by Ren S.

Created on: August 06, 2008

As someone who has attended a top college and went on to attend a top law school, I was actually tempted to argue that current admissions strategies do NOT result in top colleges choosing the best and brightest students. College admissions is flawed in many ways, the most important being a heavy reliance on test scores that essentially reflect how privileged a kid is rather than how intelligent he or she is. However, I must remember that I have also attended a college that isn't highly regarded, and, unfortunately, the quality of students between the "top" college I attended and the lower-ranked one was night and day.

At top colleges, you'll find plenty of students who feel entitled to be there-and if the school is not #1 or #2 in the nation, you'll probably even find students who feel as if they're wronged by being there and that they actually deserve to be at a "better" school. At top colleges, there are students who are lazy and/or who don't work very hard. At these schools, there are students whom other students look at and wonder how they got accepted-either because of test scores, classroom performance, behavior or just not seeming all that intelligent. I've witnessed all these things, and with both college and law school I've certainly looked at several students and felt as if the schools made a huge mistake in admitting them. But these schools get it right more often than not if you don't factor who these people are as human beings (i.e. are they good people) into the equation. In other words, if you're thinking strictly about who is intelligent, top colleges are essentially on target.

Looking at GPA, what kind of curriculum a student took advantage of in high school, activities and leadership background, personal statements and recommendations provide more than enough angles at which to examine students, their intelligence and their chances of achieving at a university. Many also look at a student's background in terms of parents' education, social class, geography and, of course, race & ethnicity. The latter ensure that disadvantaged students receive opportunities that they otherwise would not, as well as diversifies the classroom experience in an effort to broaden students' learning experiences (i.e. we all learn from one another, not just the teachers and the books). Lower-ranked schools do not engage in this extensive process and, thus, simply do not obtain the same quality of students as top colleges do. My first college's application was the easiest

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