Book Review: College Unranked

Parents Forum
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<p>Marite recently posted an article about the Education Conservancy, a non-profit trying to improve ethical practices in college admissions. </p>

<p>I just finished reading the Education Conservancy's book, College Unranked, and thought I'd share a few thoughts and excerpts.</p>

<p>The bottom line theme of the book (and the Education Conservancy) is that the college admissions process has become too much of a commercial venture. As a result, some decisions and actions - both on the colleges' side and the students' side - are increasingly made for the wrong reasons.</p>

<p>The book is a series of essays written by college admissions directors, high school guidance counselors, and others. It raises some very interesting issues, many of which we have discussed here on CC in the past. But, it also makes it clear that ALL parties involved - students, colleges, and parents - are all culpable for the current state of affairs. It makes for some uneasy reading at times. My main complaint about the book is that all of the contributors seem to ascribe the system's weaknesses to the "other guy." There is no one in the book who admits "my school really has screwed up" - and, indeed, some of the contributors work for schools who I believe do contribute to the whole commercialization of the process. </p>

<p>Still, the issues it raises are important, and there is enough of value in here that I would recommend it for any parent interested in learning more about what adcom's really do think and why they act the way they do.</p>

<p>I'll add a few excerpts of interest over the next few posts.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Carolyn. I am going to get a copy of the book next week.</p>

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<p>From "Let Them Be Students" by the Dean of Undergrad Admissions, Vanderbilt:</p>

<p>"More than fifty years ago...Noel Coward created a song entitled "What's going to happen to the children(When there aren't any more grown ups)? As I reflrect on the current state of college admissions in the U.S., this song keeps coming to mind, because I find myself thinking that if students were only left more to their own devices., the process would proceed more appropriately.It is the intervention of adults that has added layers of competition and anxiety well beyond what is intrinsic to any competitive selection process. Journalists, university administrators, parents, conselors, and even admissions officers all contribute to painful tendencies which, at their worst, cna change the college search process from one of matching a student to an appropriate institution, to a lookalike for a television reality show with a total emphasis on winning...</p>

<p>...I have become disappointed with much of the coverage of college admissions in the media...Too many stories are sensationalized and serve only to scare students (and their parents)...Stories focus disproportionately on a handful of the most selective institutions, when no more than about 50 of the more than 3,000 colleges in the U.S. actually admit fewer students than they turn down...And guides with rating have proliferated, with criteria that appear to have been selected because the information used is easily available (rather than important) and evaluated by a methodology that is frequently flawed and even more often not fully explained...</p>

<p>The result, too often, is to shift a student's college search process from finding a school that matches academic and personal needs to gaining access to institutions approved of my external sources...Under these conditions, it is no surprise that families begin to approach the process in disappointing and even self-defeating ways...In particular, upper income parents on too many occaisions come to see the college choice process in terms of winning instead of matching their child to institutions where they are likely to be happiest and most success...</p>

<p>Before ever creating a college list, families should spend more time developing criteria based on their values and the student's academic and personal preferences. Admissions selectivity is a proor criterion. It measures market appeal and the effectiveness of promotion rather than the quality of education. Of course, academic differences are likely between two schools with admission rates of say 90 percent and 20 percent.But I question whether a 20 point difference in admission rates creates a valid assumption concerning academic quality...Parents need to be realizstic about competition for admission to the most popular schools. Parents must heed counselors when they warn against an application or overall posture based on an unrealistic selectivity match, and must do up-to-date reserach on admission processes since annual changes can be significant. </p>

<p>Finally, parents must resist the tendency to have students apply to too many institutions. Applications take a great deal of time, and to have impact, must be based ona relationship with each institution...</p>

<p>It is appropriate for admissions officers to reflect on the extent to which our own practices can make it more difficult for a student to conduct their college process in the most enjoyable and effective manner... I am concerned that we often go past mere recruitment to almost browbeating studetns with excessive countact....The result is an "admissions arms race" where every school feels pressure to keep up witht he competition. It must be borne in mind that every dollar spent on recruitment is a dollar not spent on teaching and facilities...I worry, too, that admission offices are often less than candid about several critical issues: the threshold for admission, the impact of choosing an ED process, and the intersetion of financial aid requests and admission decisions...In an era when it is harder to gain admission to many schools, it can also seem hard to find out what one's chances for admission really are. The most slective institutions too often seem to downplay how difficult it is to get in, perhaps in the interest of keeping application numbers (and consequently selectivity and both admissions and bond ratings) high...</p>

