U.S. colleges are notorious for their comprehensive admission process which prefers a holistic view of an applicant and not just grades. While this may initially seem like the ideal approach, the situation is more nuanced than one might expect. I am a freshman university student from Pakistan, but before I enrolled in my current university, I spent months attempting to go through the US admission process.

Nowadays, it has almost become a meme that to get into a good college, you have to at least cure cancer. While this may seem like an obvious exaggeration, there is at least some truth to this. Students are expected to start fully functional businesses, non-profits, and research with college professors to be even seriously considered to get admission into top U.S. colleges. 

It almost seems that colleges want students who are already professionals in their respective fields. This is an absurd approach because colleges are designed to teach students, and for people to be taught, they need to start from a place of not knowing. Now, I am not saying that admission officers should look down upon people who excel in a field and know more than their peers. I am suggesting that there needs to be a shift towards prioritizing the ability and curiosity to learn rather than already being an expert in a subject. 

Aside from this, just to satisfy the college admission officers, people do so many extracurricular activities that they don’t want to do. People feel pressured to do things not because they enjoy it, but because they only see it as an impressive extracurricular activity to garnish their profile with. 

For example, community service work is almost mandatory for every student if they want to get into a good college. A wide majority of students do this unpassionately, because they are doing it purely for their own application's sake. This defeats the whole purpose of community service; Inherently, it aims to foster a sense of community and selflessness in students, but due to this rat race every student is running without even knowing the purpose of any activity.

Unfortunately, I am also guilty of this. I have also done similar things. From community service to internships, I have done many activities which I had no passion for. They were purely done so I could fill up my CV with something impressive. Well, what other choice do you have? It’s either unpassionately drowning yourself in baseless extracurricular activities or losing any hope of getting into a top college. And I'm not the only one this article from another VoiceBox creator shares a similar experience.

Due to this dilemma, there is an emerging trend of not even going to college, as many students see it as a waste of time and resources. Instead, they focus on self-learning through online courses or practical experiences. This might suffice for some social sciences or most noticeably for entrepreneurial-minded people; however, some professionals, like doctors, lawyers, and mathematicians, have to attend college to acquire a job in those fields. For them, going to college is a must and not a choice. 

The current college admissions process leaves applicants with two main options: either build an impressive record of achievements comparable to professionals or put their passions and dreams aside. And this says all that needs to be said about the state of the U.S. admission process.