 This video is going to be highly controversial, I feel, but I also think that it just, like, it shouldn't be. Like I feel like we should just be able to talk about this and that's why I'm doing it. Let's just get into it. I've had this topic on my heart for just like, just a very long time. And I'm really sort of like wary to give my opinion on this topic or like to comment on it in any sort of way. Like just like putting stuff on the internet out like this. Like there's someone who's going to watch it whether you have a small audience or a large one, which would be very small over here. So if you want to subscribe, that'd be cool. I so deeply do not want to offend students who have worked so hard to get into their dream school. I do not want to devalue or diminish that accomplishment in any way. And it's just, it's not the point of this video. This video is really for anyone who didn't get into, you know, like their dream school or a brand name school that, I just feel like I just want to make it so that I can like be like, yes, like most people who've gone through the college admission process, like have a change of heart like years later, I would hope. And then you are deserving of feeling successful and feeling like it's not like the end of the world that you didn't get into your dream school. So in this video, I want to talk mostly about the stigma and unnecessary pressure that sort of brought upon students around the globe based on the college acceptance rate. I hope if anything, this video is not meant to take away from anyone's accomplishments, but rather to like, I want to just give like a reframing of how we view the college acceptance, you know, and rejection time because it's just like, it's just a lot. Let's start simple. What is an acceptance rate? According to liberalartscolleges.com in simple terms, it is the rate at which a given school accepts applicants. It's the percentage of students that a school admits to their incoming class based on the number of students that applied. This means that schools who get more students to apply will be able to reject more students and thus have a lower and more impressive acceptance rate. Basically schools want a lower acceptance rate so that they seem, you know, more selective and they seem like a better school. Okay, so now I'm going to tell you the definition of marketing. So according to Wikipedia, I'm so sorry to my high school teachers and middle school teachers. Yes, I got my source from Wikipedia. I could have a whole conversation on the validity of Wikipedia and I think it's actually a very interesting topic, but I thought they had a really good quote, so I'm using it, okay? Marketing refers to activities the company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product, service or good. In 2017, The New York Times described it as the art of telling stories so enthralling that people lose track of their wallets. It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. As much as we don't like to admit it and maybe colleges don't like to admit it, like they're a business. I think this is really interesting because what I study in college is like pretty much nonprofits and I think that colleges sort of skate by on this like, you know, it's like schools are like most generally like categorized as like I would say a nonprofit organization. And I think that that sort of implies that college that their main purpose isn't making money and that's just not true. I mean, I don't know. I think that obviously the schools, the schools, most schools focus is to educate their students and yes, 100%. But in order to keep their doors open, they have to meet their yearly budgets and fundraising and all that stuff. And that's why tuition gets higher because it costs a lot to operate a college. Really in order for them to educate, they have to be really focused on making money. So that's just like something to keep in mind. One of the biggest tools that colleges have been using in recent years to market themselves is through these college acceptance rates. Hi everyone, editing Katie coming in here. So I just wanted to say that, this did not come out right in this video. So I would say that colleges don't necessarily they don't make up their college acceptance rate. But what I was trying to say is that colleges brand themselves, they use marketing tools to get students to apply and raise those numbers. So it's just something to keep in the back of your head because it's, yeah, it's just, keep it in your head. We love brand names here. Our shoes, our purses, our cars, our schools, literally everything, they have brands. And when brands, you know, when you think of that word, like a brand is selling you an idea. And you know, this is something that like I didn't really like fully comprehend until I like got to college and like took a class on it. But like, okay, so I'm just gonna like give you like a fun example. So there's like this sweater that I really want on Everlane and like I keep being like meh, like I'm not gonna buy it. And then like I keep like looking, I don't know. Anyway, it's not about my sweater. Anyway, when you think of a brand, like they're not just selling you a sweater. Like Everlane is selling me like an idea of my life. Like if I buy the sweater from Everlane, like I will also be like, you know, in a fabulous library drinking a latte with penny loafers on drinking out of a metal straw and recycling every day because I'm a, you know, a sustainable queen. So like they're set, like that sweater is like giving me that image of my life, but really in actuality, like it's just a sweater. Like, you know what I mean? I'm sorry, this is like, this is, I hope this is making sense. Okay, so, but colleges basically do the same thing. The lower the acceptance rate, like the better the school. The more successful you are gonna be in your life, right? And like, no, like not necessarily. I'm like trying to like make this video chill because like I have a lot of like, like I feel like I'm like coming with receipts. Like I don't do this a lot. Okay, so I think when people are talking about the college admissions process, like nowadays to back then, one of the biggest things that comes up is people love to just throw the statement around. It's harder now to get into schools than it was a generation ago. And so like, okay, so this like question, right? The cold answer to it is yes, also