'Decision Day' ranks seniors by prestige
- Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 14
- 1 min read
"Decision Day" is supposed to be a celebration of high school seniors' futures, writes Samuel J. Abrams in the Washington Examiner. It functions as a "public ranking of adolescents" by the prestige of their future colleges.
At thousands of high schools, "seniors arrive in college sweatshirts, assemblies are staged, matriculation lists are published, and social media accounts celebrate elite acceptances with logos and school colors," he writes. This is not a private celebration. It's staged by the school.
"The senior headed to a regional university learns that her four years mattered less than the classmate headed to an Ivy," he writes. But, at least she has more bragging rights than students going into the military, a trade, or community college.
High schools should honor every path a graduating senior takes, Abrams argues. "Stop treating eighteen-year-olds as brand affiliates of the institutions that admitted them."
What used to be "College Decision Day" is now "College and Career Decision Day" at schools that celebrate. But there's not the same excitement for the kids who are going to live at home, deliver pizza and take community college classes.
Yet another idiotic idea for many high school seniors as the ones who aren't attending on scholarship might do better starting at a community or junior college, getting an associate's degree, and then transferring into a top notch college (which is easier as a incoming junior) than
as a freshman...
You also save money and the class sizes are usually smaller for your general education credits and 2nd year studies...
I wonder if any of the schools that do this (I'm not personally familiar with the practice) are also the ones that refuse to identify a valedictorian and salutatorian for the graduating class, or otherwise try to obscure 'class rank' based on grade-point average. Do they parade their students who take AP courses, or become National Merit Finalists and Semi-finalists ?