Reworking College Admissions

Knowledge is essential to the survival of any living organism. As children, we learn how to walk, talk, and go to the bathroom by ourselves. As we grow older, the basics we have learned are the building blocks for new additions and complexities to what we have already discovered and mastered. School becomes more significant in our everyday lives as we move from childhood to adulthood, and the means of attaining this knowledge comes in many forms. Different types of schools, teachers, and resources allow more options for families to decide what is best for their children given their own circumstances. Colleges have now become the institutional equivalent to parents. It is up to them to choose from the prospective student pool the right fits for their own community of scholars and do what is right for both parties. The college admissions process needs to focus more on the individual than the numbers on their transcripts.
There is an old adage that you learn something new every day and that can’t be any truer than in today’s information age. Some parents choose to home school their kids, feeling that public schooling is not good enough for their child, and doesn’t teach them what they see as important. Private schooling may offer what public schooling lacks but parents must pay for their child’s education. Home school is ideal for those families, but is not the best fit for everyone. After high school, there is a decision to be made. Do you attend college or go straight into the work force and avoid the debt that comes with secondary education. More and more, high school students are deciding to go to college than straight to work because they need the knowledge to become successful in the future. A high school diploma doesn’t go as far as it used to, and a college degree is almost becoming a necessity. Applications to the United States’ largest public university system, California State, saw a 28% increase for the fall semester of 2010. (Chea) With an increase in...