In the future, we'll all wear lycra and name badges.

In the future, we'll all wear lycra and name badges.

I couldn’t read this recent Bloomberg article packed with stats about the increase in applicant pools at most of the most selective universities, without being reminded of one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.  In “Number 12 Looks Just Like You,” a young woman in the future balks at undergoing a process that makes everyone in that society beautiful–and look virtually identical.  (And in a very Twilight Zone moment, aired exactly 46 years ago today!) Despite her protestations, she ends up undergoing it anyway and emerges looking like everyone else.  One of the classic lines in the show, gravely intoned, was “When everyone is beautiful, no one will be. Because without ugliness, there can be no beauty.”

And similarly, as every school continues to report increases left and right year after year, I fear we are moving past merely Groundhog Day, and into world where everything will eventually look the same.  I mean, even my beloved University of Chicago is reporting an unfathomable 42% increase in applications this year.  Maybe I’m old school, but I rather enjoyed the days when Chicago had smaller applicant pools than other universities because it’s applicant pool was different.  Nowadays, switching to the Common App and more marketing can beef up numbers to look good to a the board of trustees and U.S News rankings.  I just wonder what it’s doing for the kids themselves not to mention the personalities and quirks of colleges themselves.