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<p>Some interesting tidbits from the book:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Part of the reason colleges are obsessed with keeping their yield and selectivity up is that bond ratings consider these numbers. Lower yield and selectivity can mean a drop in the school's bond ratings.</p></li>
<li><p>Information about the admissions process has become complicated because there are often gaps in the numbers that colleges self-report. There is much leeway in the way schools leave out certain numbers from those reported to the rankings or even in reporting their median admitted students stats. (My personal favorite example: the US News rankings include "contributions by alumni" in their ranking factor. Apparently, some colleges manipulate these numbers by only looking at the number of alumni who have donated in the last five years and then taking the percentage who donated last year from that number....anyone who hasn't donated in the past five years is considered "DEAD" by the school in its reporting. Thus, the number is wildly skewed away from the actual number of LIVING alumni!)</p></li>
<li><p>Just as Mini has suggested, submitted class profile data often excludes "development cases" Sometimes as much as 20 percent fo an entering class can be excluded from its published profile because these students were admitted in part because of their family's financial gifts to the college, both past and anticipated. Similarly, college profiles often excludes the stats of new URM students, recruited athletes, etc. Some schools exclude new students with low stats who are adsked to come to the campus before school starts for academic catch up programs --- the thinking is they are "already enrolled" at that point and their stats don't have to be included in the freshman profile.</p></li>
<li><p>The number of applications - and thus, selectivity - is also manipulated frequently. One trick: include all applications, even those that are never completed or are withdrawn when a student is accepted elsewhere ED. "So, if one college reports actionable applications as only those that are truly complete, and another college uses the practices described here, the second college falsely appears to be more selective." Other schools exclude students who are admitted from the waiting list from their reported data. Reason: wait list admits are "by definition marginal applicants within the applicant pool of any given college." Including their stats with the freshman profile brings down their selectivity profile.</p></li>
<li><p>SAT averages are also sometimes manipulated - "For example, a college might determine over time via its own institutional research that their students entering with a combined SAT of 950 earn a 3.4 GPA. The college might then determine that 3.4 students as a whole score a predictive combined SAT score of 1110. Next, the college concludes that because grading is tougher at their school, students who score 950 should really have scored 1110. Finally, the college converts all of its new 950 first year students to 1110 students and reports the later figure externally."</p></li>
</ul>

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<p>Admissions Messages vs. Admissions Realities, by Dean of Admissions of Reed</p>

<p>"...Who gets admitted and why? The simple answer is the applicants we want the most. But colleges and universities seem to say that only the "best" or the "most qualified" get chosen. Does any college simply admit the most qualified applicants? ...
During my stints as an administrator at Bennington, Vassar, Duke, Boston College, Oberlin and REed, I have seen, in nearly every case, a version of admission by category, with the categories determined by instititutional needs and priorities...</p>

<p>Most applicants compete not with the whole applicant pool but within specific categories, where the applicant-to-available-space ratio may be more, or less, favorable than in the pool at large. Categories can exist for athletics, ethnic diversity, international citizenship, institutional legacy and loyalty, musical and artistic needs, component schools or special acadmeic programs, and even gender...If we want to provide useful back-fence counsel to prospective students, we must be farnk about category admissions...Do all colleges and universities practice category admissions? No. Most colleges and universities are not ultra-selective. Many quality colleges admit students up to the first day of classes...Yet there is no avoiding the daunting fact that the most selective colleges and universities pose an admissions challenge - where applicants outnumber available spaces by multiples of ten or even twenty to one, category admissions cuts an unforgiving swarth..."</p>

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<p>Thoughts from an Admissions Officer Mom (Assoc. Director of Admissions, Smith)</p>

<p>"The things I have learned and believe:</p>

<p>1 Look for the best in every college and you're apt to find it. Each college has unique strong points.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Listen to your child. She knows how much competition she can handle and what she really needs to learn. Sometimes, less is more. For character and confidence boosting, it's important to determine what place in the pecking order a student needs to be to be firing on all cylinders.</p></li>
<li><p>Put college education in proper perspective. If four years of college are truly the happiest years of life, then for most of us the happiest years will be over by age twenty-two. College is a part of life, not all of life.</p></li>
<li><p>Think long-term , not short. Most of us don't peak at age 18m thank goodness. For many people, college is atime to grow up and separate from parents and get ready to live in the real world. There's always graduate school for settling down and getting job skilsl.</p></li>
<li><p>I am saddened by how complicated life is for teenagers. Safety, security, good karma and faith are better bets than prestige and a diploma from a popular school. On 9/11, people running out of harm's way called their loved ones; I don't remember any reports of anybody calling a college.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't forget to say thank you. Write to the financial aid officer and thank her for the generous award. Tell an admission officer how effective the tour guide way. Write to the colleges whose offers you won't accept and thank them graciously. Remember, one person's safety school is another person's first choice.</p></li>
<li><p>As parents, we can talk too much about scholarship applications, we can talk too much about deadlines, campus visits and prepping for standardized tests, but we can never tell our children "I love you" too often.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Above all, be grateful that our students have so many great choices. Our problems and worries are related to abundance, ant that's something to be grateful about too.</p>

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<p>Jamimom, I thought of you (and others here!) many times while reading this book. I highly recommend it --- just be prepared to feel a bit uncomfortable at times while reading it!</p>

