of 2014 I sat down in my school library
of my ham sandwich chocolate milk and a
stomach full of butterflies is my first
meeting on the basalt middle-school
student-council turned to the girl
sitting next to me and said I’m so
psyched to finally be on student council
and confused she just looks at me and
asks why and I took a second and I said
because of all the cool stuff were gonna
plan this year and she looks at me again
and says oh come on we’re all just here
so we can eventually get on to the high
school student council to put on our
college applications I kind of threw me
off for a second why would someone do
something that they didn’t want to
purely for the purpose of saying that
they did it it happened more and more as
I got older oh this is going than those
boring seminar in the history of mankind
but it looked great on my Harvard
application I can finally put three
soccer swim soccer clubs on my resume
was not is that blatant but it was there
and the naive 7th graders that I was I
began to panic
I didn’t even keep in check of my
community service hours I didn’t know my
GPA I was doomed but why why is the
application you can make so much more
competitive and so much more relevant to
how we live our lives short answer is
that there are more students in the same
number of spots in many colleges since
2000 there’s been a 33 percent rise in
college students in the US however over
that same time span some colleges I
really can private schools in particular
except about the same number of students
with their open enrollments barely
fluctuating but if you look you know
Versa tea’s they have actually over
compensated that 33 percent giving them
really high admission rates as the
number of students Rises divided widens
between the colleges accepting these
additional students with open arms and
the colleges that choose to stay more
selective so the average applicant often
assumes that school with the lowest
admission rate is the right school for
them and that their life will depend on
getting it to said exclusive University
but even if that were the case you can’t
just apply to one school anymore with
the application more competitive than
ever you have to have a match school in
a safety school and at the end of the
day you might find yourself doing
upwards of 10 applications so you go
through the onslaught of applications
racking up extracurriculars athletic
achievements foreign language experience
also it might just give you a leg up
over
next applicant but as any Jen’s ear I’ll
tell you it isn’t just in high school in
middle school or even elementary school
we joined club sports we volunteered for
nonprofits we took up insurance
athletics philanthropy music these are
defining endeavors of humanity
unfortunately they’re becoming nothing
more than the defining endeavors at the
college application process being on a
team or an event you’re genuinely
excited for suddenly becomes a lot less
exciting when someone says oh this will
look so great on an application it
somehow degrades the moment to nothing
more than a check on a long list of
potential bragging points if an easy
mindset to fall into you’re planning for
your future if you’re not careful you
can find yourself doing things not out
of the genuine desire to enjoy them
rather of the desires to say you did
them and guess what well the best place
for you might be Harvard or your State
College it might be going straight into
your dream job foregoing college a
degree you might not necessarily need
per your chosen lifestyle I personally
plan on attending college but in the
meantime I’m gonna live my life take
today for example woke up and a log
cabin in the middle of the woods
International Club sleepover and I
walked back to my dorm hung out with my
roommate for a while showered and then I
went to a panel that it was a Q&A panel
for perspective and over students and
then after that I went to lunch then my
JV hockey game and actually showed up
here late that was fun but when no
college cares about any of those JV
sports a sleepover it’s not important to
any college but it’s important to me so
I’m not naysaying college or
extracurriculars athletics or music I’m
saying they should partake in them for
the right reasons learn for the sake of
learning give for the sake of giving and
run for the sake of running not for the
sake of a final destination because you
bring it back to numbers the average
life expectancy in America is about 79
years old with four year degree you
brought graduate college 22 if you make
those 22 years miserable for yourself
you’ve just wasted a solid 27.8% of your
life so don’t let your college apps can
find you that 72.2% of living
thank you [Applause]