Admissions officers say they are looking for “authenticity” from college applicants. This is one factor they use to sift through thousands of applications, but is it unfair to ask high school students to possess a quality that only comes with time?
In order to be “authentic” or “genuine” (another catchphrase used by admissions officers) you have to know yourself on a level that most high school students do not. The adults on the admissions committees may be too far removed from adolescence to remember how rare, and scary, true authenticity can be.
I bet the Princeton admissions officers who read my application tossed it right into the “big phony” bucket. The application asked me to describe my ideal roommate. I answered a non-white roommate because my high school was so homogeneous. I was writing from the heart, but looking back my stomach turns imagining how this was perceived. My adult self knows such a statement stinks of insincerity. The admissions officers had no way of knowing that one day I would marry outside of my race, raise bi-racial children and traverse racial boundaries in my friendships and work. Ironically, these relationships taught me that all people are the same, but the girl filling out the Princeton application had not yet lived enough to learn that lesson.
Students should not be penalized for submitting applications less than “genuine.” Perhaps one reason so many applications look identical (another complaint of admissions officers) is because students are being deluged with the same advice. Is it any surprise that these students are good at following instructions? Must “find yourself” be added to the to-do list of overscheduled teenagers? Isn’t that what college is for, anyway?
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