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Let me ask you something.

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You really think you deserve that college you really want to get into?

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That competitive one?

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You think they owe you a spot?

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Get out of here.

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And hello everyone.

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This is The Pop Out.

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My name is Albert Shin.

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I will be talking today about college and why it's not a true meritocracy.

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You know there's a lot of conversations that have been going on with a lot of Supreme Court

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cases talking about affirmative action and questions about what is or isn't fair when

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it comes to college admission.

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And I thought this would be a good place to start because I wanted students to get into

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the right headspace.

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I wanted parents to get into the right headspace.

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Because I think there's an assumption in America at least where we have this idea that college

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somehow is something you earn.

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It's a competition.

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You get the best grades that you can.

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You do the best you can.

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You perform.

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You achieve all kinds of accolades.

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And then with that you get the prize and the prize is getting into a competitive college.

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So we have this notion that college is like a meritocracy where it's a competition for

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who's the best and the best are the ones that are deserving of getting into college.

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And when the best don't get into the top notch colleges then we think that there's something

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unfair about the system.

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Unfair about something in the admission process.

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You know unfair weight given to one student over another for some arbitrary reason.

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So I want to start here because this whole conversation is I think completely misconstrued.

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College is not a meritocracy.

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College never has been a meritocracy.

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I don't even know one college where they would if they're being honest would say hey we are

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true meritocracy.

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And I think in order to talk about why it's not a meritocracy we need to go back to what

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it means for something to be a meritocracy.

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So the basic idea of merit of you is that you deserve what it is that you get.

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So whatever you get you earned it by something you did.

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Inherent in the notion of meritocracy is that there's some fairness within the process.

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Everyone is judged on the exact same standard.

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It is not arbitrary.

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It's not about who likes who or who has a certain feeling about somebody.

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It's not about who has connections but rather it's on the merit of what it is that a person

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accomplished did demonstrated skills that they have.

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And so the assumption here is that there is some set of qualities that we can use as a

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metric as a standard for figuring out who is deserving more than another.

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Because let's be honest if you're talking about especially the most competitive universities

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you know you can't just let everybody in.

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There's not enough room.

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There's not enough resources.

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So what do you have to do?

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You have to start picking and choosing.

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And so how do you pick and choose?

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The thought the traditional thought goes we pick based off of who is most qualified.

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This might be the word you often hear.

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The more qualified you are the better your chances of getting into college.

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So to take an example let's think about a race for example like a true competition.

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In a race let's say the 100 meter dash.

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The rules of the game are set.

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There are certain things that you can and can't do.

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You can't use performance enhancement drugs.

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You can't do something sneaky and break the legs of the other runners.

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You need to follow certain rules and guidelines.

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And within those guidelines then you have a race where there's a set set of rules about

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how the race is going to operate and how it's going to be judged.

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And then whoever is the fastest within those accepted rules is the one that's deserving

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of let's say the gold medal.

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That is what we consider to be a meritocracy.

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Now note something here.

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From the very beginning there's an assumption again that there is some accepted set of standards.

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And this is where I'm going to start.

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College does not across the board does not have some sort of accepted standard for what

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constitutes being deserving of college.

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So this is number one.

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Number one college is not a meritocracy in the sense that there's not even a set of rules

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that everyone agrees on.

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Let's think about this.

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SAT scores, grades.

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All the colleges agree that these are metrics but there's no accepted standard across the

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board that these standards, sorry this particular metric is the thing that should determine

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whether or not somebody is deserving of college.

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In fact most colleges from what I have learned rather use SATs, GPAs, so on as merely proxies.

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In other words they're using it as some sort of indicator to figure out whether or not

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A, that a student is hardworking, B, that a student is responsible and can accomplish

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tasks, C, that they actually have the basic ability to read and write and you know perform

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calculations and so on that prepared them for college academics.

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Those are the things that they're concerned with.

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They're not concerned with the grades themselves.

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The grades don't determine your worth.

