I am a first year college student who -- according to many friends, family members, and teachers -- has striven for excellency through all 18 of my years. Sometimes, I've achieved it. Other times, not so much. But in all my 18 years of existing, I've never been so disgruntled as I am now. You see, recently I was rejected from five very prestigious universities. Five. Yeah, it was a tough break, but I'm over it. Do you want to know what I'm not over? What I'm not over is how much influence a number less than five, but more than four, has on one's feelings of self-worth. Let's look at the numbers, shall we?
4.02: This was my Grade Point Average (GPA) in my final semester of high school.
4.14: This was the GPA of my peer who was appointed Valedictorian.
Let me tell you something -- that 2.942 percent difference in our GPAs made me feel a little more than 2.942 percent worse about myself.
It made me feel dumb. It made me feel like I wasn't worthy of admission to those colleges even though I worked just as hard as everyone else. It made me feel like I had lost some invisible race I didn't even know I was running.
High school students have become so engulfed in this little infinity of numbers between four and five. They're all competing against each other without really knowing it. But the competition isn't about who can learn the most -- it's all about who can get the number closest to five, whether they do it honestly or not. But do you want to know what this competition is teaching students?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
If you asked me to tell you one thing I learned in high school, I couldn't answer. Why? Because all that information I crammed into my brain the night before left as soon as the test was over the next day. I, too, was gullible enough to put such value on a number. I was gullible enough to spend such time envying her number, which was 2.942 percent closer to five, and not fostering intellectual growth.
High school students are so worried about GPAs and SATs and ACTs that they forget what they are actually going to school for: learning. In this backwards world, the focus has left learning and has landed on getting the four closer to five. Those five prestigious colleges I mentioned earlier? Their decisions rely heavily on the GPAs and SATs and ACTs. Their decisions rely on words like, “Valedictorian,” and “Salutatorian,” and “Top Ten.” Society is training us to leave behind the words like “Wisdom,” “Knowledge,” and “Growth” and to chase more statistical words with less long-term value. You can't physically see knowledge. What you can see is a skewed measurement of knowledge, summed up in one number and two decimals. The world has given this number, this 2.942 percent difference, so much power over our minds.
And we need to change that.
