Reading Response #4

Desdemona’s aspirations to get into Princeton was made apparent in Ching Chong Chinaman. Throughout the whole play, Desdemona seemed to be on edge because she was trying to build the best college application that would get her into Princeton. For example, she was eager to discover a niche story about her family’s history to write about in her personal statement for her college application, and she was relentless on winning her school’s canned food drive because presumably it would build her resume and increase her involvement with the school. Apart from that, Desdemona even went against her own morals to maintain her grades; she assumed Jinqiang was good at math because he was Chinese, and she ended up throwing her math problems at him to finish even though she knew it was wrong of her to make Jinqiang work for her.

With that being said, I believe it is normal for students to have aspirations of going to an Ivy League, and I believe it is normal for students to work hard to ensure they get accepted into an Ivy League school. However, in the case of Desdemona, I believe the pressure she has put on herself to get into Princeton is unhealthy. Desdemona’s desire to attend Princeton has taken precedence over all aspects of her life, and this struggle highlights a larger issue among college applications today in the United States of America. Today, the criteria required to get into top colleges like Ivy League schools have reached an all time high, and these exceedingly high expectations for students to maintain good grades, uphold multiple leadership positions, have an exceptionally high SAT score, and start a non-profit organization just to be noticed certainly causes stress on students.

As someone who just recently applied to colleges, I can attest that this growing issue in the US is true. For a large amount of time, I always perceived that going to a top college like an Ivy League would ensure an easy way to success. Success to me was landing a job that provided a stable income because my goal in life has always been to be able to provide for my parents who have worked hard and selflessly to provide for me. In the midst of trying to apply for these highly sought out schools, I found myself feeling unqualified even though I had good grades, was the captain of my school’s Badminton Team, was the cofounder of the Mental Health Club, and was an SEO Scholar who attended an additional 720 hours of classes to prepare for the SAT. With that being said, while reading Ching Chong Chinaman, I heavily related to Desdemona who was feeling insecure about her own qualifications to get into Princeton, and I assure many other students must have related to her because the criteria to get accepted into these top colleges have become absurdly hard. It is a duty of our society to address this issue. Thought some competitiveness is valuable because it encourages students to work hard to seek out the goals they want, too much competitiveness can be negative. The mental health of students can become negatively impacted if they are continuously exposed to the relentless competitive nature of college applications. To protect our students and ensure they have an abundant life that isn’t solely focused on getting into these top colleges, the college admission process must be heavily examined and altered to prevent relentless competitiveness and exceedingly high expectations that only a few can meet.