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The grades are merely an indicator and what you'll notice is all these metrics are just

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indicators of what kind of person you are.

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Are you a responsible person?

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Are you somebody who can accomplish tasks?

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Are you on top of your homework and scheduling and so on?

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Can we trust that you're going to complete all your classes?

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Can we trust that you have the ability to keep up with what is an accepted standard

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for academic rigor at the college that you're going to be going to?

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But of course there are a ton of other metrics that colleges use.

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They look for leadership skills.

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They're looking for, what is it, athletic ability.

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They're looking for teamwork skills, your ability to communicate well, your passion

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for giving to the community or for developing a particular skill.

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Let's say in the fine arts or some unique thing that you bring to the college.

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There's a ton of different metrics that they could be measuring on and there's no way for

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any, across different colleges, for them to agree to say, hey, okay, these are the five,

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six things that we're going to measure it on if the person hits XYZ metrics and they're

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in the top whatever percentile in each of these metrics, then they are accepted.

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That has never been the way the colleges work.

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That has never, ever, ever been the way that colleges work.

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No.

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So, I don't know where people got this idea that somehow if you work hard enough, you

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deserve to get into a competitive college.

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That's just never been the case.

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And I want to start with number one, it's because there's not even a set of standards

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that constitutes what it means for a student to be deserving of getting into college or

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a particular college.

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Now, I will say this.

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There are colleges where they will set a standard for within the college.

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I have seen that.

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And even there, there's a lot of variation, right?

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Depends on the program that you're applying to.

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Sometimes it depends on whether you're applying for engineering or if you're applying for

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psychology or if you're applying for English.

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Maybe there's some different things that they're looking for.

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And that makes sense, right?

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If you are going to be going into engineering, it makes a lot more sense that they care significantly

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about your math and science abilities, that you demonstrate your ability to go ahead and

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perform those kinds of tests and learn in those areas.

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So they're going to be looking more heavily at those areas.

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This makes a lot of sense, right?

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But again, the standards will vary, right?

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It'll vary from school to school.

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It often varies from within the school, right?

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Various from within the school as well.

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Okay.

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All right.

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Second thing to note, it is not a meritocracy in the sense that there's no accepted rules

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to the game, right?

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In other words, what constitutes fairness in the college application process?

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None of the colleges agree.

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None of the colleges agree, right?

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What do I mean by that?

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Look, okay.

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What would be fair if you have two students who are applying for a college, competitive

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college, and their grades are, let's say, more or less the same, but one student did

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better on the SATs, right?

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And it turns out that the one that did better on the SATs, they also, unbeknownst to the

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college, they also spent three years training for the SATs.

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There's all these summer SAT academies.

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They took them every summer while doing a bunch of other stuff, but they really worked

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hard for their SAT scores.

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But the other student didn't go to an SAT academy because SAT academies are expensive,

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right?

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SAT courses can cost thousands of dollars, and if you talk about over a span of like

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three, four years, that's a lot of money.

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So because the student didn't get the kind of education, didn't get the training, didn't

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get the additional resources, they somehow are, right, like, what does that count for?

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Like, what are the rules to this game here, right?

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Do they get special points for doing as well as they did even without the help?

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Or are the rules such that it doesn't matter, like, whether or not you got help, right?

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Let me give you another example, right?

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A lot of students get into college because of their sports accolades, right?

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Okay, so what if a student couldn't, you know, really love the particular sport and wanted

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to develop their skills in it, but they lived in a neighborhood where there was no organized

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sports and so they could not develop the skills in the way that they wanted to, right?

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They did a bunch of other stuff indicating that they were very good.

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If they had the opportunity, they would have done great, but because they lived in, let's

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say, some rural neighborhood that did not have enough students, did not have enough,

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like, competition and so on, that, you know, oh no, they just couldn't develop these skills.

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They couldn't compete, or at least maybe they were very, very good, but maybe they don't

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have any special awards, right?

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And so, you know, it doesn't look as nice on their application, right?

