<p>I think this thread has to some extent become caught up in what might be feasible within the parameters of the current system and not actually delineating what would constitute a truly ideal admissions process. I hope this post can try to rectify that gap.</p>
<p>We should begin by completely scrapping the existing admissions system and then attempt to build a model of the best system from the perspective of the college and then the student or applicant; and only then to merge these to suggest a model that might be acceptable to both parties.</p>
<p>Lets begin then from the perspective of the college and its admissions office. The college is foremost seeking to build a community that will reflect most highly upon itself as an institution and in turn attract better applicants. The term reflect most highly upon itself is rather ambiguous, and in my opinion superficial, because it aims for the appearance of success, not success itself. This is a problem that hits deeper than just the admissions process; but I am going to presume for the purposes of this argument that a college will be more interested in creating a community that is supportive of its members and allows them to achieve success and enjoy their time at college; while enabling the faculty to conduct the research needed to produce intellectual capital. Studentsin this limited perspectiveare investments by which colleges can hope to gain future fame and immediately can help assist (and fund) professors research (this is even true for most selective small liberal arts colleges, even if the admissions brochures dont advertise research).
In order to select applicants to achieve this, a college wants as much information as possible about a student. There are two obvious ways that a college can evaluate academic suitability: i) its faculty interview students and test their suitability to help research in a given concentration or gain success in their field of expertise ii) the college can rely on outsiders opinions of a students ability (in the form of test scores, high school transcript, etc.). As a university, I would be most willing to trust the opinion of my faculty over the opinion of various other individuals and organizations who may not be most interested in my schools welfare. Similarly, in order to judge social suitability (I envisage this including things such as extracurricular activities and character) the opinion of current students should be preferred in making judgments instead of marketed advocacies for the student (teacher recommendations, activity lists).</p>
<p>Therefore, for the university, the ideal college application process consists of faculty interviews and tests of students (most likely including essays) and an interview by a student social fit committee. Both groups would produce a list of the applicants they were most interested in and would like to accept to the college. A joint committee of administrators, students, and faculty would then meet to reconcile the two lists and ultimately select the incoming class.</p>
<p>We should next consider what a student would like as the ideal application process. It seems to me that the top students are mostly concerned with attending a school with an atmosphere conducive to their learning with general student qualifications slightly beyond where they truly believe themselves to rank as applicants (i.e. the student qualified for Amherst wants to go to Princeton, etc.). Without going into the logic of this choice, we should try to design the system that best caters to these needs. This means that students need to control the image they present to a college while gaining as much information as possible about the colleges thoughts about them as an applicant. This means that students would like as much latitude as possible in what information they would like to submit to a college, and receiving timely (dare I say immediate) responses from colleges concerning their admission status.</p>
<p>This translates to a system in which a given applicant selects maybe three or four items to a college for evaluation. This would be something like a taped musical performance or an essay or a sample of graded work or a SAT score. The college would then be forced to accept all of these types of work equally (and always select this or that particular applicant trying to overachieve, while rejecting others to maintain prestige). Additionally, a student wants his or her peers to be equals academically and socially, making an exciting living environment.</p>
<p>A student would also likely like the opportunity to trade admission decisions with other applicants to allow applicants accepted to each others dream schools to both be happy. There would necessarily be some protocol by which these acceptances would be exchanged, although the specifics dont concern us now.</p>
<p>The remaining task at hand should be to combine the colleges and the students ideal admission processes to create an acceptable balance. I am admittedly uncertain how this will work, however, I think it would be best to use the framework from the colleges perspective and tweak it to make it more applicant-friendly.</p>
<p>I think the initial process will have to begin by a screen by an admissions committee that will consider the materials an applicant elects to send within the following categories: 1 academic evaluation (test scores, graded essay, transcript); 1 creative item (taped performance, personal statement, poetry, etc.); and an additional item of the students choice. This is meant to be a very broad screen and thus any applicant with reasonable credentials should pass to the second stage of the process. The first stage of the process should be completed on a rolling basis with word of entry to the second stage coming within three weeks of the application.</p>
<p>The second stage will consist of interviews with faculty members in the students intended major and one other field (the student should be given the chance to select this field and know who will be interviewing him or her well in advance of the interview). This interview can include discussion of written work submitted at the request of the faculty, a discussion of books the applicant has read in the field, or be of some other academic nature at the discretion of the faculty. After this interview, the student will have a second interview with a group of students to evaluate the social fit at the school. After these interviews are complete, the student should receive written feedback on the committees views of their performance, the same form should be placed in the applicants file to be reviewed by a final class selection committee.</p>
<p>Groups of interviewers should travel around the country to evaluate applicantsmuch as admissions officers give presentations today. Applicants would receive final decisions soon after a close date for all interviews, and the final admission committee had a chance to reconcile the recommendations of the faculty and student committees.</p>