By, Ellisya Lindsey

For seniors, the end of the year means a celebration of a successful Winsor career, but for others, it is a time to honor the seniors’ accomplishments. This admiration often includes awaiting the seniors’ last day of classes so that we can see where they are planning to go to college in the coming year.

On this day, many of the seniors participate in a recent, informal tradition by wearing apparel, usually sweatshirts, to announce the college they plan to attend. However, some seniors decide to opt out of college sweatshirt day. I think that the focus should be on the achievements of the seniors. Instead, younger students have begun to feel that there is a lot of pressure on this day, as some underclassmen tend to compare themselves to the seniors based on their college plans. Additionally, other seniors prefer not to share their college decisions, and do not participate in this tradition.

Ms. Graham, D’19 and college counselor, feels that “college admission does not reward the most ‘worthy’ applicants. It isn’t a meritocratic process; rather, admission decisions reflect the [changing] priorities of the colleges…However, every year comments are made that reduce a very complicated and highly individual process to a sort of ‘scorecard’ that perpetuates rumors and misconceptions.” This idea about college admissions is something that underclassmen must keep in mind when sweatshirt day rolls around again. The college process does not guarantee someone admission to her dream school based on her grades and test scores.

Additionally, the focus of this day should not be on the name of the school. Priya S. ‘17 believes that this day “tends to be viewed by non-seniors as a way of celebrating the achievement of a name brand college. I do think that is a problem because it seems to perpetuate the idea that Winsor/high school is a means to an end (the end being a name brand college). Essentially I feel that the way it’s viewed within the senior class is just exciting and celebratory, but I’m not thrilled about how other people tend to focus on the name of the school.” There are many different reasons that a senior may decide to attend a certain college, and we should not reduce that down to a name brand school.

Emily C. ‘17 shares, “The general consensus [about college sweatshirt day] may vary class to class, and I think that our class really benefited from having a group discussion and making sure everyone was comfortable with the idea.” In the end, this day is about the seniors, and, the seniors should be the ones that get to decide whether or not this day happens. As a sophomore, I look forward to participating as a senior, but I agree that the occurrence of this day should be based on the feelings of the seniors because this day is for celebrating them.