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What do we do in those cases?

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Do we say that the rules say, well, it doesn't matter that you didn't have these opportunities,

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right?

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It's whatever accolades, accolades are accolades, right?

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Awards are awards and you didn't get any.

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Or do we say, hey, you are very good, you did much more, let's say, than another student

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did with the same opportunities that, you know, with less opportunities.

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You did the most you could and in fact you did far more than would be expected.

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So we should go ahead and put that into consideration, right?

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There, there's no rules to this, right?

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Now here's the thing that I think a lot of people don't really consider, right?

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If you're talking about competitive, like really competitive, like Ivy League schools,

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right?

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A lot of the students that actually get into these Ivy League schools, they've been bred

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for Ivy League schools.

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We're talking at a young age, they were shipped off to some boarding school with a funnel

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system into some of these Ivy Leagues, right?

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They get like, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50, hundreds of students into Ivy Leagues every year and

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they do so because there's some elite private boarding school and the students are just,

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you know, just basically trained to tailor their application for these schools, okay?

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Most of you don't have access to this, right?

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Is this acceptable practice?

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Like if you're like somebody, a referee, kind of setting the rules to this game, what in

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the world are you going to do as you set the rules to this game?

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Are you going to just let this slide?

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You're going to be like, oh, you know what, some people just have more resources and they

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have more information about where to send their kids and yada, yada, yada.

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So you know, whatever.

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What matters is whatever comes in when the application comes in, whatever you put in

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your application.

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Are we just going to leave it at that or are we going to, you know, try to adjust for the

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fact that some people had access to more and that seemed to have helped their application

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significantly, but it just doesn't seem particularly fair, right?

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It doesn't seem like a fair game.

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Feels like a game where it's all stacked against you, right?

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I mean, what I'm pointing out is this, right?

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Well, we're going to come back to affirmative action specifically and the issues I've had

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with the public discourse on this, but there's never been a time where the playing field

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has been even or there's been rules that have been used to enforce some sort of fairness

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that would be necessary if we're talking about merit, if we're talking about whether or not

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you deserve it, right?

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A lot of the students who get into some of these competitive universities, you know,

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they did work hard.

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I'm not knocking on their hard work, right?

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But the question isn't whether or not they worked hard for where they got to.

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The question is, what is the actual standard?

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What are the rules we're going to use, right?

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That we play this game?

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What rules are we going to use in this game to figure out?

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Well, you know, even though they worked really hard, you know, somebody else worked just

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as hard with less opportunities and they did more with the opportunities they had.

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I mean, is that how we're going to referee this game or are we going to referee the game

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where it's going to be, well, whoever scores the most points is just the winner, period.

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It doesn't matter, you know, if somebody had more of an advantage than somebody had more

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of an advantage.

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What's clear, though, is that I think as you think more about these, the fact that there

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isn't some rule that all these colleges are abiding by, it becomes very clear that it's

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not as if like there is.

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How do you say this?

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Colleges don't even seem to be thinking strictly in terms of this is an actual competition

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where we're trying to get the most deserving students, right?

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It's not what I'm pointing out is that doesn't seem to be what's happening at least currently.

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And I would probably say from my experience, the last 20 years of college admissions.

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Which brings me to my third point.

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I think all of these all of this talk is really missing what colleges themselves are doing

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and how they're actually viewing themselves and how they're viewing the students as a

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part of their community.

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What exactly are colleges up to?

241
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They're up to several things.

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So if there's any sense of quote unquote merit involved, I don't think there is.

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But if you want to say that there's some sort of standard that you need to meet, it would

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simply be the standard of demonstrating that you're prepared for the work ahead in that

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college.

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Colleges don't want to accept students that they don't think are going to be able to keep

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up.

248
00:16:56,560 --> 00:17:03,040
In other words, they only want to accept students that can meet their academic rigor, right?

249
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Their standard for academic rigor.

250
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So this is like again a baseline, right?

251
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You need to be able to keep up with college work.

