With crowding in high schools and colleges, along with many, many people getting 4.0 and better, colleges need to see students go the extra mile. Be it through volunteering or being a part of clubs or some other matter there needs to be something to differentiate students. If not then what happens when the school accepts one 4.0 student but not the other? The school would most likely get sued for discrimination.

I agree with you that volunteer work shouldn't be considered for acceptance, and that any "bonus" that you get from volunteer/work experience should come in the form of scholarships. I don't agree that grades should be all that matters though.

There are plenty of exceptionally intelligent people, fully capable of excelling in a post secondary education environment, who never graduated from high school for various reasons, and I don't think they should be denied that opportunity.

I think that post secondary institutes should recruit like businesses. A potential student should have to show an example of his/her work, and go through an interview process with the relevant department of the school that they are interested in joining.

To the three posters above dr_booker, but why? How many advlts do you know that volunteer once they get out of highschool? Out of college? I can safely say that I know absolutely NOONE that volunteers. It shouldn't have a lick of affect on whether or not you get into a college. To me, the guy with the 3.5 but with the extra-curricular activities shouldn't be considered at all. He obviously cared more about doing other things then furthering his knowledge/education. That guy with the 4.0(or higher), is the one that I want, it means he's able to give me a single-minded devotion that I'll be able to use, both in college, and in the workplace. He'll be a star worker, always going the extra mile to get his projects done to absolute perfection. That guy that did the volunteering and played sports? He's out on the golf links and not helping my company out at all except the bare minimum. Phooey is all I have to ay it.

What about a guy with a 4.0 and a guy with a 4.0, was in USB, volunteered at a homeless shelter, and played tennis? Who do you want?

Only when all things are considered. Someone doing these things for school can not be viewed in the same light as someone who does those things outside of those reasons.

Volunteering at a non-profit organization for the sake of getting into a better school does not display the same quality of selfishness as volunteering out of your own good will. And being an active member of the school displaying leader qualities is not telling about a persons worth in the interests of a college. Not all jobs require you to display leader skills and people come with all sorts of personalities and skill sets. Being a good leader is a good skill, but in on itself someone with good leader skills may not perform as well in other skills. And in the same way you have those who may not be as good scholars as others but better leaders an of course we need those too. So it might make sense to desire people with a drive but that should not be a part of outside of base education qualities. Rather there should be classes where leadership skills may be useful and then a portion of the final grade for that class should be about leadership qualities.

Also some people may never really display their leadership qualities except when put into situations that require them to show off that they can be organized and that they can interact within a group properly and even manage a group of people. Not to mention life for some outside of school may not allow for them to spend time on extra work. There are those that have to take care of younger siblings, household matters or other things. I for example would have to be at home after college if my mother could not be there to look after my little brother with Asperger. If I lived somewhere that would require me to attend extra activities outside of school to have a better chance to get into college that would be penalizing and in poor taste I say.


If I get to answer that one I'd say I'd want them equally as much. What do I know about the guy who did not attend all this extra stuff anyway?

IIRC you can put that on your college app.


You only get one. And for the sake of this argument, they have identical home lives.

Indeed. But I would not like it personally if someone who gets better grades than I do or even equal grades would have a smaller chance than I to attend college if I wrote that down.

All things considered though it's pretty bad if students really have to be fighting for spots in college. The obvious solution to me is to build more schools and to get more college level teachers. But then I live somewhere small enough for that to be possible relatively easily. Not sure how hard that would be in the USA.

That is the optimal solution, the problem is 1) We are talking (at least the OP is) about "dream colleges" which usually denotes a college with "lineage" so to speak, and 2) there is no funding in the US for public schools.

What is more shocking to me is they have to pay for their college in America.

1. Aye, I guess.

2. Hard to get into the topic of funding, or rather the redistribution of funding from other things the US funds without getting a little political.

We've been having quite a bit of a back and forth here so I think I'll leave it at here at least for a short while to see what fresh perspectives others might bring to the table.

I think it's silly too. You shouldn't need to have money in order to get into higher education.

The guy who played sports with a 3.5 GPA, from the sports and other activities I can assume he is a caring person, and a team player. Someone who works well with others and can contribute to the work environment. The guy who got great grades but never did anything? Well, that implies he is intelligent, however they have no way of knowing if he is a hard worker, or if he is even able to properly socialize. He probably comes a hell of a lot less recommended where the sport player/volunteer/guy who got a job actually has a decent resume with numerous people that will vouch for him .And I know a ton of people who still volunteer, hell I do at least a few hours a week. These are normally people who feel that they are obligated to do as much as they can, not for a reward, but because it's the right thing to do.

I agree that the high school educational system really needs to have a makeover, but I'd have to say that nothing can really be done about the way colleges accept students and give scholarships. There are so many people trying to get into college nowadays that they can only accept the ones whose records portray them not only as a very smart student, but also as a well rounded person.

I still think it's stupid to favor people who've done these voluntary activities. Higher education is all about academics, and I don't think someone should be favored in front of people who've actually gotten higher grades just because they did some volunteer work besides their education. Volunteering is nice and all, but it shouldn't be an alternate way for you to get into college or university.

It never is an alternate way though. If you have a 3.0-3.5 GPA, you are still doing quite well academia wise. They won't take someone with bad grades just because they volunteered. It shows they put forward more effort though, and probably will continue to do so.

It's not all like that. Our government offers student loans to almost everyone, and they are quite lenient. That alone cut the cost in half for me. The other half was paid via scholarships, which are private organizations that seek out top academic performers and donate money to their cause.