“Which activities are acceptable?” and they reply, “Any of them!” they are simply polling their local mental space of activities which only includes acceptable activities?
Well let’s do a thought experiment. Suppose a college applicant is president of the Dungeons and Dragons club. He is so passionate about it that he sometimes dresses up as his character—a 5th level Elf fighter. He writes his application essay about how he likes to fantasize that he really is an Elven fighter with his trusty sword. Another applicant is similarly passionate about firearms. He’s the president of the hunting club and the shooting club and he’s interned for the NRA.
First of all, I think it’s fair to conclude just based on common sense that both of these guys will be at a big disadvantage compared to the captain of the lacrosse team or the editor of the school newspaper. Even though they have shown a lot of passion and commitment.
The next question is what is going through the admissions officer’s mind when he says that all activities are acceptable even though that’s pretty clearly not true. I would agree with you that the example of the gun nut or the D & D fanatic probably aren’t leaping into his mind. Why not? Well I think your hypothesis is part of it. But also, I think that there is a human tendency when asked about the working of one’s mind to subconsciously look for ways to give more socially acceptable answers. Saying “I enjoy all different kinds of music” is a pretty safe response to a question about musical taste so your subconscious probably is not going to strain very hard to think of examples of music you hate.
Suppose a college applicant is president of the Dungeons and Dragons club… Another applicant is similarly passionate about firearms… First of all, I think it’s fair to conclude just based on common sense that both of these guys will be at a big disadvantage compared to the captain of the lacrosse team or the editor of the school newspaper.
I disagree with you there. Unique activities are almost certainly advantaged over common ones. If there are 100 editors of the school newspaper, 1 rifleman, and 1 kid who founded a group for mentoring inner city kids, they may like the last kid more than the rifleman. But chances are both of them getting in anyway, along with only 10 of the school editors. The rifleman is much better off doing that than doing an activity already saturated with top-flight kids. Now it is true that the same probably doesn’t apply to the passionate D&D-er because the activity is coded as too low-status to count or something. But while unique-liberal > unique-conservative, unique-conservative definitely > generic-liberal in terms of admissions.
Unique activities are almost certainly advantaged over common ones.
Well that’s a different issue. All things being equal, passion for dungeons and dragons or firearms will put you at a disadvantage compared to passion for activities which aren’t so stigmatized.
Well let’s do a thought experiment. Suppose a college applicant is president of the Dungeons and Dragons club. He is so passionate about it that he sometimes dresses up as his character—a 5th level Elf fighter. He writes his application essay about how he likes to fantasize that he really is an Elven fighter with his trusty sword. Another applicant is similarly passionate about firearms. He’s the president of the hunting club and the shooting club and he’s interned for the NRA.
First of all, I think it’s fair to conclude just based on common sense that both of these guys will be at a big disadvantage compared to the captain of the lacrosse team or the editor of the school newspaper. Even though they have shown a lot of passion and commitment.
The next question is what is going through the admissions officer’s mind when he says that all activities are acceptable even though that’s pretty clearly not true. I would agree with you that the example of the gun nut or the D & D fanatic probably aren’t leaping into his mind. Why not? Well I think your hypothesis is part of it. But also, I think that there is a human tendency when asked about the working of one’s mind to subconsciously look for ways to give more socially acceptable answers. Saying “I enjoy all different kinds of music” is a pretty safe response to a question about musical taste so your subconscious probably is not going to strain very hard to think of examples of music you hate.
I disagree with you there. Unique activities are almost certainly advantaged over common ones. If there are 100 editors of the school newspaper, 1 rifleman, and 1 kid who founded a group for mentoring inner city kids, they may like the last kid more than the rifleman. But chances are both of them getting in anyway, along with only 10 of the school editors. The rifleman is much better off doing that than doing an activity already saturated with top-flight kids. Now it is true that the same probably doesn’t apply to the passionate D&D-er because the activity is coded as too low-status to count or something. But while unique-liberal > unique-conservative, unique-conservative definitely > generic-liberal in terms of admissions.
Well that’s a different issue. All things being equal, passion for dungeons and dragons or firearms will put you at a disadvantage compared to passion for activities which aren’t so stigmatized.