252
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You need to be able to keep up with college work.

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Now most competitive colleges, I'm talking even like Ivy Leeds, the ones that are most

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reputable and so on.

255
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There are way too many students who would be qualified.

256
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You don't need straight A's to demonstrate that you could handle college work, right?

257
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Students who are like an A minus average probably can handle most if not all of the college

258
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work, right?

259
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I mean, you know, to graduate you don't necessarily need straight A's in college, right?

260
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So in other words, you could handle college work.

261
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You could be like a C average grade, right?

262
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Throughout your college career get a degree and so on.

263
00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:59,880
You could succeed in college just fine even if you're like an A minus B student in high

264
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school, okay?

265
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So the bare minimum a lot of students are going to qualify for.

266
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Like there's nothing special about the students who get into the more competitive schools

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in that they're not like somehow, you know, held to some higher standard in the college.

268
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I would say probably the top 50 national universities all have more or less very similar standards.

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In my experience of having gone to all these different colleges and met students from all

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over, like it's just a variation.

271
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You might get more of students of higher quality at certain universities than others, but on

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average they're going to be around in the same vicinity, okay?

273
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In fact, if you take standards like the SAT scores and GPAs and so on, it turns out that

274
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they're good indicators maybe of your first semester grades, but beyond that it pretty

275
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much evens out, right?

276
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That learning curve is really fast for the students who are a little bit behind.

277
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They learn real fast and so then it kind of evens out by the time the second year rolls

278
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around.

279
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So there's not a huge difference in the students.

280
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They want students who could succeed.

281
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They don't want students who are going to fail at their university.

282
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So first things first, you got students who could handle the work.

283
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Look, that's the minimum.

284
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That's what they want, right?

285
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What else are they looking for?

286
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,320
Now here is where it gets a little tricky, okay?

287
00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:23,160
At least the bigger universities, right, where they have research institutions, research

288
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:30,840
programs in a wealth of different disciplines, they have limited resources in all these different

289
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departments.

290
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:38,960
They cannot bring in everybody who wants to do the same thing, right?

291
00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:43,740
The university itself is engaged in a lot of different projects, have a lot of faculty

292
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in a wide variety of fields, expertise in a lot of different places, programs in a lot

293
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:55,480
of different things from business to psychology to economics to, I mean I'm just rattling

294
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stuff off, but right?

295
00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:02,360
Most of the national universities, bigger universities, they have a whole lot of different

296
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programs and that's by design.

297
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:10,280
And when they're accepting students, they're wanting to accept different types of students

298
00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:17,600
because they're trying to cater to a range of different thinkers, different personalities,

299
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:23,100
different approaches, and they're trying to elicit and develop these talents in a way

300
00:20:23,100 --> 00:20:29,020
that they can make the university actually look good, right?

301
00:20:29,020 --> 00:20:31,060
That's really what they're looking for.

302
00:20:31,060 --> 00:20:33,600
They want to make the university look good.

303
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:34,900
University is a business.

304
00:20:34,900 --> 00:20:37,240
They want to maintain their reputation.

305
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:41,580
They don't want to be associated with people who don't accomplish anything with their lives.

306
00:20:41,580 --> 00:20:45,600
They want to develop students who go out and do wonderful things and then bring shine onto

307
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their universities.

308
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:53,600
They might have a mission for the greater community, depends on the university, depends

309
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:54,600
on the program.

310
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:56,160
They want to develop researchers.

311
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,080
They're wanting all kinds of things, right?

312
00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:04,680
Because they have so many different goals, they're going to pick a student body that

313
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:10,280
reflects the diversity that exists within their own university.

314
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:16,900
So this is where I want to talk about diversity, not in the sense of ethnicity or gender or

315
00:21:16,900 --> 00:21:17,900
anything like that.

316
00:21:17,900 --> 00:21:24,080
I'm talking about diversity in the sense that you can't accept only econ majors at a university.

317
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,160
That's just not possible, right?

