<p>I’m not sure if it would help if the schools were more transparent about what they’re looking for in applicants. For one thing, they don’t know what next year’s crop will bring - they can guess, based on what they’ve received in the past, but there are always quirky things that throw admissions off (a huge gift to an Ivy music school, the matriculation of a Hollywood star, a scandal, etc.) </p>
<p>The other thing is that we often don’t hear/believe things even if it’s explicit. I was just at an information session at a small rural LAC, in a roomful of fellow Caucasians. One parent asked about racial/ethnic diversity at the school, and nodded her head in agreement when the admissions official outlined the school’s efforts to increase diversity. We want diversity, and assume that, of course, OUR child will be the ‘mainstream’ candidate admitted and benefiting from the diversity efforts. My point is NOT about diversity on campus, but about our perceptions (and hopes - we are parents, after all) for our own kids. If you go back and read what colleges say they want, many parents would say that describes their child. There simply isn’t room for them all, so at some point in admissions decisions of exclusion are made and it’s often hurtful. Things will change when the population of 18 year olds decreases.</p>