Decision Day

Ever since my freshman year, I’ve identified that my school is huge on “hustle culture,” a trait that’s not so uncommon in Bay Area high schools. The pressure at notoriously competitive schools like Carlmont that “feed” students into places like the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, has everyone vying for top-dog status. 

That’s why Decision Day is a big deal for us Carlmont seniors, who have worked tirelessly through the ups and downs of high school to achieve our goals. Peers I’ve witnessed pull all-nighters studying for tests looked physically relieved to have a huge weight off their shoulders, posing in front of the “We Did It!” banner hung for photos in the quad.

I had looked forward to Decision Day my entire high school career. Yet once the day actually came and went, an unexpected sour taste was left in my mouth. It dawned on me how strange it was that my school turned a simple deposit deadline into an entire holiday, all to celebrate a commitment to just four years of someone’s life. 

There’s nothing wrong with celebrating success. But I also can’t help but think about how much this tradition espouses the idea that college, and a highly ranked one at that, is the end-all, be-all goal for high schoolers, something they should be working toward as a reward for their efforts. It’s a great goal, but it’s not the only path to success. Increasingly, I’ve heard from adults in my life that employers are seeking work experience and skill sets, not prestigious alma maters or low acceptance rates. And tons of respectable professions — firefighters, hairdressers, entrepreneurs — don’t have a college degree as a barrier to entry. 

And financially, college is a huge stressor. Amidst all the buzz surrounding how prestigious a college each senior got into, it’s easy to forget that many are taking out massive loans or going hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt just to get their higher education. I know that if I had gotten accepted into certain colleges, the financial burden of attendance would have been way too much for my family. 

On top of everything else, there’s an unspoken pressure to commit to a school by May 1. Seniors who weren’t wearing college shirts weren’t being judged, but I watched quite a few get questions and be whispered about behind their backs. Decision Day may feel isolating for those who are still undecided, on a waitlist or not attending college at all. It creates an unnecessary and weird exclusivity that separates on trivial notions. One group gets to participate in all the day’s fun because they’re committed to a college, while the other is left out. Considering that the decision on whether to attend a four-year institution can often hinge on family income, it was very odd to walk through my school and see who was wearing a college shirt and who wasn’t. 

Out of boredom, I found myself scrolling through Instagram college-decision videos from high schools across the country. I noticed a significant difference between videos from states ranked lower in education and those ranked higher — state schools and community colleges versus “Top 20s” and Ivy Leagues. Of course, this is an expected product of differing cultural values and funding. But it’s unsettling to be aware of the thousands of high school students who don’t have the resources to tick the boxes for acceptance to colleges or the means to pay for school, while my peers crowd together for a picture of all the students we’re sending to UC Berkeley this year to make jokes about our “feeder” school. 

Not to accuse my peers of “flexing,” but it feels like that’s how we Bay Area high schoolers are starting to come across. I understand the desire to celebrate hard work, but I’m starting to see how Decision Day really shows off the resources some students have to attend the colleges they’re committing to, and, as a result, indirectly puts others down.

Strangest of all is the name itself: Decision Day. At 18, most of my life is undecided. Who knows what my career will be, where I’ll live, what I enjoy, if I even stay at the college so proudly stamped on my T-shirt. Most 18-year-olds are, arguably, terrified of making decisions! It’s unrealistic to ask a teenager to make decisions about their goals and career path when it’s bound to change at any second. 

I’m not lobbying for my school to get rid of Decision Day, but I do think it’s time to reconsider the culture surrounding college admissions and the expectations placed on teens to figure their lives out as a whole. Whatever decision I make at 18 isn’t going to define me, and the college I’m going to attend won’t either.

Ayana Ganjoo is a senior at Carlmont High School in Belmont. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.