Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good Through College Admissions
JANUARY 2016
It's time to say, "Enough."
Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions marks the first time that a broad coalition of college admissions offices have joined forces to collectively encourage high school students to focus on meaningful ethical and intellectual engagement. The report includes concrete recommendations to reshape the college admissions process and promote greater ethical engagement among aspiring students, reduce excessive achievement pressure, and level the playing field for students who are traditionally underrepresented in college. It is the first step in a long-term campaign to substantially reshape the college admissions process as we know it.
The report includes concrete recommendations in three core areas:
Promoting more meaningful contributions to others, community service, and engagement with the public good.
Assessing students’ ethical engagement and contributions to others in ways that reflect varying types of family and community contributions across race, culture, and class.
Redefining achievement in ways that both level the playing field for traditionally underrepresented students and reduce excessive achievement pressure.
Contact
mcc@gse.harvard.edu
Recommendations for promoting community engagement and service
Students should be encouraged to engage in meaningful, sustained community service that is authentically chosen, consistent, and well-structured, and that provides opportunity for reflection both individually and with peers and adults. The college admissions process should value this kind of service.
Students should be encouraged to take collective action that tackles community challenges. The college admissions process should value this kind of action.
Students should be encouraged to have authentic, meaningful experiences that focus on “doing with” not “doing for.” The college admissions process should value these kinds of experiences.
Students should be encouraged to engage in service that develops gratitude and a sense of responsibility for the future. The college admissions process should value this kind of service.
Read more about our findings and recommendations in the Executive Summary (PDF) or by downloading the full report (PDF).
“Admissions processes inevitably send messages about what colleges value, messages that young people may interpret as signals of what society values as well.”
Recommendations for assessing ethical engagement and contributions to others across race, culture, and class
College admissions officers should value contributions to one’s family, such as caring for younger siblings, taking on major household duties, or working outside the home to provide needed income.
College admissions officers should seek to assess more effectively whether students are ethically responsible and concerned for others and their communities in their daily lives.
Read more about our findings and recommendations in the Executive Summary (PDF) or by downloading the full report (PDF).
“The college admissions process is powerfully positioned to send different messages that help young people become more generous and humane in ways that benefit not only society but students themselves. Yet high school students often perceive colleges as simply valuing their achievements, not their responsibility for others and their communities. ”
Recommendations for reducing undue achievement pressure, redefining achievement, and leveling the playing field
College admissions officers should prioritizing quality—not quantity—of activities.
College admissions officers should convey a more nuanced approach weighting AP/IB courses.
College admissions officers should disincentivize “overcoaching” in the admissions process.
College admissions officers should work to relieve undue pressure associated with admission tests (SAT and ACT), including making these tests optional, clearly describing to applicants how much these tests actually “count” and how they are considered in the admissions process, and/or discouraging students from taking an admissions test more than twice.
College admissions officers, guidance counselors, and parents should expanding students’ thinking about “good” colleges.
Read more about our findings and recommendations in the Executive Summary (PDF) or by downloading the full report (PDF).
