Why I won't reenlist as a Yale alumni interviewer

Just went through the whole application process with my daughter. It was horrible. It's a mess. It's sinister in the way it affected our family.

Pursuing a university degree should start with an exploration of: - "What am I good at, really?" - "What do I love, really?" - "What matters to me, really?"

But what we saw all through high school was simply: - "What can I do today that will improve my chances of getting into Harvard?"

Humans are prone to wanting the wrong things, and especially so when misperceptions lead us to believe they are the right things. I don't know how to ultimately fix the college-chasing-helicopter-parenting-test-prepping-personality-skewing of today's admissions process, but I've started by reinforcing to my younger daughter that what matters is her, not the the university she goes to.