<p>Hoedown makes an irrefutable point. For most kids, most colleges have what amounts to a stress-freen open admissions process. There are 3,000 or so colleges in the U.S. Maybe 5% of those have truly selective admissions standards. Of course, the folks who visit CC happen to be obsessed with the top one or two percent of colleges. There is nothing wrong with that. It reflects a love of learning, a respect for intellectual accomplishment and a recognition that many benefits flow from graduating from those schools.</p>
<p>Happily, for those people who have neither the inclination or the natural ability to make it into the most elite schools, their chances for successful careers and lives depend fairly little on their choice of undergraduate school. Don't get me wrong--those are four important years and my own children will follow a disciplined search and application process. All I'm saying is that there are many kids like the friend of mine who decided to forego Columbia for a Seton Hall scholarship and then went on to get an advanced degree in applied mathematics from Northwestern.</p>
<p>Similarly, for those of you in the workaday world: where'd your boss go to college? Do you have any idea what her grades were like? By the way, when's the last time you were on a job interview and anyone asked to see your transcripts or even evidence that you graduated?</p>
<p>College admissions is indeed a fascinating and shadowy game. However, it's importance is a very subjective. Those who think it doesn't matter are right. Those who think it is very important are also right.</p>