no. Like people like, okay, this is what I'll say. So like 20 years ago, like it's not like everyone was like just dumber than all of us now. There's just like statistically more of us now than there were 20, 30, 50 years ago. So factors like the common application make it so much easier to apply to college than it was, you know, I don't know when the common app was completed. I probably shouldn't have looked that up. Each individual person is A, applying to more schools and B, there's just like more of us applying to college. So I like this segment from educationnext.org. They say, first, the US population has increased almost 50% over this time, but places like Yale aren't admitting 50% more students than they were in 1980. Plus, there are more international students fighting for these slots as well. Second, America is richer and better educated country than it was a generation ago. The upper middle class and above has grown significantly as a share of the population and these are the families most likely to aspire to highly selective institutions for their children. So what I like most about this excerpt is that it shows the things that have changed over time and the things that have pretty much stayed the same. And what has changed is the amount of people applying to colleges and the amount of people who have college educations. But what hasn't changed is the perception around what is, you know, what is deemed a good school or like a prestigious school. And like, for the most part, like college, I could get, this is like a whole other topic, but colleges reputations do like shift over time. It's just like sort of a natural thing that happens. So really there's just like a lot more educated people running around. Doesn't seem like it this year. Hey, can you just like, I just like, I would just, it'd be cool if like some of you like could just like stay home so that I can leave my house. That would be really cool. So look, I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you because I am, I'm not stupid. Sometimes I can be, but let's put time. I got it up here, okay? Like obviously there are like better schools than others. Like I'm not gonna sit here and be like, well, you know, Harvard is the same as this school. Like no, like it's Harvard. Okay, so let's say you have two students, right? I don't know. Like I think that we just get so obsessed with like numbers in our generation. Like I think that's just a very like, we grew up on social media like always defining ourselves like by the amount of likes we got or like, I don't know, like I think that's it. Let's say you have two students, okay? You got one student A and student B. So student A goes to a school with a 40% acceptance rate and student B goes to one with a 65% acceptance rate. They both go to state schools and they're both English majors and you know, they have pretty much the same curriculum. Both sets of their professors have doctorate degrees and they get pretty much the same grades. Once you get into college, like I would say that most people agree with this. You can't convince me that one worked harder than the other. And to be quite honest, like what does that comparison even do? This really like melts away, I think for like the middle caliber like tier people because like I'm definitely in that category and see the problem with this when you get into college and you actually get to the school, all of that noise of college admission goes away and like there's so much noise. The conversations that take place in four years of high school surrounding college are A, endless, literally endless. And just, that's it, I think that's it. And they're just a lot. Even if you're talking about them in a positive way, there's so much talk nowadays about like college. And I guess that I don't know what it was in the other days, but it's just a lot. And this idea is really killing our generation right now. All of these students are absolutely murdering themselves to get into college right now, but the competition is so fierce that like a lot of students are getting rejected from schools that like they meet their requirements for. And then they just feel like it was a waste of time and energy their whole high school career. When I saw a TikTok of a girl, sorry, this whole video, she's like me talking about TikToks I saw. But it was basically just a girl saying that like she absolutely killed herself to get into college. When she got to college, it was COVID and it was supposed to be like everyone's telling you if you work hard in high school, then you get to go to college, you get to have fun and like be with friends and do all the stuff. And like that's even taken away this year. And to be quite honest, like I feel like, I've made other videos about this, but like a lot of that like build up hype is like, honestly, it's like too much sometimes because your first year of college is like mostly terrible. It can be like really fun, but it's like mostly terrible. Like you probably hit your stride around like junior year, which is so fun because of pandemic it, not okay. So an article from Forbes put it really well. Increasingly students report that they arrive at college burned out with no sense of why they're there. In high schools, rates of depression and anxiety have risen for a number of reasons, but the college admission is one. Knowing that highly competitive colleges look for passion in their applicants, students obsess over ways to find it or worse, create it when it really isn't there yet. So what I like what freaks me on about this one, this one quote, basically our generation is so obsessed with the idea of success that we don't even consider what we want or how we want it. Like we don't even bother to ask ourselves those questions because it's not what colleges want from us, you know, on those applications. So this leads to part three of this video. Why do we feel like such failures in this process, even if we get into the school of our dreams? Now it gets personal. So when I was going to college in 2018, I really fell in love with like this rare degree program called arts management. And it's really only offered like a handful of schools in America. One of my top schools happened to have this degree. So I was like sick, right? But the school that I go to has like a 78, 78% acceptance rate or something like that. My immediate thought wasn't like, Oh, I found my