Cassius Anderson

10/4/19
ERWC 4
AOW #4

In this article the issue of meritocracy is brought up as a bad thing. In my opinion,

meritocracy can be both bad and good, but being a high school student myself, I would not make

it out to be as bad as described in the article. While, constantly being told that we need to be the

best and everything needs to be perfect to make it in this world, I would say that I am used to it

by now. In defense of colleges (specifically the elite ones) they do not want people who have

bad grades or disciplinary problems, so there is no other way than to choose the best students

based on the criteria that they are already using. For example, if they did not there would be tons

of well educated people out on the street that worked super hard to try and get into a certain

college, only to be turned back and have someone else who is less qualified, take their place. On

the other hand there are tons of intellectual people out in this world who didn't get in or go to

college, so there is this factor as well. But, colleges cannot all of a sudden change the way they

are accepting people because it is too “hard” or “competitive”. As students, american society has

drilled into us that we need to shoot for doing perfect on everything from tests and homework in

elementary school to the SAT in high school. In the end, colleges can not get to know every

single person on a personal level, they have to go by the system that has always been used, that

happens to be a bit more rigorous now. Afterall, we could be worse off like China, where one

test determines where you go and how successful you are in life. So, I don't think meritocracy is

ripping America apart, the system is just doing its job and everyone is simply complaining about

it.