Top American colleges — including Columbia, MIT, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Chicago — are now inviting applicants to submit “Dialogues” certifications through a peer-chat platform that rewards teens for appearing open-minded on hot-button political topics. The program is run by Schoolhouse.world, a nonprofit founded by Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan, and lets students debate issues like climate change, Israel and Palestine, and even abortion to gain a shiny badge for their college applications.
The idea? To prove “open mindedness, empathy, and communication skills” — by essentially earning gold stars from other teens during hour-long Zoom calls about politically loaded topics. The platform even encourages kids to improve their “scores” by attending more sessions and choosing buzzwords like “kindness” and “empathy” to describe each other afterward.
One of the latest topics? Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which students as young as 14 are encouraged to dissect, complete with a survey at the end to assess how well they parroted progressive talking points. The more they say the right things, the better their chances at impressing an Ivy League admissions team.
Critics say it’s just the latest form of performative activism and emotional manipulation dressed up as college prep. As Harvard sophomore Alex Bronzini-Vender wrote, schools are sidestepping the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling by giving applicants space to write about how race affected their life — or, now, how well they navigate political minefields like immigration or gender equality.
“This is literal virtue signaling,” tweeted Austen Allred, CEO of BloomTech. “Let’s debate immigration then I’ll grade you on empathy. Not exactly subtle.”
James Nondorf of the University of Chicago actually praised the system, bragging that the school enrolled 13 students with Schoolhouse “transcripts” — a sort of personality résumé showing how virtuous or agreeable a student appears in these political conversations.
Schoolhouse.world claims that face-to-face chats make it harder to “other” people or dismiss their ideas. But critics warn that what’s really happening is a soft filter — not for academics, but for ideological alignment. If a student shows the “wrong” kind of empathy or resists certain left-wing narratives, their peer reviews might tank, and their shot at a top-tier school could go with it.
Gone are the days of SATs and essays about overcoming adversity. Now teens are expected to roleplay social justice diplomats and signal all the right values just to earn a spot in a classroom. From DEI debates to abortion empathy contests, the line between college prep and cultural re-education is getting thinner by the semester.