dream school where it has, you know, my perfect major and I'm living in the perfect city. It was like, Oh, I have wasted my high school career to go to a school with a high acceptance rate. What? I already interviewed high school students right now. I guarantee you that like 99% of them have had that thought, which is just so like, it's so yucky. Like I hate that. So I just had to like toss out that toxic thought and like make decisions for me because hi everyone. So it's a couple of days later. I was filming the end of this video and my camera stopped recording. And I re-filmed the end of this video one more time. And I was editing it this morning and I was just like, I haven't said anything in this video. I am so afraid of making any kind of point because this topic is just something that everyone has such a very strong opinion on. And I think that this is really the root of what I was trying to get at this whole time. And this is exactly what I have been trying to say. Each individual person who is, you know, reaching the age of 17 and 18 is, you know, bombarded with all of this talk of college. And there's a lot of expectations that surround this decision. And I grew up in a very academically charged area, if you could say that. So there's just, there's always a lot of opinions and it's just a culture. I mean, teachers have things to say about where each individual student is going to college. Students have things to say. Other parents have things to say. Friends, family, like everyone has something to say. I guess I think sometimes because we're so young, we don't even know how to listen to ourselves. And I thankfully, like I made the right decision for me. I went to the best school for me. I love my major. I love my life truly. And that little voice in the back of my head still told me like even when I showed up, you know, you still question like, did I make the right decision? You know, this, you know, it's just always something that like lives rent free. You know, going to a, you know, a brand name college is a very easy way to prove your personal success to somebody else. But we all have an individual journey. And to be quite honest, like I think within this, in these, these like, I'm gonna say like academically charged areas, I think that sometimes what gets lost is the, like the privilege it is to even go to college. And like that has definitely been lost on me. And I don't think, because it's just this thing that's like inherent, like we don't even stop for a second and be like, oh, like this is a, like this is a huge, huge privilege. So I guess I just want to say like, you know, if you are experiencing like all of these like different angles of, you know, people trying to tell you what to do, like just listen to yourself and have hard conversations about like your finances because there's just, there's so many individual factors like mental health, physical health, you know, passion, who you are at your heart, you know, your finances, like there are so many like personal and private details that go into making this decision that just like, I just wanted to make this and be like, you shouldn't feel bad about your decision. You shouldn't feel like people are looking at you like less successful and that there are people out there who are gonna get you and get, you know, what it is that makes you like, I can't think of another word, but like successful. In whatever capacity that is. And like, this is really, this video is really like, if I were to pick an audience for it, it is for people who are going through this process right now because I think when you're in it, it's really hard to listen to anybody about this sort of phenomenon of like, once you get to college, like you just, the judgments melt away and then you are left with the decision you've made. And I just, I would just hope that when that noise melts away that you have made a decision that's like really good for you and in every single possible way. I just wanted to end this video with a stupid quote that I wrote down. But this just truly conveys like what the essence of like this, with this conversation like means to me. And it's, this is really stupid. Like I'm not gonna lie, this is really like, this is really dumb. But I wrote, I wrote this a couple of days ago. It was in the other version. Okay, so we're taught that college is the only thing since middle school to work towards. And then you reach the mountaintop and realize that it was just a hill and there's a whole last mountain in front of you called life. You know, if you needed a stupid quote to get you through it, that's what I'm gonna leave you with. Yeah, and just know that, you know, you're not alone in the way that you're thinking. And yeah, the whole reason that I started to make this video is because I saw all of these. I can't remember if I put this in or not, but I feel like this is important. The whole reason that I started to make this video is because YouTube started suggesting me all of these videos on my homepage of like IV, like rejections and acceptances. And so I clicked on, there's so many of these videos and they have millions and millions and millions of views. And the comments underneath it just like completely put me back in this like headspace of like, just that, you know, everyone was like, oh, well, you didn't apply to these safeties and you didn't apply. Like there's just, everyone has an opinion. And like, I can't like sit here and be a hypocrite because like when you're in it, like we all have those thoughts. Like we all have those moments. So it's just, yeah, I'm just, I'm just, I just wanted to make this video to be like, it's okay, you're gonna get through it. Anyway, thank you so much for watching. If you're like, wow, this girl like is so stunning and smart. Like I just need to find out if she has more content. I'm just kidding. I do, I'm on a gap year this year because of COVID and I make a lot of content about that. So if you're interested in gap years too, like, or if you're not, I would say go check out my other videos because I make a lot of good points. And I'm very humble. So thank you so much for watching. Give it a like if you liked it and subscribe because I post new videos every Thursday and sometimes on Monday. So yeah, thank you so much for watching and have a good day. You're gonna be okay, all right. 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