{"id":292,"date":"2019-04-15T17:44:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T17:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2-50-17-66-55.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/2019\/04\/15\/2019-4-14-operation-varsity-blue-thru-the-eyes-of-future-college-students-hopefully\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T00:50:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:50:43","slug":"operation-varsity-blues-student-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/cirkled-in-specific\/operation-varsity-blues-student-perspectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Varsity Blues \u2013 through the eyes of a future college student (hopefully)!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Authored By: Prakriti Shukla, 10th Grade, Tesla STEM High School, Redmond, WA<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not living under a rock, you\u2019ve probably heard of the recent Varsity Blues – college admission scandals<\/a> involving wealthy parents paying 100 times more than I have saved up for college, to get their kids admitted to the top universities. Lori Laughlin and 32 other wealthy parents, ranging from Hollywood celebrities and child actors, to executive business leaders, paid for their children to get accepted into prestigious universities including Stanford, Yale, and University of Southern California. They used the money to game the current test taking system \u2013 SAT and ACT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now take a look at me \u2013 a typical high school student. I\u2019m in 10th grade and a rising high school junior. I am less than 18 months away from filling out my college applications. I\u2019m the oldest of two kids in a middle-class family. I don\u2019t have a private college counselor. And this whole scandal made me sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I\u2019m disappointed because I had faith in the most sacred institution \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher Education.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Knowing where my family stands financially, I\u2019ve been working hard for a very long time to get into a good college so I can fulfill my dream of being doctor. I take AP and honors classes as often as I can. I stay up late into the night, or the early hours of the morning, doing homework. I\u2019m participate in choir and I swim for my high school team. During the summer, I participate in internships and educational camps. To earn money for my college fund, I also tutor other students in math and science. In addition, I work hard to maintain a strong GPA. And I\u2019m just one of the many, many, many high school students working their tail off to get into a good college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, hearing that people like Olivia Jade Giannulli, \u201cwant[s] the experience of like game days, partying\u201d and doesn\u2019t \u201creally care about school\u201d, was frustrating. I wondered, \u201chow does someone who doesn\u2019t care about school and just wants to party, get into a school like USC?\u201d I speak for other students as well when I say that I have lost faith in the fairness of the college admissions process. The main question for me and other high school students who will soon be applying to college is, will I be denied admission into a college because of another student whose parents are richer than mine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post <\/em>thinks it\u2019s time to get rid of the SAT and the ACT<\/a> entirely. I agree with that. Already, over 1000 colleges have made the SAT\/ ACT optional<\/strong><\/a> and every year more colleges join that list. Just recently, the University of Denver went test-optional.<\/a> A test-optional admissions process doesn\u2019t rely on standardized test scores which can be falsified. Instead, it\u2019s a holistic evaluation of students\u2019 activities and skills developed over time<\/strong>. The challenge for a lot of students however is that they don\u2019t have an easy way to showcase themselves in an authentic and nuanced way to colleges. Until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m so thankful for Cirkled In<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Using <\/em><\/strong>Cirkled In<\/a> as my holistic, story-telling profile and portfolio, I can showcase myself to college admissions officers in the best and most authentic way.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Cirkled In gives me the hope that a college will see me as ME – a qualified candidate and a holistic person. I hope colleges and universities will re-examine their admissions process and use tools like Cirkled In<\/a> to discover and admit hard-working, qualified students like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is to fair and equitable college admissions!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authored By: Prakriti Shukla, 10th Grade, Tesla STEM High School, Redmond, WA If you\u2019re not living under a rock, you\u2019ve probably heard of the recent Varsity Blues – college admission scandals involving wealthy parents paying 100 times more than I have saved up for college, to get their kids admitted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cirkled-in-specific"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cirkledin.com\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}