No person wants to be a number. When being admitted to college, that is what students essentially are. Admission officers rank certain factors and give a person a number based off factors to see if the person would be a good fit for acceptance. Students are starting to wonder what qualities colleges should be looking at most. If colleges are looking for an independent and innovative student, grades and ACT/SAT will not have the potential to determine that, but extracurricular work will.

The factors colleges use to admit students to schools with are mostly the same techniques. The primary factors most colleges use for acceptance are course rigor, grades, and ACT/SAT scores. A secondary factor is extracurricular work.

The ACT/SAT is no longer of test of intelligence. It has turned into a test of hours and hours upon studying along with spending hundreds of dollars to buy the best books and have a tutor. How much money a family or student is willing to spend on this test is not any measure of intelligence, it is a test of obedience and preparation.

Though grades seem to be a reliable measure of a students’ academic capabilities, students think that extracurriculars should come into play more than grades. Grades and course rigor show an ethical representation of how hard the student pushed themselves. For example, if a college notices one student took all AP courses and got B’s they will appreciate that more than a student with easy classes and all A’s.

Extracurriculars have the ability to show what kind of student a college wants. The extracurriculars an individual takes represents what their interests are along with the independence and motivation they have to succeed and make a difference. If colleges are looking for students who will succeed in the real world, it is not by simply looking at a test score first, it is by looking at who they really are by the activities they take part in.

To an extent, colleges have a fair way of determining what they want in a student.  They want to see who has worked the hardest and they often believe scores are the only way to show that. Looking at scores and grades are more important to most than other factors.

The current way colleges are accepting students is not necessarily ideal. Within the next few years hopefully admission officers will realize extracurriculars seem to be more important than a single score. All the factors do have a wide impact on how the student did, but the orders and priorities need to be rearranged if success will take place.