Amidst the sea of college sweatshirts on campus, it’s easy to drown in the admission hype.

Listening to seniors discuss their options after receiving acceptance letters, I learn about one impressive fact after another: X students into this school, Y percent yield rate to that school. But paralleling these solely statistical conversations seems to be an occasional undercurrent of negative prejudices that crosses the line between supporting peers and doubting them.

I find it disconcerting to hear the sporadic “How did that person get in there?” and “Why did this person get in instead of that person?” during college conversations. We are not college admissions officers, so there is no need to spend time and energy trying to determine who deserves to get into which college. We are not entitled to judge others based on what little we know about their resumes and lists of numbers.

If students receive admission to a school, that institution clearly wants them, whatever the reason may be. What’s the point of predicting those students’ GPAs, listing out their extracurriculars, and estimating their essay writing skills in order to analyze why they were accepted?

The process is over and students earned the right to be happy about their accomplishments after toiling for innumerable hours to write and rewrite their application essays. That said, excessively flaunting admission letters may not be the best route to take either, out of consideration for those who did not have the same outcome.

I don’t think that skepticism generated by the college admission frenzy is pervasive or even intentional on campus, but its simple existence merits attention to the issue. My favorite part about our school is that it offers every individual the opportunity to engage in the friendly and encouraging environment that the school cultivates. I would even go so far as to say that the atmosphere that we are a part of fosters familial connections. Unconstructive remarks doubting other members of our community are antithetical to this mission.

Thus, it is our responsibility as students to perpetuate a supportive culture here. For the most part, we do maintain an encouraging environment. As with anything, however, there is always room for improvement.