Criteria

Watching the Spurs/Chelsea game at Khaleel over coffee, Benny made a remark which troubled me. That was a couple of days ago. He claimed that SAT scores are insignificant compared to Application Essays in the college application process. Needless to say, that triggered some debate from me but he was particularly opinionated on that occasion, quite uncharacteristic of him, I might add.

Sensing that getting into a tussle over that with him probably wouldn’t serve any purpose at all, I decided to let live and channel my emotion to Awesome Angel Says, feeling sorry for Jake, Benny’s son whose Early-Decision application for an Ivy-League university is just around the corner, notwithstanding.

It eats at me though, because such a misconception can jeopardize things, big-time! Why can’t people be heck more conscientious when it comes to college applications, especially those of their very own children?

Application Essays are a key criterion in admission considerations in the Ivy-League indeed, but they are just one of several. Even where it was not explicit, it’s reasonable to assume that each application is considered holistically on a basket of admission criteria. That means all of them are inherently equal in significance, and therefore cannot be ranked. Try ranking the following typical list with a true heart and you’ll see that you really can’t:

If Benny’s viewpoint is right, why then are the SAT’s invigilated while Application Essays are accepted on trust in terms of origination? Again, that’s not to ‘counter-imply’ that SAT scores are more significant but only that Benny’s sweeping notion is fundamentally flawed and his son’s college admission could be compromised because of it.

Such instances are certainly disheartening for SAT artisans but ironically, we must tread where we can most make a difference. So in that way, it makes sense for me to be here in this part, where the likes of Benny abound, where I could help to plug the superfluous gaps around. That’s for sure.