There are several factors considered when a student applies to college: grades, SATs, and essays. But on top of all that, there are extracurriculars—a bad way to assess a student.

Extracurriculars can be very misleading. In baseball, for example, the worst players—benchwarmers—sit out of the game the majority of the time. Now imagine that a benchwarmer’s team wins the county championship. Does the benchwarmer really deserve the title? Does the championship really mean that the benchwarmer is a good player? Does the benchwarmer really show good work ethics from being a “champion”? Even in other sports, there tends to be a few extremely talented players that carry everyone up with them. And in some cases it could be the opposite, where an extremely good player is dragged down by his or her teammates.

Another thing to consider is a lot of what a child does outside his or her house depends on his or her parents. Some parents put more emphasis on studying or chores while others force their children to find a job instead of developing a special skill. Regardless of why a parent does not allow a child to participate in extracurricular, it usually stems from one issue—family income. A study by the Pew Research Center found that 84% of children participate in extracurriculars if their parents earned above $75,000 per year compared to 59% of children with parents that earned less than $50,000. 

Money also causes other problems. More money means more resources like coaching and better equipment for extracurricular activities for richer families. This puts poorer families at a greater disadvantage as their children can’t reach the same level as more privileged families. 

Another issue with extracurriculars is people of poorer income end up living in a poorer neighborhood and the children from these families get pushed into schools surrounded by other less privileged people. Richer people, on the other hand, get pushed into environments with richer people. Since the wealthier people tend to have more resources and better skills, all the rich schools get the best talents in the county squeezed into one area. This gives other schools no fighting chance in extracurriculars, making everyone in these schools automatic losers.  

Some may say that the same argument applies to other factors such as grades. While richer people do have an advantage when it comes to academics, there are still plenty of resources available to less privileged families. Virtually all types of information can be found online and even without a computer, there is a library that is free for everyone(which contains computers). In addition, many schools have tutoring help after school for any extra inquires.

It is time for colleges to realize the flaw in their admission system and reform it.