To get into elite colleges, agree to disagree (but avoid politics)
- Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 18
- 2 min read
Two years ago, guidance counselors urged Alex Bronzini-Vender to start "thinking about how to spin my whiteness into something more interesting" to get into an elite college.
When he decided to transfer a year later, the "identity question" was out, he writes in the New York Times. The "disagreement question" is the "hot new it girl" of college essays, as one admissions consultant calls it. For example:
Tell us about a moment when you engaged in a difficult conversation or encountered someone with an opinion or perspective that was different from your own. How did you find common ground?”
"Just as I once scrambled to demonstrate my fluency in D.E.I., students now scramble to script the ideal disagreement, one that manages to be intriguing without being dangerous," writes Bronzini-Vender, now a Harvard sophomore. Admissions consultants advice applicants to avoid hot-button political issues. Don't pick something that might "trigger" an admissions staffer.
Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, has come up with a new option for college applicants, he writes. Teens can debate a topic with other students on Khan's Schoolhouse.world platform and rate each other on traits such as empathy, curiosity and kindness. (Persuasiveness? I guess not.) Participation and ratings generate a scorecard and a "dialogues portfolio," which can be submitted to "top schools," including Columbia, M.I.T., Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt and the University of Chicago.
Bronzini-Vender thinks students will "learn to simulate earnestness." (I envision two chatbots respectfully disagreeing with each other.) Instead of trying to screen out incivility, he writes, colleges should teach students how to discuss difficult topics rationally and productively.
These fuzzy questions tend to discourage first-generation students and let savvier applicants game the system, often with the help of tutors and consultants, he concludes. From diversity to civility -- perhaps patriotism will be next -- these are guessing games played best by the most advantaged students. The factor least correlated with socioeconomic status turns out to be standardized test scores, which some colleges are reinstating.
Here's the famous Saturday Night Live parody of 60 Minutes' "Point/Counterpoint."
That would require getting rid of 90% of the faculty. The last thing colleges, especially have promoted for the last 30 years is discussing topics rationally and productively.
The one thing college haven't done in decades is provide education in the true sense of the word. That's not to say that some students didn't become educated by keeping their head down and picking their battles.