American Colleges: Chill Out

The long, exhausting journey towards college is underway for juniors, and we all know that the pressure’s on. We had better step up to get the grades, test scores and extracurricular activities needed to get into a “good” school. We all know that applying to college is a laborious, time-consuming process, with applications, essays and college visits that there just isn’t time to fit in. But a recent New York Times article has a solution to the complicated, expensive process: going to college in Europe. Over the past decade, more and more American students are finding a refuge in some of the top Britsh and Scottish colleges.

These international universities have a few advantages over the top American schools. Colleges in Europe that are at the same level of prestige as the Ivy League schools are only a fraction of the tuition cost. Also, these transatlantic schools are much easier to get into than American colleges of the same stature. But one of the best things about the European colleges is the simplicity of applying. As Rebecca Gaukroger, a recruiter from Edinburgh University, says in the article: “The fluff is irrelevant.” The only things these colleges require is good grades and test scores. There are no 600-word essays or huge résumés required. It is a straightforward and realistic process in which a student doesn’t have to try to hide any weak areas he or she may have in school. As Gaukroger says, “It’s built into the U.K. system that students will have strengths and weaknesses, and if a student wants to study chemistry we don’t need to know if they’re good at history.”

So as I read about the simplicity and streamlined nature of getting into a European college versus an American school, I wonder if our colleges are really making progress by raising their standards and admissions requirements so high that it almost kills students to get in. Getting into college in the United States was a lot less complicated thirty years ago, but now kids have to write dozens of essays on random topics and take every course imaginable just to get an education. With college’s requirements raised so high in this country, is our education system progressing, or is it actually moving backwards? By forcing students to be perfect instead of just being themselves, American colleges have lost sight of the student’s needs and weaknesses, and the schools are only focusing on their own success.

Maybe college is one issue where the United States needs Europe’s guidance and example.