318
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:28,160
What are you going to do?

319
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:30,240
You're going to accept some econ majors.

320
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,520
You're going to accept some people who are more interested in the humanities.

321
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,420
You're going to accept some students who are interested in the arts, right?

322
00:21:38,420 --> 00:21:44,560
You're going to pick from a range of different types of students, okay?

323
00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:47,440
And what are the standards for accepting these students?

324
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:49,160
Well, again, it's going to vary.

325
00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:51,400
It's going to vary quite a bit, right?

326
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:54,640
I mean, if you're thinking like, oh, okay, for an art student, what are the standards

327
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:56,000
we want to hold an art student to?

328
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,940
What does it mean for an art student to succeed in this university?

329
00:21:58,940 --> 00:22:02,720
It looks very different than what an engineer needs in order to succeed.

330
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:04,720
That's going to be very different.

331
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,920
That's going to be very different, okay?

332
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:13,480
But on top of that, if you think the universities are in some sense of business and trying to

333
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:19,260
make sure that they make a good name for themselves and maintain a good reputation, what exactly

334
00:22:19,260 --> 00:22:21,120
are they also going to be looking for?

335
00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:24,800
Well, they're going to be looking for reputation, right?

336
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:31,100
There's a reason that the president's children have a much better chance at getting into

337
00:22:31,100 --> 00:22:32,700
some of these competitive schools.

338
00:22:32,700 --> 00:22:33,700
Why is that?

339
00:22:33,700 --> 00:22:39,480
Well, it's because you're going to have the president's kids come into your university,

340
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:40,480
right?

341
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:42,080
Does this make sense?

342
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,320
I mean, look, this is not a secret.

343
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:45,560
This is not a secret.

344
00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:50,000
If you're a celebrity, if you have a celeb, or if you are a billionaire, if you're like

345
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,840
Elon Musk's kids are not going to have trouble getting into any of these universities, right?

346
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:55,840
Why is that?

347
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:57,760
Well, for a lot of different reasons.

348
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,120
One, it's name recognition.

349
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:06,620
Assuming, I mean, we'll talk about my hatred for Elon Musk at some other point, but assuming

350
00:23:06,620 --> 00:23:10,480
that they're not going to bring any negative publicity to the university, right?

351
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,960
They're going to want the association with people who are quote unquote successful in

352
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:15,960
the public eye.

353
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:16,960
All right?

354
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:22,880
But on top of that, the thought goes, it's really nice for the university to be able

355
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:28,600
to lean on some of their alumni, the people who graduated from the university, to hit

356
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:32,080
them up for fundraising so that they could get a bunch of money for that new building

357
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,320
they're going to build or that new research facility they want.

358
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:36,520
Right?

359
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:42,560
I'm not saying that this is a primary consideration, but don't be surprised if that thought crosses

360
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:46,600
the mind or is a factor somewhere at some point.

361
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:47,600
Right?

362
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:51,480
This is part of the reason for what we're going to talk about at some point in more

363
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:53,000
detail, legacy admission.

364
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,000
Right?

365
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:58,480
I mean, the idea goes, look, we can, one of the reasons is we could trust the kids of

366
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,840
the ones that have already come through university that we're happy with.

367
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:07,840
But the other reason is, well, the association allows for that network, that social network

368
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:13,840
that allows us to tap into funding or other kind of social connections that could get

369
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:17,640
the university things that they really, really want.

370
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:19,320
Right?

371
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:26,880
So again, the colleges are not here treating themselves like a meritocracy.

372
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:31,720
I don't know if the colleges, I mean, again, I don't go around to every single college

373
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:36,120
and then interview them and then do some background research on every single one of them, but

374
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:41,920
I'm pretty confident that most of these colleges themselves are not thinking of themselves

375
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:47,280
in a strictly meritocracy, using their label, sort of way.

376
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:52,800
Their thought is probably more, there are probably a bunch of students who will succeed.

