Getting into college nowadays has become an extraordinary feat. Twenty-plus years ago when I was applying to colleges acceptance was nowhere near as difficult as it is today.

First of all, you have to take Advanced Placement courses that set the grade point average maximum to 5.0, instead of 4.0. These "A.P." courses are the equivalent of college classes that you take in high school. The perk of taking these classes is to take the Advanced Placement Tests and maybe if your score is high enough, a college course can be waived. So high school students are taking college classes. These AP classes require hours and hours of study every night to just keep up with the curriculum for one class. It is common for students to have three or four of these courses every semester. Three courses times hours and hours equals when do these kids ever sleep? Not to mention if the students are athletes.

Practicing for sports involves more time after school. After practice these kids must go home and deal with the mounds of information they must digest when the day is mostly over. Taking these AP courses and being involved in athletics and as many extra-curricular courses as possible is how students appeal to colleges. Of course money helps.

Many well-off families are able to pay hundreds of dollars a month for a private tutor in a variety of subjects. These same families pay also for their teenagers to do well on the SAT and Advanced Placement Tests. There are classes where students learn the strategies involved in taking a standards based exam and then they can use this skill to enhance the scores that colleges screen.

So once you get the grades, you take the AP classes, you pay for the tutor and the testing classes the next step is to apply to colleges. If you are related to money you can pay a professional to help you through this process. These professionals help students refine their applications and include the buzz words that colleges like.

But is this really fair to those students who cannot afford to pay for these services? What about the middle-class of the world? We don't qualify for scholarships based on financial need and yet we are not rich enough to pay someone to make us look stellar.

Choosing a college has to be the right fit for the student. What is the point of students getting into a college where academically they really cannot compete?

There are hundreds of wonderful and less well-known colleges in our country.

Not everyone is part of the elite that can afford to buy their way into Harvard or Stanford. Nor, is the majority receiving huge chunks of government aid based on being economically disadvantaged.

The middle class is shrinking everywhere in this country. The middle class has fewer opportunities and more financial hurdles. What happened to the land of EQUAL opportunity? Is anyone writing about that on their college entrance essays?

Learn more about this author, Juliane Elliott.
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