic

  • 3 Year Degree (3)
  • Accommodations (2)
  • Admissions Policies (130)
  • Admissions Statistics (87)
  • Advice & Analysis (453)
  • Alabama (2)
  • Amherst (2)
  • AP (6)
  • Applications (93)
  • Applying from India (1)
  • Arizona (4)
  • Arts (1)
  • ASU (1)
  • Austin College (1)
  • Babson (1)
  • Baylor (1)
  • Berry College (1)
  • Boston College (2)
  • Boston University (6)
  • Bowdoin (1)
  • Brown (6)
  • Bryn Mawr (1)
  • Business (2)
  • BYU (1)
  • Caltech (5)
  • Canada (2)
  • Career and Technical Education (33)
  • Case Western (4)
  • China (1)
  • CMC (1)
  • Coalition (13)
  • Colby (3)
  • College Costs (1)
  • College Counselor (18)
  • College Fairs (5)
  • College Life (37)
  • College List (39)
  • College List Deathmatch (5)
  • College Visit (25)
  • Colorado College (1)
  • Colorado School of Mines (1)
  • Columbia (7)
  • Common App (42)
  • Community Colleges (4)
  • Cornell (5)
  • Counseling (3)
  • COVID-19 (8)
  • CSS PROFILE (3)
  • CSU (1)
  • CSULB (1)
  • CU Boulder (2)
  • Cybersecurity (1)
  • Dartmouth (6)
  • Davidson (1)
  • Demonstrated Interest (17)
  • DePaul (1)
  • Dickinson (1)
  • Direct Admissions (1)
  • Duke (3)
  • Early Action (44)
  • Early Childhood Education (1)
  • Early Decision (45)
  • Education (6)
  • Educational Consulting (1)
  • Elon (2)
  • Emergency Management (1)
  • Emory (1)
  • Engineering (3)
  • Enrichment (18)
  • Entrepreneurship (2)
  • Environmental Science (2)
  • Essays (57)
  • Europe (7)
  • Exercise Science (1)
  • Exeter (1)
  • Experiential Learning (1)
  • Extracurricular Activities (37)
  • FAFSA (6)
  • Feature (2)
  • Financial Aid (30)
  • First Person (12)
  • Fly-In (1)
  • France (1)
  • FSU (1)
  • Gap Programs (2)
  • GED (1)
  • Georgetown (4)
  • Germany (2)
  • Gifts (3)
  • Gonzaga (1)
  • GPA (7)
  • Graduate School (11)
  • Hamilton (1)
  • Harvard (7)
  • Healthcare (3)
  • High School (24)
  • Higher National Diplomas (1)
  • HiSET (1)
  • IB (4)
  • IEC (1)
  • IELTS (1)
  • Indiana (3)
  • Industrial Hygiene (1)
  • International (9)
  • Internships (8)
  • Interviews (10)
  • Iowa (2)
  • Italy (2)
  • Ivy League (20)
  • JHU (3)
  • Journalism (2)
  • Kettering University (1)
  • Lafayette (1)
  • Law (4)
  • LD (1)
  • Lists & Rankings (3)
  • Loans (1)
  • Majors (17)
  • Marketing (1)
  • Math (1)
  • Medicine (1)
  • Mental Health (3)
  • Middlebury (1)
  • MIT (6)
  • Montana State University (1)
  • Moving (1)
  • Naviance (2)
  • NCAA (3)
  • New Mexico State University (1)
  • News (124)
  • Northwestern (5)
  • Notification News (4)
  • Notre Dame (3)
  • Nursing (13)
  • NYU (3)
  • Of Note (8)
  • Ohio State (2)
  • Oklahoma (1)
  • Online Learning (14)
  • Open Admission (2)
  • Parents (7)
  • Penn (8)
  • Pharmacy (1)
  • Pitt (2)
  • Popular Posts (10)
  • Princeton (5)
  • Priority (2)
  • Professor of the Month (1)
  • PSU (3)
  • Psychology (3)
  • Public Universities (8)
  • Purdue (3)
  • Rankings (10)
  • Reader Questions (11)
  • Recommendations (10)
  • Regular (26)
  • Research (4)
  • Resume (20)
  • Rice (4)
  • Robotics (1)
  • Rochester (1)
  • ROI (4)
  • Rolling (5)
  • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1)
  • Santa Clara University (2)
  • Scholarships (2)
  • SEL (1)
  • Sewanee (1)
  • Skiing & Snowboarding (1)
  • SMU (1)
  • Social Work (7)
  • Soft Skills (1)
  • South America (2)
  • Southwestern (TX) (1)
  • Spotlight Series (1)
  • SRAR/SSAR (1)
  • St. Edward's University (1)
  • St. John's College (1)
  • Standardized Tests (43)
  • Stanford (4)
  • STEM (2)
  • Stevens Institute of Technology (1)
  • Student Trips (1)
  • Summer (24)
  • Swarthmore (1)
  • Syracuse (1)
  • TASC (1)
  • Teacher Recommendations (8)
  • Temple (1)
  • Texas (4)
  • Texas A&M (1)
  • Ticker (26)
  • Trending Posts (44)
  • Trinity University (TX) (1)
  • Tufts (4)
  • Tuition (3)
  • Tulane (8)
  • UBC (1)
  • UC Berkeley (8)
  • UC Davis (2)
  • UC Santa Barbara (2)
  • UCAS (5)
  • UCF (1)
  • UCI (1)
  • UCLA (8)
  • UCSD (1)
  • UDub (1)
  • UF (4)
  • UGA (3)
  • UIUC (3)
  • UMass (3)
  • UMD (5)
  • UNC (2)
  • United Kingdom (8)
  • Universal College Application (1)
  • University of Chicago (3)
  • University of Dallas (1)
  • University of New Mexico (1)
  • University of Rochester (1)
  • University of Vermont (1)
  • USC (4)
  • USNA (1)
  • UT Austin (4)
  • Utah (2)
  • UVA (7)
  • Vanderbilt (2)
  • Video Game Design (1)
  • Villanova (3)
  • Virtual Information Session (1)
  • Virtual Visit (2)
  • Wake Forest (1)
  • Wash U (7)
  • Wesleyan (2)
  • Williams (3)
  • Wisconsin (3)
  • Work Study (1)
  • Yale (13)
  • ZeeMee (1)

News Tips | Write for Us | Sponsored Posts
All content © 2025 | Admissions.Blog
Terms of Service | +1 410-526-2558

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in