377
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:57,160
There are a bunch of students who probably worked hard enough and showed enough on their

378
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:02,840
resume that they should be able to do well at the school.

379
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,080
There are a lot of students who would be successful at our university.

380
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,840
And in fact, if we could, we would want to accept more students.

381
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,100
However, they got to pick and choose.

382
00:25:13,100 --> 00:25:16,520
This is just limitations of physics.

383
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:20,980
There's a limitation of time, space, money, resources.

384
00:25:20,980 --> 00:25:23,720
So they're going to have to pick and choose.

385
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,120
And when they pick and choose, guess what they're going to do?

386
00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:29,840
They're going to pick and choose who they want to pick and choose.

387
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:33,820
They're going to want different types of students for different reasons.

388
00:25:33,820 --> 00:25:37,880
They want they don't want everyone to be an econ major.

389
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,520
They don't want everyone to be a polysci major.

390
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,820
They don't want everyone to be interested in the same stuff.

391
00:25:43,820 --> 00:25:49,320
They want students who shine in different ways to come to the university.

392
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:54,440
And each of those ways in which they shine vary quite a bit.

393
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:55,600
Right.

394
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:58,880
Which is part of the reason I say like this is one of the reasons there's just not going

395
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:01,360
to be any clear standard.

396
00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:02,360
OK.

397
00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:04,720
Does this make sense?

398
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:05,720
Hope it does.

399
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:06,720
OK.

400
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,960
So again, I'm trying to get you into the right my right mind state because if you start thinking

401
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:14,840
like oh but I was like a valedictorian and oh I got like a perfect score in the SATs

402
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:19,120
like why am I not getting into any of these top my top choice schools?

403
00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:21,280
Well, there's a reason for it.

404
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:22,280
Right.

405
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,960
A because that just only indicates that you could handle the college work.

406
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:27,320
It doesn't tell us much more.

407
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:28,320
Right.

408
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:34,080
If I'm in the you know in the admission committee and B what you bring to the table it might

409
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:36,080
be like look that's all great.

410
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:37,520
We would love to have you.

411
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:39,760
But because of limited space we have to pick and choose.

412
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:43,200
And you know there's some of these other students who they could do the work just as well.

413
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:47,040
They didn't get as good of a GPA or an SAT score but we know that they'll be successful

414
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,960
nonetheless and they bring something else to the table that we really want.

415
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:51,960
Right.

416
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,160
So that would be a good addition to our community.

417
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:55,280
Okay.

418
00:26:55,280 --> 00:27:00,960
So again they're not thinking about it in the way that you might be thinking about it.

419
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:02,280
Okay.

420
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,560
So what then is the lesson here?

421
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:05,560
Okay.

422
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,360
So to kind of sum all this up what exactly is a lesson we should be taking from this?

423
00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:10,360
Okay.

424
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:14,320
You can argue about the standards for who gets accepted and who doesn't.

425
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,280
You could play that comparison game and then you know I've seen this in high school where

426
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:23,400
they get into like a big bickering match or jealousy like oh this student is the who's

427
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:27,000
got a worst grade or wasn't as you know on the top of the class.

428
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,480
They got into a better university like how could they like this is not fair.

429
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:31,480
Okay.

430
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:32,480
Okay.

431
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:33,600
You can argue about the standards all you want.

432
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:34,600
I don't think it's going to work.

433
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:39,720
I don't think any college will ever agree to some sort of standardized way of accepting

434
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:40,720
students.

435
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,200
It's just not going to happen.

436
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:45,520
Okay.

437
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:48,920
But you could still you know scream at the wind if you really want to.

438
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:49,920
All right.

439
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,880
Second, well you can at least try to even out the playing field.

440
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:54,880
Right.

441
00:27:54,880 --> 00:28:02,360
So if you think that it's unfair that legacy students get a one-up on others and we'll

442
00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:05,000
talk about this more in detail in future podcasts.

443
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:06,000
Right.

