<p>I am about halfway through this book...it is pretty interesting! Does Ralph still work in admissions at Wes?</p>
<p>Keep reading! I think the answer to that question is in the Afterword.</p>
<p>No...keep reading though....</p>
<p>Ooooh, I finished the book last night....so, Ralph took another job. I liked how we got to learn about Wes while reading the book, and how we got to see where certain applicants ended up.</p>
<p>I did not apply to Wes, but I read The Gatekeepers, and if nothing else it gave a great overviewof the thought process that goes into determining how an aplicant can whittle their list of acceptances into a single choice. Great book in that regard.</p>
<p>Seriously, I loved that book. I read it right before my junior year, and it went a long way in making me realize that admission officers are real people. Also. there is a story in there about Carter Bays, and it was pretty cool to recognize that name when I saw that he created How I Met Your Mother!</p>
<p>I loved it, too, and had a great "small world" moment with it. The details of one of the kids profiled made me think that my Chinese teacher's daughter might have known her. When I told my teacher about the girl sneaking out of her house at night, my teacher shrieked "OMG! She was coming to our house!"</p>
<p>Ralph Figueroa is currently the Director of College Guidance at Albuquerque Academy.</p>
<p>Albuquerque</a> Academy</p>
<p>I'm back! :) This book really made me fall in love with Wesleyan. Its one of the reasons I finally settled on ED. So excited for next year!!! I was so awestruck when I met Mr.Pike during a college info night and when I saw him again at Wes. He is the nicest person :)</p>
<p>I read this book a year ago to the month, and it's one of the reasons I chose Wesleyan, too. Highly recommended to applicants of any liberal arts colleges -- it gives a really intimate, detailed view of the process from the perspective of students and admission officers.</p>
<p>I was surprised how not-numbers-based it was. Like, that's good that it's not totally algorithmic, but it sometimes seemed like academics weren't a very high priority, which surprised me (especially considering how they end up with an academically-gifted class, anyway).</p>
<p>"especially considering how they end up with an academically-gifted class, anyway"</p>
<p>Shows how good the adcom is!</p>
<p>I have read the book as well. (I am a parent...student not yet a senior).
For those applicants who have read it, did you find that it increased your anxiety about admissions in general and Wesleyan in particular?</p>
<p>I wouldn't say it increased my anxiety. Rather, it helped me realize that (1) admission officers are people and (2) applicants get accepted or rejected for ridiculous reasons all the time (see: girl who got rejected/waitlisted for admitting to eating a pot brownie, kid who got in just because he liked physics).</p>
<p>It give any real anxiety either. I really made me realize that admissions officers aren't looking only for perfect scores and GPAs: they want real kids who are honest and dedicated. I definitely think the book pays tribute to that. However, I will always wonder if I I was a Admit minus, Admit, Deny plus etc. and what they said at the session about me when they made the decision. :)</p>
<p>Haha, I wonder that, too. I like to think they had a big, heated argument about me.</p>
<p>I just finished this and made me glad I applied to Wesleyan. and made me insanely curious about how they'll rate me.</p>
<p>I read the Gatekeepers last year and HATED it: it made me think that everything I had ever heard about Wesleyan was no longer true...that it was just going to be like my son's prep school - Dalton, full of perfect little people, no one is even disabled, let alone not pretty, people with 80 thousand ECs, ridiculously high board scores, perfect grades, in other words, all those people, who, until the current crisis would end up being bankers. I remember Wesleyan filled with really odd and interesting people. A friend of mine has a son who graduated there 8 years ago; he is a high-end carpenter half the year and goes to Africa where he has studied Shamanism and in fact is both an anthropologist and a shaman. That's the kind of people I remember going to Wesleyan way back when. The Gatekeepers made me think they now were totally cookie cutter pieces of boring perfection. Tell me it aint so.</p>
<p>^
Huh? None of the students profiled in the book, with the exception of Juliana, are "totally cookie cutter pieces of boring perfection" at all.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>A) I agree with (Z) and
B) Wes certainly is not filled with people who are "cookie cutter pieces of boring perfection," so don't worry about that. Your friend's son sounds like he could still go here.</p>