On Wednesday, March 30th, immediately following the conclusion of the fateful day nicknamed "Ivy Day" in the undergraduate university admissions world, "New York Times" op-ed columnist Frank Bruni published a piece entitled "College Admissions Shocker!" on the New York Times digital website. The opinion-editorial, which was constructed as a satire, claimed that the acclaimed Stanford University accepted zero percent of its applicant pool for the university's incoming 2020 graduating class. Mr. Bruni went on to explain how Stanford rejected all of its admissions applications, including one from a 17-year-old who supposedly performed a surgical procedure, and how other competing and top-tier universities including University of Pennsylvania, Amherst, and Carnegie Mellon, have become envious with the Ivy League school's notoriety that such schools are taking extreme measures to be in the same position of having a nonexistent acceptance rate.
The specific examples and scenarios provided by Bruni were so absurd and unrealistic that it appeared as though it would be entirely evident to the audience that this was indeed a satirical piece. However, not all readers were able to catch on Bruni's mockery. Comments poured in from a plethora of online readers who expressed both shock and disgust with Stanford University. One news reporter even tweeted that no school, including Stanford University, was that outstanding that it would be in a position to not accept applicants. The tweet was later removed from the social media site after the news reporter realized the falsity of the article.
"There has been confusion among the public, parents of students who were admitted, and even some high schools that had students admitted," said Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin to HuffPost.
Though in reality, Stanford University did not accept zero applicants and actually admitted 2,063 to the class of 2020, the article does touch upon the controversial and ever-changing topic of college admissions. Though Stanford University did accept over 2000 students to its incoming freshman class, this numerical figure represents a near-dismal 4.69% of the elite university's entire applicant pool, the lowest acceptance rate in the university's history.
This record-breaking acceptance rate illustrates how the entire college admissions process is evolving into a much more selective and competitive process. High school students nowadays appear to be constantly on-edge and in an anxious search for all of the "right" extracurricular activities, classes, and grades and even social status that will help them earn the golden ticket of acceptance. If we keep going at this rate, the only students who will be getting into Stanford and other such schools will be the ones that have successfully performed surgery by the ripe age of 17. Do you know really know anyone who has, or will, do that?