444
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:11,480
But if you think that wealth playing such a major role or where you live your location

445
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:16,240
like you know the city you live in the high school you happen to go to.

446
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,960
I mean nobody chooses very few students choose their high school.

447
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:20,960
Right.

448
00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,800
Most students there in a high school within district they might have a choice within that

449
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:26,640
district but they're not much more.

450
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:27,640
Right.

451
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:28,640
You can't choose these things.

452
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:29,640
Right.

453
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,480
So like look things I can't control I should not be judged on.

454
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,520
I should be judged on what I did with what I had available to me.

455
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:38,520
Okay.

456
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:40,120
Fair enough.

457
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,000
That's not the way things are done now.

458
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,560
So if you want to try to even out the playing field and complain complain about that we'll

459
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:47,760
talk about it in a future podcast.

460
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:49,880
I will give you the steps on how to do that.

461
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:50,880
All right.

462
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:55,160
I will give you the steps on how to do that and how to even out the playing field at least

463
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:56,160
a bit more.

464
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:57,160
Okay.

465
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:02,000
It'll never be perfect but we could actually at least make it a little bit more fair.

466
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:03,000
Okay.

467
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,280
I can tell you exactly what to push for.

468
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:06,280
Right.

469
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,320
So if you want to talk about like lawsuits and things you could bring to the Supreme

470
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:13,600
Court to demand a little bit more fairness and college admissions I have some tips for

471
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:14,600
you.

472
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:15,600
Okay.

473
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:23,480
But it will involve right acknowledging that it isn't really very even right now that some

474
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:29,840
people do have a significant advantage and you need to argue that that unfairness is

475
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:34,040
an unacceptable feature of college admission.

476
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:35,040
Again it's a tough road.

477
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:36,560
Good luck to you on that.

478
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:37,560
Okay.

479
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:41,960
I think the third lesson is probably the more important one.

480
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:42,960
Okay.

481
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:51,280
I want you to stop caring so much about the reputation of the college you get into.

482
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:59,280
I want you to stop this narrative this BS that one college is significantly better than

483
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:00,280
another.

484
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:01,280
Okay.

485
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:05,080
I'm going to be talking about this a lot and this is why I start off with this as a theme

486
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:06,080
for the podcast.

487
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:07,080
Right.

488
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,400
Because I want students parents all to get into the right mindset.

489
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:11,400
Okay.

490
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:13,280
Here's the reality.

491
00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:19,680
The reality is if you get into one of the top 50 colleges in the United States and you

492
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:26,120
make the most of your opportunities there you will be successful in life most likely.

493
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,360
Right.

494
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,560
You will be fairly successful.

495
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,880
Barring like I don't know drug addiction gambling addiction.

496
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:36,560
I don't know you commit a crime.

497
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:37,560
I don't know.

498
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:38,560
I don't know why.

499
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:39,560
Right.

500
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:40,560
Like whatever it is.

501
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:44,280
But you'll most likely be perfectly fine with any of the top 50 colleges.

502
00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:48,160
I think people you could probably extend it to the top 100 colleges to be honest.

503
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:49,160
Right.

504
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,560
Now does this mean that you know college what college you go to doesn't really matter.

505
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:54,280
No that's not what I mean.

506
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:55,960
We'll talk about it some more detail in the future.

507
00:30:55,960 --> 00:31:00,680
But you know college is not as important as people make it out to be.

508
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:05,320
You need to calm the hell down when you freak out about whether or not you get into your

509
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:06,640
dream college.

510
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:07,640
OK.

511
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:11,240
In fact you might get into your dream college and absolutely hate it.

512
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:12,920
It is possible.

513
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:16,720
And you know when that often happens from my experience it often happens when you decided

514
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:22,640
your dream school based off of what somebody else told you or based off of rankings.

515
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:24,120
OK.

516
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:25,680
Ridiculous.

517
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,200
OK.

518
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,760
College is not the be all end all.

519
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,840
Now I want to pinpoint it here and we'll come back to it another time.

