College-application season has come around; time for seniors to worry about grades and scores. Pumping up extracurriculars and begging teachers for recs is de rigueur, but this year The Banner has uncovered a new reason for students to fret. What the constant stream of emails from Mrs. Newberg doesn’t tell the student body is that they should focus less on the books and more on their looks if they’re shooting for the Ivy Leagues.
Representatives from Yale, Dartmouth, and Penn, among others, have admitted to an undercover reporter that they do, in fact, choose candidates based on their looks.
We spoke to an admissions officer from an undisclosed school on how she views submissions. “Haven’t you ever wondered why our campuses have such high ratings on College Prowler for our students’ attractiveness? We can’t just count on intelligence to give us a glow; we need to bring in the prettiest people to populate our halls.”
Georgetown, among other schools, has added a requirement for a photograph to be submitted along with transcripts and essays. “But we don’t need to go that far…the SATs ask for a photo. We can easily get that from the College Board or whomever.”
Harriton’s new Di-H counselor for next year – Guidance likes to replace that position as often as possible, to keep students interested in their counseling – told us that unattractiveness is a legitimate concern for prospective college students.
This settles the long-asked question of why Main Line Models and Talent is included annually at Harriton’s college fair, but brings to mind another: why hasn’t Guidance ever stressed the importance of being well-groomed and conventionally attractive?
“We give dress codes and lectures about not smoking or drinking,” the counselor told The Banner in her interview on October 3. “If you’re going to be applying to an Ivy League school, you should be able to figure it out on your own. There are hints everywhere.”
Students across Harriton are finally embracing the pertinence of presenting themselves well to colleges on paper and physically. This newly released admissions tactic has the senior and junior classes buying more makeup and becoming excited about what is now referred to as ‘sweater weather’, when they can wear sweater sets and boots to show off their class in manner and dress.
“When we say we care about rankings, we care about all rankings. We like diversity so much because people from every race are beautiful, and we don’t want to discriminate against pretty people just because of their backgrounds.”
This representative revealed that college tours and campus visits are more often than not used to analyze an applicant’s potential addition to the overall looks of the student body, which, as Harriton’s Guidance Department admitted, is the reason that they are so heavily suggested to students.
“We just want the best for everyone! The Guidance Department spends so much time focusing on how students look and doctoring their photos to increase chances at Ivy Leagues…that’s why it takes us upwards of two weeks to press ‘send’ on Naviance.”
Guidance hopes that this news will increase the number of students admitted to the Ivy Leagues in the Harriton Class of 2013, and that it will also inspire less time spent complaining about Internet filters and more time spent on grooming.