I once read a quote from an admissions officer
who compared her job of selecting a freshman class with that of a director casting a play. Anyone who gets
casted in a play needs to be able to act.
But a casting director’s job isn’t just to find great actors—it’s to
find the right person to play each specific part. College admissions officers need every
student they select to be able to succeed academically at the school. But they
also need to fill hundreds of specific parts.
Colleges need English, math and sociology
majors. They need athletes, writers,
artists and musicians. They need
students who write poetry, students who speak French, and students who can play
saxophone in the marching band. They
need leaders. They need followers. They need kids who’ve worked at the malls,
movie theaters, and coffee shops. They
need math geeks, drama geeks, physics geeks and any other kid whose boundless
academic passion somehow didn’t fit the popular social structure in high
school. When you put all those parts
together, you have an interesting freshman class that makes the college a much
more interesting community to live and learn in.
You don’t necessarily have to play just one
specialized part. Parts played in high
school can be complex combinations. Star
athletes can love chemistry. Musicians
can earn black belts in karate. Kids
whose parents are CEO’s can spend their afternoons providing childcare to their
younger siblings. And there’s room for
all of them in colleges across the country.
Overstressed students, especially those who
suffer from namebranditis, are bound to overthink this. Please don’t.
Don’t worry whether or not you’re not playing the part Ivy League
schools want. Don’t try to guess which
parts your dream college needs played so you can fit yourself to the bill. Don’t try to fix all your weaknesses so you
can meet one unrealistic ideal of the perfect student. Just play your part as well as you can, a
part that makes you happy and proud of who you are and what you’re doing.