<p>[Busting</a> the Myth of College Admissions - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Busting the Myth of College Admissions”>Busting the Myth of College Admissions)</p>
<p>The college-admissions myth has always served colleges above all. While things have improved since the days of Jewish quotas,** it’s obvious that Asian students and women bear the brunt of discrimination today.** “Development admits” can still be bought, and college officials are remarkably adept at condemning the annual admissions hysteria while using it to enhance the wealth and prestige of their institutions.</p>
<p>This very likely won’t change until the weight of disappointment becomes overwhelming. Harvard rejected over 32,000 people this year, almost 94 percent of those who applied. What happens when the number grows to 100,000 or more? When do minuscule acceptance rates stop being something to boast about and start becoming signs of archaic, insulated, overly wealthy institutions that are badly out of step with their times?</p>
<p>Or someone might give Big Frank what he’s looking for: actual information about college quality. The admissions myth is recursive and self-sustaining: Everybody wants to go where everybody else wants to go. It thrives in a vacuum of consumer information that might give everybody an irrefutable reason to go somewhere else. If that information arrives, those who rely on the old stories are in for a long fall, indeed.</p>