Religion: Self-identity, guide to life, ticket into college?
Sunday, May 20, 2007
I've been reading The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids by Alexandra Robbins and I must say, it's been very interesting. Hair falling out, borderline child abuse...it makes for an incredible juicy read, except when you realize it's non-fiction, you start to wonder...where the hell did we, as society go wrong?
Being well-rounded is NOT enough. Nowadays, you have to "have lived in Mongolia for 2 years or have lived through a civil war" or just be bottom-line absolutely unique in order to get into Stanford. And now as I'm looking through these college magazines, the first thing I'd look for in that college is not the majors offered, not the requirements, not the tuition, but instead, how diverse the school is. Most of the colleges that I've pre-selected have a low percentage of asian-americans which I think would work tremendously to my advantage.
What's sad about this is that I've also considered my religion as a defying characteristic that will undoubtedly help me get into college. Since I am Muslim, I'm relying on the fact that I myself am a minority embedded within a minority, seeing that I'm a half-Chinese practicing Islam. I honestly am ashamed of myself for thinking that "hey! here's another plus to my religion! I'm possibly scoring a higher chance at a top college!" Well done Tasha, well done...
