Dear Editor:

What values are we passing on to our children?

I ask the question because of my granddaughter. This young woman had one long-time academic goal. She wanted, dreamed about and prepared herself academically to attend the University of Georgia in (Pre Med) upon graduation from high school. She is a well-rounded student, having participated in varsity sports, invited to membership in Beta Club and mastered all the academically advanced class work requirements to achieve excellence. She did volunteer work at a major hospital and participated in many other extracurricular activities.   

When it was time to apply to the university, she was advised to apply to more than her first choice, which she did.  I should not neglect to tell you that she was ranked ninth in her class of over 325. You can tell where I am going with this. She was accepted at all the universities but her first choice!

I will also not neglect to tell you that a fellow student,  who took no advanced classes, and was not ranked high in his class, was accepted at the  UGA. His father was an UGA alumnus. I am not completely opposed to this practice as long as it does not preclude a more eligible student from being accepted. While the practice of precedence in admitting family members of alumni over other qualified students may be standard to university protocol, does this make it right?

So why am I bothering to write this letter? 

I cannot, in good conscience, just sit back and be silent while watching the dreams of the aspiring young people of our country, like my granddaughter, have their academic dreams shattered needlessly because of a university tradition.

Concerned grandmother,

Sandy Akin

Social Circle