Jarvis JargOnline 1997 - 1998: News

Students Dismayed Over Admission Procedures

by Ian Ha

[Second Prize, " News Reporting," Toronto Star High School Newspaper Contest, 1998. From the Jarvis Jargon, newspaper of Jarvis Collegiate, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. - ed.]

There's only one thing more ominous and exhaustive than an exam and that's going through a college or university admissions process. For any student deciding to apply for post-secondary education, the process is inevitable. Current conditions surrounding the procedure leave students less than satisfied.

"I think it's lame that they base it solely on marks," says Liz Nelson, a grade 12 student. "If you get a 90% at Jarvis you'd be getting 100% at say, Rosedale Heights, so it's unfair because other people have an advantage. Even though students from Jarvis may be better prepared for a harder program, people from easier schools will automatically get in."

Ian Corby, an OAC student, agrees. "Certain schools and certain teachers mark harder in certain areas, so therefore, you end up with students who study really hard and not reach satisfactory marks to grant admittance, whereas people who don't try as hard may get in."

In Canada, a mark is a mark, regardless of whether you go to an academically demanding school or not. Some American universities, however, judge transcripts individually within the setting of the high school, resulting in a more objective evaluation.

So down south, an 85% in biology from one school may in fact be worth more than a 90% at another, depending on the academic rigors of the two schools. This is not the case in Canada.

Bev Nicholson, who works at the admissions office at the University of Toronto, outlines the problem. "it would be next to impossible to do this in any fair way because we can't tell whether students have taken all their courses at one school, or whether they've only been there for one course.

"Wherever you happen to be at the point when you're applying for admission, on the record we see, that's the school you've been attending. We don't know whether your mark is from Jarvis Collegiate or from several other places."
It's unlikely that Canadian universities will talk up evaluating students is the context of their own schools. In an age of mass education and impending cuts, universities lack the resources and time that such evaluations demand, and at a university like U of T, which accepts over 4000 first-year students, it's almost impossible.

However, amends are expected in the future that will allow admission officers to better scrutinize student transcripts. One proposed change is full disclosure.
Full disclosure, which was agreed in principle but the Education Ministry of Training, will enable universities to look at a student's complete course history-- meaning dropped courses will even show up on a student's transcript. As a result, students who frequently drop courses may be forced to be more cautious.
Currently, depending on when you stop taking a course, dropped courses are not printed on transcripts. Full disclosure will also make discernible night and summer courses from daytime courses.

"At the moment, when we see a transcript for a student, it only shows successes, it doesn't show us multiple attempts, it doesn't show us failures or withdrawals. When this information becomes available, I think the universities will start using that information to a greater degree," says Nicholson.

This doesn't atone well with OAC student Oscar Azahar, who sees such disclosures as imperfect information. "There might be certain reasons for dropping a course, like you're taking too many, or you have family issues, so I don't see how they can judge a student."

Twelfth grader Yollanda Zhang concedes. Asked about whether admission officers should be given the right of full disclosure, she quickly responded. "No, I don't think so, because sometimes student might have a bad year and they might want to drop a course, and if it appears on their transcript, it'll look bad, and I don't think they should be able to do that."

Although full disclosure is not yet in place, the pressure for information is mounting. Some universities already ask for supplementary resumes, from essays to more student records.

Aside from full disclosure, other suggested procedural additions include the administering of standardized test similar to SAT test given in America. This would equip universities and colleges with more material to sieve through student qualifications.

On this issue, the feelings are mixed. "It'll be good," says Yollanda, "because everybody is doing the same thing anyway, so it will test your abilities."
Oscar, on the other hand, thinks otherwise because "a person can be really nervous and screw up and it doesn't necessarily mean they haven't studied."
One of the greater concerns of the admissions process is its general impudence of extracurricular activities. Teachers and guidance councilors continually encourage students to participate in activities outside the classroom.

Extracurricular activities adds dimension to a student's resume, pairing academic pursuits with social experience to create the "well-rounded" student.
Unfortunately, extracurricular activities are all too often overlooked in the admissions process because they're not tangibly reflected on a grade sheet. For people like Yollanda, who wish the process could reach a more personal level, the end may be far off.

"Certainly for those people applying for physical education or health," continues Nicholson, "for them, those [extracurricular] activities are important. For most other divisions and for an admissions decision, it's not important... We no longer collect that kind of information."

Matt Weed, also in grade 12, agrees with Yollanda that the admissions procedures should go beyond the numbers. "It should be based less on marks and more on what sort of person you are."