520
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:38,640
But unless you want to be the president of the United States or Supreme Court justice

521
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:40,240
then we'll have to have a separate conversation.

522
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:45,240
But it might be for slightly different reasons.

523
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:50,600
But with the exception of those if you want to be successful in business in life in I

524
00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:55,700
don't know whatever it is that you want to endeavor as an artist or as a you know a writer

525
00:31:55,700 --> 00:32:01,880
or whatever else you want to do your success depends so much less on college than you think

526
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:04,440
on exactly which college you get into.

527
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:05,600
OK.

528
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:07,400
So stop worrying so much.

529
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:08,400
OK.

530
00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:11,520
It is a luck game to some degree.

531
00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:12,760
You can improve your odds right.

532
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:18,080
It's like if you play some sort of informed game of poker or or blackjack or something

533
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,440
you can improve your odds by making better decisions.

534
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:24,180
But to some degree it's going to come down to luck.

535
00:32:24,180 --> 00:32:28,160
It depends on what the college in particular that you want to go to what they're looking

536
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,060
for doesn't match up with what you provide.

537
00:32:31,060 --> 00:32:35,760
How does it compare to some of the other students that are applying at the same time.

538
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:40,040
Look I do not want to be in the position of an of an admissions officer who have to decide

539
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:41,040
these things.

540
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:42,360
It is not easy for them.

541
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:47,120
I feel for them because if you I mean you probably know your own application maybe the

542
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,120
application of some of the students around you.

543
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:55,200
But if you saw all the different applications that come across the table for a particular

544
00:32:55,200 --> 00:33:00,640
university you would not want to be in that position of having to decide these minute

545
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:05,680
differences where it's like it's not quite clear which one we would want more.

546
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:06,680
And for what reason.

547
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:07,680
All right.

548
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,060
It is not an easy task.

549
00:33:10,060 --> 00:33:13,680
And some of that for you whether or not you get in is going to depend on luck.

550
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:20,120
It's going to depend on who applied in the way you know with the kind of interest that

551
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:25,880
they did at the year that you applied is going to depend on a whole lot of luck.

552
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:27,680
So calm down.

553
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:28,680
OK.

554
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:33,000
So what matters more is what you do with your time in college.

555
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:38,240
To make the most out of that time.

556
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,640
So let's get our head into the right space.

557
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:42,640
OK.

558
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:52,000
As we as we talk more about this in the future podcast I want it to be clear that rankings

559
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,240
and reputation will matter.

560
00:33:55,240 --> 00:34:00,160
I just want to stress it doesn't matter as much as you think.

561
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:06,520
And I'm saying this because I think what's more important is your emotional health.

562
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:12,000
And I want you to be in the right state of mind as you're applying to colleges and not

563
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:16,720
invest so much of your identity into the college.

564
00:34:16,720 --> 00:34:19,440
It is an unhealthy attitude.

565
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:22,360
It is going to be destructive to you.

566
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:26,760
And parents if you're pushing this on your kids I resent you for it.

567
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:27,760
OK.

568
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:28,760
They don't deserve this.

569
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:33,000
They deserve to be happy and to be successful in whatever they endeavor to do.

570
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:34,000
OK.

571
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:39,240
And they will be more successful if they're not stressing out about the name of the college.

572
00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:40,560
OK.

573
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:44,160
People can be successful in all walks of life.

574
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:48,680
The college will mean less and less as you get further on in life.

575
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:53,120
And that becomes very very clear the moment you step out of that college.

576
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:58,800
You will find that your college degree doesn't mean as much as you thought it did.

577
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:03,960
It might have been meaningful for you but that's not the case for everybody else.

578
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:04,960
OK.

579
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:06,480
All right.

580
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,200
So let's all change the culture.

581
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:14,080
Stop stressing so much about you know college admissions about what specific college you

582
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:18,960
get into and just simply be excited for the new opportunities ahead.

583
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,600
We'll talk about what that looks like in the future.

584
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:44,600
See you next time.