The season of college admissions has finally come to an end. The results have brought both joy and tears to students and their families across the nation, but especially so among Bergen County Academy students whose four years of toil eventually manifests itself upon selective colleges.

Harvard achieved a record with its lowest acceptance rate yet, 7.1 percent, Yale was not far behind with 8.3 percent. Other Ivy League and top-tier schools such as Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, and Georgetown Universities also rejected more students this year than ever in their history.

“For the schools that are perceived to have the most competitive admissions processes, there has been this persistent rise in applications,” said Jeffrey Brenzel, dean of Yale’s undergraduate admissions. According to Mr. Brenzel, 22,813 students applied to Yale this year, compared to 12,000 who applied ten years ago. Yale admitted 18 percent of its applicants in 1998, more than double the rate this year.

So why is the number of applicants ever soaring? Admissions deans and high school counselors agree on a few factors: the rising demographics of high school seniors, convenient online application, and augmented financial aid. But more than anything, it is the huge obsession that many nowadays have with the elite colleges, especially the Ivys.

But getting into college is not, nor should it be, the ultimate goal in anyone’s life. It may serve as a stepping stone for a better future, but not as a final arbiter of success. “Where we went to college does not set us up for success or keep us away from it,” said William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin. Nonetheless, students and even their parents obliviously set college as their final destination, doing whatever it takes to get into their top choice school.

True, these brand-name colleges look for well-rounded, ready-to-succeed teenagers with a concern for the community. But as more qualified candidates apply, anxious students go way beyond their call of duty to demonstrate their aptitude - taking summer SAT courses, participating in a myriad of extracurricular activities, and of course, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Winning a competition or forming a club is a definitely a plus.

Yet along the way, might students be losing their unique identity? For example, instead of learning to write creatively, they are taught to adhere to the specific rules of a perfect-scoring SAT essay. Instead of striving for individuality, students are almost forced to assume characters that they think or they are told will win them admission, almost as if they are robots, living for and serving that elite admissions committee.

Plus, is not high school a time that comes only once? Parents often reminisce about their adolescence, which was, to them, the best time in their lives. Students nowadays, however, are so caught up with a busy schedule that they fail to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime experience. When kids are supposed to be forming lifelong friendships, we see them obsessed with(and sometimes ruined) by competition among peers; or more to the point, it seems there is just not enough time for friends.

But as it seems pretty bad in the United States, the situation in other nations appears even more abysmal. In South Korea, for example, which sends the most students to Harvard besides Canada and Britain, the international elite high schools are “forging Ivy League skills.”

Daewon Foreign Language High School, which closely resembles Bergen County Academies, is one such example. One of the most prestigious institutions in Korea, Daewon sends most of its graduating seniors to the top American universities. Their strategy is pretty simple. They choose top-scoring middle school students and teach them courses concentrated around skills necessary for the SATs and college admission essays, such as composition.

The students follow an intense regimen, studying nonstop: Korean lectures start at 8 a.m. and last till noon. After lunch, foreign instructors teach English language courses, and at 7:45 p.m., study hall begins. Students pile up textbooks, cramming for hours. For a while, surveillance cameras were used to keep students from dozing. Fortunately, they no longer exist. But to maintain their GPA and learn materials for 8 AP exams, none of which they took a course for, the students feel that they cannot afford to lose even a second. The windows are flung open only to let cold air in, and some students study standing to keep awake. Only after enduring a 15-hour school day, do they finally head home.

Korean students still attend weekend out-of-school classes to raise their SAT scores by hundreds of points. Eric Cho, a college counselor at Daewon, revealed that class of 2008’s average SAT score was 2203 out of 2400. In comparison, Philips Exeter, a boarding school in New Hampshire, averaged 2085.

“I just love to do well on the tests,” said Soo-yeon Kim, a senior at Daewon who was recently accepted to Princeton. These high test scores, along with the students’ unremitting aspiration for Ivy Leagues, largely explain Daewon’s incredible success in college admissions. But perhaps what the school really should instill in students is knowledge and individuality, not “Ivy League skills,” which offer little insight into students’ qualities other than dedication and endurance.

“This is 18 years of my life boiled down to one page,” one senior said, while finishing up his college essay. “This is me, in a single piece of paper.” But is it really he?