<p><a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/05/admit[/url]”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/05/admit</a></p>
<p>bylery.... get a life man honestly.</p>
<p>This will be a very influential book - rivalling "The Chosen" by Karabel last year.</p>
<p>Well, I doubt its influence becasue the people involved-college administrators- obviously already know this. As it becomes more public, it will generate debate, an interesting counterpoint to complaints about affirmative action for underrepresented minorities. </p>
<p>Of course admissions to elite private colleges has always worked like this. Where else do those multi billion dollar endowments come from? This affirmative action for rich (usually white) people parallels the advantages flowing to this group in nearly every other part of our society, and I say "nearly" in spite of the fact that I cannot think of an exception.</p>
<p>I do, however, have a problem with some of his sources who seem to be quite willing to share confidential information without a release from the students involved.</p>
<p>As a former Boston Globe reporter, I doubt he cares a great deal about the impact of his writings on the individuals whse privacy he has invaded. After all, as a Pulitzer Prize winner, he is above such mundane concerns.</p>
<p>Disappointing that he would publish names and point fingers at innocent kids, but the colleges should be outraged if some employee violated privacy and gave the reporter the information. Heads should be rolling over this one.</p>
<p>.... by the formidable Janet Maslin:</p>
<p>(an exerpt)</p>
<p>"New books raise a wealth of ticklish questions, beginning with the ones about wealthy kids. What got them into those Ivy League classrooms? Have they been pushed nonstop toward college from the cradle? Will they self-destruct once they get there? How many coaches and essay editors and tutors can dance on the head of a pin?</p>
<p>Although these are familiar topics, they have developed extra heft. One reason: the privacy strictures that once protected even the most knuckleheaded students can now be breached via the Internet. As colleges deal with overwhelming numbers of applications by making their calculations more blatantly quantifiable, embarrassing facts and figures have begun finding their way into the public discourse. Students test scores, colleges rankings in surveys and parents bribes all figure in institutions decisions. So they have all become fair game.</p>
<p>Daniel Golden uses these numbers for maximum embarrassment in The Price of Admissions: How Americas Ruling Class Buys Its Way Into Elite Colleges and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates. (A big authoritative subtitle is essential in this genre.) His conclusions are expected; his tactics are not.</p>
<p>Mr. Golden, the deputy Boston bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, is the son of immigrants and legitimately worked his way into Harvard. He now has an animus for students whose families are wealthy, powerful or famous enough to shoehorn them ahead of more (in Mr. Goldens opinion) qualified college applicants. How the Z-List makes the A-List is his chapter on Harvards treatment of major donors.</p>
<p>Michael Goldberger, a former director of admissions for Brown University, is quoted here as acknowledging that having a building named after your family on our campus would be a plus factor. Point taken but Mr. Golden goes much further. His book is the seasons barnburner because it cites specific donations, test scores and even essay topics that are linked to questionably qualified applicants. Their names are named.</p>
<p>The Price of Admission describes development admits applicants with family money but no previous ties to Duke University, the most egregious offender cited here as the dirty little secret of college admissions. Somehow he knows that Dhani Harrison, who went to Brown, wrote an admissions essay about playing music onstage with his father, the Beatle, and Eric Clapton and that celebrity-mongering Brown was suitably impressed.</p>
<p>Mr. Goldens dishy, mean-spirited book delivers a mixed message: that although prominent institutions select students unfairly, applicants should still be fighting their ways into these same unscrupulous colleges...."</p>
<p>this crap happens at EVERY elite school, including Harvard. Whats that thing called? the Z-List for legacies with donating potential? I mean Bush went to HBS after a less than stellar Yale undergrad.</p>
<p>Of the 340 committee members who have children who are college age or are past college age, 336 children are enrolled or studied at Harvard even though the university admits fewer than 1 in 10 candidates and has typically turned away students with top academic records</p>
<p>More on the subject from today's Wall Street Journal:</p>
<p>I apologize that the link I posted above is no longer functioning. The front-page article in today's Wall Street Journal is entitled "How Lowering the Bar Helps Colleges Prosper."</p>
<p>Karabel who Golden cites frequently in his book) reviews Golden in today's Washington Post:</p>