college admissions in 2025
i’ve been thinking about how much weight society, and colleges especially, put on gpa in the admissions process. and honestly, i feel like we need to chill with it.
first off: colleges are businesses. it sounds blunt, but it’s true. a college isn’t just a dreamy place for eager students to learn. it runs like an institution with goals. they want future changemakers, people who’ll be notable alumni, people who’ll help build the school’s brand, network, influence. so if you’re a college admissions office, what do you do? you recruit the folks who check the obvious boxes: high gpa, high test scores, “safe” extracurriculars. you want someone who’s done everything “right.”
but here’s the kicker: by putting so much weight on gpa, you’re basically pulling in a bunch of people whose main goal has been “get a good gpa.” they’ve learned the game. they’ve optimized for grades. there’s nothing inherently wrong with working hard to get good grades, but the problem is: their purpose might be limited to that. when they behave purely as students whose goal is “maximize my gpa,” or "get into an ivy league school" you lose the person whose goal is “find a problem, fix a problem, uproot something, make something new.” you lose the passionate person. the risk-taker. the person who maybe got a lesser gpa because they were busy creating something, experimenting, failing, learning.
so if a college says “we want changemakers,” but then questions students with a "gpa below x", there’s a mismatch. you end up rewarding “safe students” rather than “impact students.”
second point: yes, there have been shifts: more holistic admissions, more weight on essays, extracurriculars, diversity of experience. but i worry we’re sliding back to gpa‐obsession. for example: i read about brown university entering a voluntary federal agreement in 2025 that required disclosure of admissions data (including grades) and other oversight as part of restoring research funding.
the fact that federal funding deals incorporate admissions metrics signals an external pressure to quantify “merit” in ways that almost always favor high gpa. it’s upsetting because brown is known, at least in reputation, for intellectual curiosity, creative thinkers, exploration. but when external systems push “grades first,” the door closes to those who may have lower gpa but higher potential for impact.
think about the kid who spent summers volunteering, building something from scratch, maybe took on leadership in non-traditional ways, maybe got a few Bs because they were juggling passion projects and classes. that kid may have the spirit colleges say they want, but then they’re cut because of gpa. that hurts.
it sends the message that the "safe" path (study hard, hit all A’s, take a bunch of APs) is the only path. it discourages risk, it discourages exploring. “if you can’t guarantee an A, maybe don’t try that big project.” that stifles creativity.
so what do we do instead? or at least what should admissions offices do?
weight gpa less. yes, still consider it; it reflects persistence, ability to meet deadlines, handle academics. but don’t let it dominate to the point that it filters out everyone else.
give meaningful weight to curiosity, creativity, resilience, risk-taking, leadership in non-traditional spaces. show that you value the student who tries to fix something, not just the student who avoids failing.
include more narrative space in applications where students can show what they did and learned, not just what grade they got. maybe even include questions like “what project did you do, what problem did you take on, what happened when you failed?”
for the public and policy side: stop legitimizing “grades = merit” as the only metric. create accountability for admissions systems to reflect the real diversity of talent.
in closing: if we keep treating gpa as the king in college admissions, we’ll keep missing out on the people who might actually change things. the person who got a 3.6 while advocating for a cause in high school might bring more to campus than the 4.0 who stayed safe. let’s shift the conversation: grades matter, sure, but they’re not the whole story.
