thinking about how a "successful" senior year/college app season is equated with acceptances to prestigious colleges as opposed to colleges that are genuinely a good fit and where the student is satisfied + challenged at, forcing students to both reduce their personality to +

a series of checkboxes to tick off and a bunch of sob stories to exploit & to curate their teenage years to suit what a bunch of capitalist institutions want to see to make their incoming class look more impressive to donors. all to conform to an outward def of accomplishment.

and no one is immune to this culture! why must teens be entrepreneurs or acclaimed researchers or intl medalists to be considered worthwhile. can we not simply do our best whenever we can and try to figure out who we are and what we want to be in a constantly evolving world...

don't mind me i'm just at a college seminar and everything they're saying is making me angry

adding: the issue here is NOT the students! we shouldn't be forced to choose b/w our principles + genuine nature and what colleges demand in the name of "accomplishment"! the issue is these capitalist institutions demanding professional success before we even become legal adults!

students aren't in the wrong for wanting to be successful!! that very desire is often in part due to peer pressure, itself due to college/preprofessional culture. college expectations -> students forced to live up to them -> college expectations met + increased -> more pressure