In the race to get into a good college, those who were brave enough this year to fill in Jiao Tong University or Fu Dan University this year must be spending these past few days happily exclaiming to everyone they meet. That’s because this year, too few highly qualified people applied for the top two universities in Shanghai. What resulted was a humanities score cut off lower than that of Tong Ji & Chai Jing University, both considered less prestigious schools.
A reason for the small applicant pool this year is the way that the college exams are set up. Each student gets to put down their top three choices. But it isn’t advisable to fill in Jiao Tong as first and Tong Ji as second. If the student doesn’t get into Jiao Tong, his score won’t even be considered for Tong Ji since many students fill in Tong Ji as their first choice.
Since college acceptance is dependent only upon this one test score, many students were understandably nervous about applying for a top tier school and finally only getting into a school on the bottom of the heap. For students who’ve been through it before, the memories for those days still lay fresh in their minds. Yu Junjia, now finishing his third year at University of Shanghai for science and technology says, “The day before the results came out, I sat at home and stared at the wall to avoid throwing up whenever I thought of the test.”
The Chinese exam for college entrance, ironically called “Gao Kao”, which means high school exam, is the only criteria for college entrance. Every student’s past, present, and future is determined by that one test. My steriously drawn lines split aspiring students into different colleges.
On the other hand, I applied for college in America and it felt much less stressful. Even getting the results to my college entrance exam, the SAT, only made me anxious, slightly sweaty, maybe even a bit cross-eyed. But I didn’t feel too terrible knowing that I could always take it over if I did badly. Besides, I had another year worth of writing essays and perfecting my character to make myself more appealing to the admissions officers.
In the American system, the college selection process stretches on for basically all of high school, where even freshmen in high school worry about how their grades might affect their future. It’s true that the process becomes much more subjective, much more difficult for everyone involved. Instead of my personality being represented by a number, I am now a compilation of countless essays, interview profiles, activities and other bits and pieces of information.
I become much more difficult to understand. Yet, it gives me room to maneuver. I don’t have to depend on one test taken over three days to determine the rest of my life. I can use everything I’ve done my entire life to build my future. In doing so, I found myself admitted into Harvard.
One of my friends, James GerienChen, didn’t do all that well on his SAT’s scoring a 2 190 out of 2 400, with roughly 15% of other high school kids doing better than him. Yet he’s an amazing cellist, having played for people such as the mayor of New York City. He’s also a half Irish half Taiwanese boy who’s extremely talented at Japanese, having won the American national Japanese championships all four years of high school. Recently, he went to Japan as a winner of the contest and met members of the royal family. Because he was given the chance to be more than a number, he got into top schools such as Georgetown and Princeton and Duke. He would never have gotten that opportunity if his test scores were the only ones that mattered.
To judge a student as a number is almost irresponsible. Universities are missing out on so many students who could provide them with a fresh sense of direction or even better, something more to offer than adeptness at understanding derivatives and adages under time pressure. Adopting a system that gives them the chance to see students outside the purely academic can loosen the pressure on students during the Gao Kao. That will also prevent good students from being too scared to apply to their favorite schools. Besides, everyone should recognize that there’s more to life and to a student than simply scoring well on tests.
