A Fair Path to College

hvccgolf
Wed, 09 May 2007 10:20:04 +0000

It is fascinating to me how colleges hold themselves up as bastions of enlightened and egalitarian principals in a dark and unfair world. They are great at pointing out problems in the college selection process, all the while perpetuating the status quo.

Great concern is expressed about the perpetuation of “class” systems in college admissions, all the while college endowments have soared and tuition has increased at twice the rate of inflation for years.

If colleges are so bent on leveling the playing field for minorities and disadvantaged students, and/or weaker students, why not spend some of their endowments on active recruiting - hire energetic “salespeople”, for lack of a better word, to work with high schools schools, educting kids on their school, bow best to apply, holding their hands thorugh the process, etc. I mean “on-site” help and mentoring, not a web page.

Given the incredibly poor preparation (and lack of effort) of many kids in high school, and the lack of focus on academics at home, my guess is that many colleges would find themselves deep into problems of having to offer remedial classes to incoming students who applied, and were accepted, through such “outreach” programs as I described.

Getting into college has been, and remains, primarily a process based on merit. That makes it a competition, and puts it squarely into the norms of our society. Colleges benefit from offering admission based on merit by avoiding having to re-educate weaker performing high school kids.

Good intentions will not solve the problem of access to college. Attention to K-12 education, and on the importance of education, and caring and involved teachers, counselors, parents and mentors, will.