In my junior year of high school, I became obsessed with the idea of college. I religiously binge-watched college acceptance reaction videos on YouTube, with people screaming, crying, and hyperventilating as they opened their admission results. Their intense reactions, as though their futures hinged entirely on that single moment, left me both excited and somewhat anxious, knowing that one day I would be in their shoes. I was convinced that once that day arrived, it would change my life forever.
After all, the idea that college predetermines the trajectory of one’s life is anything but new. For decades, society has perpetuated the belief that higher education is the ultimate gateway to success. As early as ancient times, people in positions of power and privilege had access to education, while women, slaves, and impoverished citizens were systematically excluded from learning. In today’s democratic world, education is widely recognized as an inherent human right, granting every individual the basic right to learn, regardless of their status, gender, or race. Yet, the concept of elite education is still very much alive, as private institutions continue to provide exclusive education, highly coveted by modern society. The image of private education as prestigious and aesthetically appealing is heavily reinforced through pop culture, especially through the Western cinematic universe, which encourages young target audiences to aspire to the glitter and gold of elitist learning.
Legally Blonde is an undeniable classic that has brought up generations of aspiring female students to pursue their dreams of studying at Harvard or other Ivy League institutions. The protagonist, Elle Woods, is introduced as the quintessential “dumb blonde”—carefree, always dressed in pink, and primarily preoccupied with fashion, boys, and gossip with her sorority girlfriends. Elle’s boyfriend, on the other hand, embodies the wealthy golden boy stereotype—privileged, attractive, and entitled, with no real ambitions of his own other than fulfilling his parents’ expectations, which include attending an Ivy League school, particularly the one his relatives had attended. When he breaks up with Elle to pursue Harvard Law School, Elle decides to apply to Harvard Law as well, hoping to get in and win him back. She manages to earn a perfect LSAT score, and despite everyone—including her guidance counselor—insisting that she doesn’t stand a chance of getting into America’s most prestigious and selective law school, she ultimately gets admitted.
All odds stood against Elle—she comes from a middle-class family, lacks any outstanding achievements beyond her passion for fashion and her impressive LSAT score, and most certainly does not fit the standard profile of an elite candidate. Yet, she still gets admitted. What’s even more extraordinary is that she neither yearns for nor fully realizes the privileged situation in which she finds herself. “What, like it’s hard?” to quote the classic, when met with scrutiny about her admission to Harvard. While Elle’s character was largely glamorized through the early 2000s and epitomized as the ideal of a modern woman—beauty and brains, success and style—she also coincidentally became a sort of fictional utopia, perpetuating a toxic outlook on college among new generations of female students. Although Elle’s story is framed as one of female empowerment and the challenges of succeeding in a male-dominated field, her journey is largely driven by an underlying need for social validation. She attends Harvard to gain validation from her boyfriend and finds her academic drive in the scrutiny she receives from her peers and professors. The same cause seems to be the underlying motif for modern-day youth applying to college—social validation stemming from the idea that fulfilling societal expectations will lead to recognition and a broadly defined notion of success.
The most problematic aspect of Elle’s story, however, is that it has convinced us that truly anyone can follow in her footsteps—that achieving success is simply a matter of making lemonade from the lemons life hands us and that it’s not “hard” after all. She makes us believe that, ultimately, it’s practically up to us whether we get accepted or not—because if a regular, middle-class girl can get into Harvard, then surely I can too?
The truth is that a regular girl’s chances of getting into her dream elite college are quite slim, even with a near-perfect SAT score. This is not only due to the academic legacy many elite colleges endorse—favoring the children of donors or alumni—but also because of the meritocratic system that underpins the college application process in most Western nations, particularly in the U.S. In his book The Meritocracy Trap, Daniel Markovits, ironically a professor at Yale Law School, argued that American meritocracy has served a role opposite to its intended purpose. Instead of giving people the opportunity to be recognized for more than their social affiliations and wealth, it has shifted to focus on academic merit—grades, scores, records—which remains largely dependent on resources and opportunities exclusive to a particular subgroup of higher-class students. This is reflected in the disproportionately high admission rates of wealthy students into Ivy League schools and the evident correlation between socioeconomic status and SAT scores. Harvard economist Raj Chetty found that students from families in the top 1% of income are 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League school compared to students from families earning less than $30,000 per year. A different 2012 study conducted by researchers from the University of Minnesota found that approximately one-fifth of the differences in SAT scores can be directly attributed to socioeconomic factors—parental income, education level, etc.
This demonstrates that the fundamental flaw does not necessarily lie in elite, private universities themselves but rather in the educational system as a whole, which consistently favors those with greater access to resources and opportunities—such as the ability to take multiple SATs, hire private tutors, participate in elite sports, and engage in other activities that ultimately make a college application appear more competitive and worth considering.
As I watched these college acceptance videos on YouTube, with entire families breaking into tears of joy or anguish, I noticed one thing—they were all living the same dream of achieving success in a system that is inherently rigid and destined to fail them. Till the very last moment, they seemed to believe they would have their Elle Woods moment—a triumphant breakthrough against all odds—only to be fooled by a system that perpetuates inequality under the guise of fairness and opportunity. The weight of pressure placed on modern youth to excel academically is undeniably harming today’s generation of students, fueling an artificial competition, in which success and self-worth are inextricably linked to academic validation.
Perhaps, Legally Blonde is just a harmless comedy for teenage girls, or perhaps it has planted this toxic belief that elite education is attainable for all in exchange for academic merit. However, it is also fair to say that the story of Elle Woods has taught us something important. While she may be driven by academic merit and the need to fulfill societal expectations of a successful woman, her story of a regular girl getting admitted to Harvard, in a way, also brings hope and light in difficult times. Though it may be utopian, for decades it has offered a comforting narrative that has made the pressures of meritocracy feel somewhat more endurable.
Meritocracy will continue to permeate our system, but acknowledging its inherent flaws and refusing to let it dictate our self-worth or define success in the modern world is the ultimate way to remain sane. To all the students waiting for their admission results this year, I wish you all the best and sincerely hope you get into your dream school—whether it’s an Ivy or not—and that you have your very own Elle Woods moment! Just remember, don’t cling to the idea that your worth or likelihood of success in life is defined by where you get accepted or where you end up going! College may be a stepping stone in your life, but it is most certainly not the sole determinant of your value as a person, student, lawyer, entrepreneur, or whatever you choose to become in the future.
Disclaimer:
Happy 2025! As you may have noticed, I haven’t been actively posting for a while. The truth is, much like most aspiring Elles, I had to focus on my college application process, which unexpectedly kicked off for me last year. It’s been quite a ride, but now that I’m almost done, I plan to stick around and post more regularly! That’s my resolution for 2025, at least…
Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed that I get admitted somewhere!
Cheers!
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