Audrey Folia | Editor-in-Chief
March 27, 2026
With March 26th marking the so-called “Ivy day,” around 95% of applicants to Ivies are left defeated at their rejection. The other 5% are rejoicing the fact that they managed to get in. But it makes one stop to wonder, what truly makes these elite colleges so much better than all the rest? That is, what is it, other than this very ratio of rejections to admitted students, that makes these schools so special? And, in general, why does it seem like the SCHS student body cares more about prestige and competitiveness than the happiness and well being of their peers?
In prefacing this article, I would like to acknowledge a few things. First, as a high achieving student myself, I have experienced the very desire for prestige that I am critiquing. I’ve wondered why others have gotten into schools that I’ve been rejected to. I’ve made judgments, subconsciously or not, when others tell me what school they will be attending in the fall. Above all, I’ve hoped that all my hard work in high school will have “paid off.”
The problem is, especially in the IB and AP portion of San Clemente High School, we are fed the idea that a low acceptance rate means more than an individual saying that they’re choosing the school that’s the best fit for them. Amelia Villarete, a senior who just committed to San Diego State University, commented on this idea, claiming that she has wondered what others will think of her because SDSU is “regarded as a party school and has a higher acceptance rate than some of the other ones [she] got into.” She went on to say that she thinks “our school definitely has a culture of comparing acceptance rates and in general a lot of pressure to do a million extracurriculars and APs just to get into a ‘prestigious’ school even if it’s not the right fit for someone’s major or the lifestyle they want.” Similarly, senior Catherine Golles has found herself “questioning whether [she] should choose a school that [she] can actually see [herself] at or choose a school that has higher prestige.”
This mindset also leaves students choosing different pathways other than college feeling judged or even ashamed. Cocean McAlister, a senior who will be going on a mission trip to Peru for the next two years instead of college, highlighted this idea. He stated that with college decisions being released, “all of a sudden it feels like the only point of high school was to get into a good college, and now that [he’s] not going to college right away, [he feels] like [he] should be embarrassed.” The same sentiment is likely felt by those going to trade school or taking a gap year.
When we teach this way of thinking to students while they are young, it leads to four years of high school being spent chasing a dream which is built on the basis that it’s difficult to achieve. Senior Jack Steele argued that “this fosters unnecessarily stressful atmospheres in schools and makes students feel like a failure if they don’t get accepted” to certain schools. So, what happens if after years of this outlook, students don’t get into their “dream” school?
Unfortunately, many are left feeling completely discouraged and as though all of their hard work was a waste. Because we teach the mentality of grades over learning and prestige over happiness, it can feel like all is lost if college decisions don’t go the way one hopes they will. The truth is, an individual will end up where they are meant to be. Perhaps it is a selective school, or perhaps not. But each senior is on their own journey, and it’s important to remember that just because the pathway someone is taking does not look like your own does not mean they are in any way worse, and just because you may not have gotten into the most prestigious school does not mean you are in any way less deserving or qualified. We must tie our worth to who we are as people and not to the percent that appears next to our college acceptance rate.
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