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<p>Thank you so much, Carolyn, for taking the time to share from this book. I too will look for it ASAP.</p>

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<p>Just a note: I don't think it is available in bookstores. Amazon may carry it, but it's easiest just to order it directly from the Education Conservancy website (google it and it will turn right up).</p>

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<p>Carolyn:</p>

<p>GREAT stuff, thanks for posting.</p>

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<p>carolyn:
Thanks for posting that. </p>

<p>Just lately I've been a little concerned that maybe my son applied to colleges "beneath" him (in that they were all safety/matches) - even though I know that he is very happy with his choices, that he is good match to what they offer academically and socially, and that he is not a kid that would thrive in an ultra-competitive environment. (Maybe I've been spending way too much time on CC!) </p>

<p>But after reading this post I am back to comfortable again. Thanks. (Nice to see I'm not the only one in the country not watching the super bowl!) ~ Cindy</p>

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<p>I'm not watching SuperBowl either, but it is great to see Paul McCartney doing the half-time show, singing Hey Jude etc. Awesome</p>

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<p>Taking some time away from the SB, as I have little interest in listening to the geriatric idol. :)</p>

<p>Carolyn, thank you for posting the excerpts of the book. There seems to much be more wisdom in the positions presented by the writers of essays than in the "proposals" of the Education Conservancy.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the Education Conservancy -what a dumb name- is just another hollow and misguided apostle like fairtest.org. It is easier to identify symptoms than to make constructive proposals. The self appointed leader of the group is hardly an example of what he advocates. Among his otherwise questionable suggestions, one of his best suggestions is to spendi more time on research and reduce the impact of a bad decision. Quite ironic from someone who spent the time to earn an admission in law school, only to join a group of hirsute bohemians to strum his guitar. </p>

<p>As far as I am concerned, based on its current platform, this group is neither honorable nor remarkable. Nothing more than the pipedream of an obscure GC who is long on ambition and short on realistic ideas.</p>

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<p>Weenie
I too felt that my D had applied "beneath" her, but she was very firm about not wanting to be in the Rat-race. But in the end, she did give in to my nagging suggestions, and applied to one more school on Jan.31. I should flog myself.</p>

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<p>Carolyn, </p>

<p>Thanks for the review. I'm currently in the middle of the book. Not available anywhere else except the non-profit Education Conservancy. I rec'd my order in 2 days. I agree with you (and I believe an earlier review pointed this out too) that the schools acknowledge the negative admissions issues and commercialism but at the same time are under tremendous pressure to perpetuate them. The main theme is that choosing schools for an education has gotten lost in all the hype and reputation mongering. Makes a nice companion to Gatekeepers. I'll be leaving my copy with our guidance counselors when I'm done.</p>

<p>I can't get many of my students to look past the rankings and name recognition, which have been the result of such commercialism addressed in the book. I write recs for 10-15 seniors each year who generally apply to the big guns. When I interview them prior to writing, I ask what draws them to a particular school, how they view the learning challenge there, and other such questions to help me connect them to the school in my recommendation. In the majority of cases, the answers are along the lines of "it's just a great school", "well, it's Harvard, you know", or "I don't really know personally but the website and guidebook make it seem like such a great place for me". The kids who have identified their needs and the type of school that fits them (prestige or not) are the ones I get excited about and I'm sure the adcoms can infer that from their recs.</p>

<p>The essays contributed by deans of admissions were written about 2+ years ago (I think I read this on the Conservancy's website) when the book was in the development stage. From what I'm witnessing of my students and their parents actions, the commercialism and choosing schools only by name/reputation has only gotten worse. My D bucked the trend in her class last year - the val who went to an LAC that draws perplexed looks from everyone (not connected to the academic community) when they hear the name and location. She rather enjoys that.</p>

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<p>geriatric idol?</p>

<p>Oh man, i feel old.</p>

<p>(and i thought he looked so cute tonight!)</p>

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<p>Ah, Xiggi, you should stroll down to the Parent's Cafe and throw that zinger in the Getting Old thread. I'm with Twinmom. That line hurt more than your worst zingers!</p>

<p>Am interested in the book regardless of who wrote it and whether I agree with anything in it. Just sounds like some ideas to chew on. And certainly relvant to this forum. I've recommended a number of "flawed" books, because they do have an interest factor. Will reserch the group though.</p>

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<p>Oops - I apologize if the idol comment offended anyone. I realize that the Beatles members were and continue to be very popular. </p>

<p>While I do not like the sound that much, I should have be a bit more respecful. I guess that people would make fun of my liking of Barry White and Abba -even if it results from parental pressure. </p>

<p>Again, I did not mean to offend anyone with the "zinger".</p>

<p>PS All smiles here, after that INT!</p>

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<p>Xiggi, ditto on the geriatric idol. :( But hey, both my Ss are fans of the Beatles, too, and one of them is younger than you.</p>

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<p>All smiles here too, Xiggi. Hey, that was the only part of the SB, I have stopped and watched.</p>