To Work Harder

Harvard University accepted 6.1 percent of high school applicants in 2012. In 2014, Harvard University accepted only 5.8 percent of their applicants. That is 2047 out of 35,023 applicants. The acceptance rate seems to be a number that never stops dropping. This applies to all colleges. More applicants apply every year, and a growing majority of them receive rejection letters.While the declining acceptance rate itself is a huge problem, it brings another issue to the table. Students dedicate their vacations to build their resumes, so that they might have a chance of being among the chosen few. For many students, summer is spent studying SATs, working an eight to five internship and then preparing some more for extracurriculars.There are cultural differences, but many Asian students spend their entire days at tutoring places preparing for the upcoming year’s courses, AP exams, SATs. There is no break. After an arduous school year, students need to let their steam off. It is counter-effective to work endlessly.I’m not promoting for sitting on a couch all day and watching episodes of Game of Thrones. After a year of being separated from the family and hard work, however, students deserve a break where they can catch up with family whom they haven’t seen in months.Summer used to be a time when teenagers could go out on a Saturday night and watch movies with their friends. Instead, it has become an extension of school. We obsess over college because we are so busy at Exeter. And because we are so occupied, we take our only break away from ourselves and sign up for more busy activities. After taking a four hour practice test and spending another hour or two to go over the test, the morning is gone. Then, students have to commute to their internships. When the job ends, it is time to eat dinner and go to sleep. Everyone is living in the same cycle. Ambitious high school students believe that they need to do more than others. They believe that they have to be different and that they have to be perfect in order to receive college acceptance. They create the need and the rush for more work. They do all this for a chance of getting accepted a top institution.The summer before my eighth grade, I spent half the day taking practice SSAT tests, and the rest of the day participating in extracurriculars that I did not particularly enjoy. This is another side effect of such competitive admissions process. Students force themselves to participate in an activity to get into colleges. Although many Exonians deny that they do such a horrible thing, I myself am a slave to the system. We all write, fill out applications for clubs that do not interest us so that a college admissions officer will look at it and believe we are all good students. We are all liars to a certain point, because we are so obsessed with doing well, going to a good college and completing work. We will keep working over summer in order to make our resumes longer and longer, so that the college admissions officer becomes mesmerized at the sheer size. We are all slaves to this taxing system.The college admissions process will not become easier, only harder. Soon 35,000 applicants will turn into 40,000 applicants and the acceptance percentage will only drop again. The ultimate challenge is to separate himself from the pack of 40,000 people. The sad reality is that a student who works hard will be part of the 95 percent who received a short rejection letter. Working too much is not good for us. The future generation, however, will only have to work harder.