The moment you enter high school, the main topic of conversation goes from summer plans to college dreams. You walk into freshman year wondering where it will take you after four years.
With each year that passes, the idea of moving into a dorm in another state becomes more and more real. During sophomore year, you start involving yourself in extracurriculars, some that you love and some that are “just for the app.”
By junior year, not only are you studying for physics and other classes, you are also studying for the SAT/ACT. It seems that your future is defined by two numbers: SAT/ACT score and an unweighted GPA. You also make a long list of colleges that are “reach schools,” “target schools,” and “safety schools.”
By the time you reach your last year of high school, you spend your fall cramming in essays and supplementals to arbitrary questions. Along with that, all your friends ever talk about is the college that they applied to and trying to predict if they will get in or not. The pressure rises as all your peers have already submitted their applications. The topic seems inescapable.
I was a Labby for most of my life. I was there from age 4 to age 12. I left after sixth grade and came to Parker in 2020. Although I wasn’t talking much about college in sixth grade, my older brother, Hudson, a Lab freshman at the time, had heard all about it. Unlike Parker with literally hundreds of leadership opportunities and clubs, Lab has a few student government positions and a limited number of clubs, many of which are very high commitment. It was very competitive to get a meaningful position to showcase on your college resume. Friendships would get pulled apart trying to get the same leadership position for a club. Everything seemed to be about college and building your resume. After his freshman year, Hudson and I moved to Parker.
The idea of college certainly didn’t change when he moved to Parker. In fact, people seemed to talk about it more. Parker students openly talk about their college dreams and every detail around it. Even as a sophomore, I knew what schools about 50% of the senior class were EDing to, who got in, who got deferred, and who got rejected.
I realized that Parker people have somewhat of a misconception of what Lab’s college culture is. When claiming this article, it was titled, “Lab has a no college application talk policy. Should Parker have that?” This in fact is not true. There is no ‘policy’ about talking about college at Lab. It is simply an act of courtesy to not talk about it. It’s more a culture of not wanting to make other people feel bad or feel pressured. There are no rules about talking about college. It is more of a “taboo subject,” said a Lab senior. She said that you only really tell your close friends where you are applying to, and that you never ask if someone got it. The Lab college culture is very much “anti bragging.”
A student at Lab got into an Ivy League in early decisions. Despite being one of the first people to commit to a college in the Lab Class of 2024, she didn’t want to post on the Lab decisions Instagram page in fear that it would seem like she was bragging. The Lab girl I talked to was the first to post on the Lab decisions page. She explained to me that she knew no one else applied there, so she wouldn’t be making anyone jealous, and “it is not very ‘prestigious’ and very small and niche.” The people who are the most secretive at Lab are the people who got into the most ‘prestigious’ schools. She said that “if you knew that other people got rejected from a school that you got into, you aren’t gonna go around and tell them you got in.”
Like most high schools, news of decisions spreads, but you rarely hear it directly from the person who was accepted. She said the only day it is acceptable to tell people where you committed is T-Shirt day. T-Shirt day happens in the last few days of school and everyone wears the merch of the college they committed to. Wearing the college merch of your future school is very rare at Lab. At Parker, it is very normal to announce college news to everyone, but at Lab, this is seen as rude or snobbish.
As with everything, there needs to be a balance. Too much secrecy is toxic, but so is constant discussion about it. I appreciate the openness of the Parker college culture, but when I’m a senior and acceptance letters and rejection letters start rolling in, I hope that our college culture becomes a more comfortable, safe environment.
