University applications

honestly, i'm happy i'm not applying to college these days. the new york times reports today on immense increases in the number of applicants to many universities across the country. to my delight, "my" three universities - dartmouth, harvard, university of chicago - are all mentioned in the first paragraph. the pressure on high schoolers in this country is tremendous. certainly, there is a large group of applicants from top-ranking private or public high schools whose academic and non-academic accomplishments are simply unbelievable. as a representative example, i have one particular family in mind (those of you who know me know who i'm talking about) with three kids graduated from ivies and now in medical school and a fourth one applying this year: each one of them spent high school taking dozens of AP courses, excelling in sports, pursuing non-trivial independent research in the sciences, spending their summers traveling and studying in europe, competing in (and generally winning) math and science competitions across the country, and (in the case of the youngest one) also impressing everyone with her talent as a singer. the top universities in the country must get many of these applicants, whose resumes evoke what is normally accomplished in liberal arts colleges and whose entire school careers seem to have been designed for their college admissions application. but, i've also seen the flipside of education in this country through my teaching in cambridge, boston, and here in the south side of chicago. in these schools, high school classrooms are falling apart, experimental equipment is from the 1950's, drop-out rates are alarmingly high, enrollment in college is shockingly low, teachers have no formal background in the subject they teach, some classrooms lack teachers altogether, and any curiosity or desire to learn is stifled. it's difficult to reconcile these two pictures of education in the united states.