College applicants engage in résumé-building to improve well-roundedness
By Anna Walters
Last year as a high school junior, Jamie Kerr overloaded on extra-curricular activities. After school, Kerr, a varsity cheerleader, would go straight to cheer practice then hurriedly race over to Washington Mutual where she worked as an intern.
"I had to change in the car at stoplights," Kerr said. And if she ever had an extra moment before work, she would sit in the car and attack some of her homework.
Kerr estimates that she dedicated 31 hours a week last year to non-academic pursuits (none of which involved a TV remote or a La-Z-Boy). According to a recent New York Times article, college applicants are expected to be more well-rounded than ever before. Sitting pretty at the top of the class or achieving a 2400 SAT score simply does not impress university admissions officers anymore.
Kerr, who is scheduled to graduate from Westview High School in Beaverton this June, is planning to attend UP in the fall. She has a 4.0 and is the valedictorian of her class, but her extensive list of extra-curriculars (Vice President of the Environmental Club, Secretary of Gay-Straight Alliance, National Honors Society member and involvement in DECA, just to name a few) probably gave her the boost in the eyes of UP admissions officers.
Jason McDonald, dean of admissions at the University, said applicants who have shown leadership, involvement in community service or work experience, or commitment to any faith have a leg up over their competitors if their GPA and test scores are satisfactory.
"We want to make sure the student is not a bookworm," McDonald said.
Rising academic excellence exhibited by UP's incoming freshmen means that admissions must look to other qualifications in choosing candidates. The incoming freshman class' GPA and SAT/ACT scores steadily climb each year. In fact in 2000, the average incoming freshman had a GPA of 3.54 and an SAT score of 1132 out of 1600. This year's freshmen class weighed in with an average 3.76 GPA and an 1182 SAT score, according to the Office of Admissions.
While Kerr's academic status and her Advanced Placement (AP) and honors classes may qualify her as somewhat of a bookworm, her résumé is stacked with other entries such as her participation in four clubs and her after-school job.
Greater emphasis has been placed on résumé-building in recent years, and high school students are pressured to run for student body treasurer or enlist as a soup kitchen volunteer for no other reason than to impress college admissions.
"I care about the environmental club," said Kerr, the club's vice president, "but the real reason I'm in it is to put it on my résumé," she said. "We don't really do things that we want to do; we do things to build a résumé."
McDonald thinks that in some cases, parents are to blame for piling unrealistic expectations on their child.
"Some parents decide that their student needs to take all AP classes. They just push them academically and it doesn't allow them to branch off and do other things," he said.
Junior Renee Dornan felt pressure in high school to compete with her twin sister, a prominent athlete. On top of the five clubs that Dornan was involved with and a stellar academic record she maintained, Dornan was also a three-sport-athlete. At times she wished she could "drop everything and be a normal student."
"Being a twin had a huge impact," she said. "Everyone was comparing the two of us together." As a result, Dornan claims she had trouble establishing herself as an individual. When the time came to choose a college, Dornan decided to come to UP alone, a decision she said gave her the opportunity to be seen as an individual separate from her sister.
"No one knows the other part of me; they just know me as me," she said.
Kristy Baker, a counselor at the Health Center cautions students against adding on activities without scheduling a little time for themselves.
"It's like going down the freeway at 90 miles an hour and not taking time to get gas, and ending up broken down on the side of the road," she said. Baker emphasizes the importance of finding balance in life, which includes eating right and getting enough sleep, elements that are too often sacrificed by the time-deprived college student.
Kerr doesn't have regrets about the time she spent résumé-building in high school.
"It all added up to this big package of things I wanted to present to the colleges," she said. And she met her goal: all five schools she applied to accepted her.
