I would disagree that it’s okay to treat college applications like games of deception. Yes the system is incredibly stupid BUT it has a large real impact on your life and that’s what makes the difference. It might make your life better or more comfortable but that’s what makes it a relevant moral problem. And if you get tempted by that, you’ll probably be tempted by those high-paying zero-sum/exploitative careers post-graduation and then congrats—you’ve sold out.
Besides, a country that lets a system which selects new elites based on vice rather than merit persist deserves the decay that comes with that.
Finally, I’m not sure if I’m extrapolating too much from my own experience, but I feel like if you’re really competent you can do great regardless of elite uni acceptance. Most of the demand is from those seeking high-paying and/or comfortable zero-sum/exploitative careers, which you shouldn’t want anyway.
“Being good at stupid games and lying convincingly are vital skills that get you far ahead in life” is not an immutable fact of life. It’s a societal problem to solve.
If the reason not to attack this “reward for deception” at school level is that there are other places in life that also reward deception, then the reasoning is completely cyclical and nothing can ever be done about it.
There are countries that run their college and university admissions almost entirely on hard standardized testing scores—i.e. Germany, Singapore, China, Korea, Russia, Ukraine. Some of those are fairly new, some have existed in a very similar form for many decades. So we know for certain that culling the “deception reward” is both possible and doesn’t result in immediate disaster.
I would disagree that it’s okay to treat college applications like games of deception. Yes the system is incredibly stupid BUT it has a large real impact on your life and that’s what makes the difference. It might make your life better or more comfortable but that’s what makes it a relevant moral problem. And if you get tempted by that, you’ll probably be tempted by those high-paying zero-sum/exploitative careers post-graduation and then congrats—you’ve sold out.
Besides, a country that lets a system which selects new elites based on vice rather than merit persist deserves the decay that comes with that.
Finally, I’m not sure if I’m extrapolating too much from my own experience, but I feel like if you’re really competent you can do great regardless of elite uni acceptance. Most of the demand is from those seeking high-paying and/or comfortable zero-sum/exploitative careers, which you shouldn’t want anyway.
“Being good at stupid games and lying convincingly are vital skills that get you far ahead in life” is not an immutable fact of life. It’s a societal problem to solve.
If the reason not to attack this “reward for deception” at school level is that there are other places in life that also reward deception, then the reasoning is completely cyclical and nothing can ever be done about it.
There are countries that run their college and university admissions almost entirely on hard standardized testing scores—i.e. Germany, Singapore, China, Korea, Russia, Ukraine. Some of those are fairly new, some have existed in a very similar form for many decades. So we know for certain that culling the “deception reward” is both possible and doesn’t result in immediate disaster.
I don’t think you understood me. I totally hate the system and wish it were different.
I was responding to the OP stating that it’s not immoral to deceive on college applications!