Reflections on the Mirror Stage

Summary

Reflections on the Mirror StageHollis Robbins reflects on the uses of the college admissions essay, and what it says about young applicants.Two key consequences of so many colleges and university systems scrapping the SAT/ACT requirement are that the numbers of applicants at top schools skyrocketed and suddenly more attention is being paid to the college essay. But the essay, a central element of the application “package,” is arguably more biased than standardized tests. One recent study shows the college essay is tied to household income. Another critic notes that students from elite schools are trained by admissions coaches to write winning essays on current themes. Not surprisingly, The New York Times observes that this admission season the vast number of essays in 2020 focused the pandemic, racial justice, family, and science. And a recent Chronicle of Higher Ed piece laments that the need to demonstrate leadership and “passion” in the college essay was being replaced by the need to demonstrate “authenticity.”The college essay is supposed to serve as a window that allows admissions committees to peer into the applicant’s life. But the essay also reflects back to applicants the idealized, curated self desired by colleges. Why not get rid of it altogether? Not only does it seem clear that there is plenty of socioeconomic bias in the process, but also college applicants are clearly expected to present an artificial picture of themselves. Encouraging high school students to transform themselves into a standard narrative — to reflect back the image the college desires — may do more harm than good.Some decades ago in a famous essay called “The Mirror Stage,” the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan theorized that we acquire our sense of self through an encounter with the mirror. The infant or small child sees her reflection, and in an aha! moment, realizes that the roundish shape staring back at her actually is her. Before her encounter with the mirror, the child’s expe...