Hello,
I just had a chance to read Jacques Steinberg’s book and thought it was quite fascinating.
For those of you who have never read it, the book is about the journey of several students on their year long quest to be admitted to Wesleyan University. The author writes accounts of intense deliberations from the perspective of Ralph Figueroa admissions officer and his relations with noted prep school Harvard-Westlake.
I however was surprised at all the additional advantages that prep school counsellors have esp:
- Ability to have conference calls or ad hoc meetings with the admissions offices of top colleges on their selected slate of students.
- How college counsellors can use their prior relationships with the top college admissions officers to affect the fate of their applicants (Sharon Merrow and her friendship with Ralph).
- That some students are actively "recruited" on pure academic and diversity grounds since 9th grade (Juliana Bentes)
- How arbitrary the rating scales that admissions readers use to rate students (Wesleyan has a rating for personal and academic - but the overall rating is not a simple average but instead based on "gut feel").
I learned a lot about the quirky dynamics of “commitee” after reading this. Was wondering if anyone else on this board had other thoughts or comments.