Difficulty of Ivy League Admissions

dufus3709
Sat, 25 Jun 2005 00:04:13 +0000

Some people are missing the point. I am not saying that the people who are accepted into the extremely selective schools are not the ones to deserve to get in. I am just saying that for everyone who gets in because they deserve to, there are about five other who are practically the same except for the the name on the application who don’t get in simply because there isn’t room. This means that random chance is a major factor.

Most guides make the point, but good books to read are “The Gatekeepers” by Jacques Steinberg about observing the adcom at Wellesley, “Admissions Confidential” by Rachel Toors who was on the adcom at Duke, and “Harvard Schmarvard” by Jay Mathews, a Wash Post reporter and Harvard grad, who presents findings from many colleges.

Anyway, how much do you think the adcoms can really distinguish between people based on looking at the app for about an hour. People are free to believe whatever they want, of course. I certainly have no personal stake in this. I have just done a lot of reading on the subject and I’m trying to help.