http://nypost.com/2016/02/07/former-yale-admissions-officer-reveals-secrets-of-who-gets-in/
To be fair, BU does have the better hockey program. 
I’m surprised at the acceptance of the hockey player; I guess I’m naive. What could his Academic Index have been?
At least he was smart enough to realize that he was a better fit at BU
“It’s very easy to throw the prize at the kids who finish the race first, but always look at the incline they faced. That will tell you much more.”
^ Agreed. That one seems like a major reach. He must have been one heck of a hockey player.
Just wow!! “There wasn’t much room for your generic genius.”
"Because we had to get through about 300 applications in each two-hour committee session, we developed shortcuts.
You could look down at the names of four or five kids from one school who were terribly smart but not exceptional and say, “Reject the entire high school”; sometimes you could go further and say, “Reject the page,” and send 20 kids on a single page of computer paper packing; or, most famously, “Reject the state,” when it came to sparsely populated places like North Dakota or Wyoming.
Deciding which 14 percent of the applicants would get the golden ticket was really tough work. Once the children of alumni, recruited athletes, underrepresented minorities or regions and students interested in underenrolled majors were considered, there wasn’t much room for your generic genius. (By today’s standards, 14 percent doesn’t seem so brutal. In 2014, Yale got nearly 31,000 applicants and accepted a mere 6.3 percent of them.)"
Isn’t the author of the piece selling a book? Not to discount his testimony but I wonder how accurate it is…
Do we know the circumstances of his leaving his job in admissions?
I had read Most Excellent Sheep and thought it a good read till a friend told me the author’s back story…
Again just wondering the context.
If anyone has info I’m glad to broaden my understandings 
I don’t doubt the admissions process at the Ivys is stressful…for everyone involved.
The most interesting aspect of that excerpt was the issue of where the rejects end u-in life. Intreguing.
@tonymom Actually I have read similar articles from other admission counselors.
@lonetreegrad
Just from Yale? Or from other colleges?..
From other colleges.
I watched the Amherst college video “College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room” on Youtube. I thought it was a comedy then I realized it was a real AO session!! I understand that is an extreme case, but I think things have changed a lot in the last 5-10 years.
^^^^misery loves company I suppose 
I really feel for this generation of college bound kids. The pressure is crazy!
Let’s remember this article describes the admissions process in 1989…it is NOT current. There are multiple clues in the article that date it.
Interesting article, though as noted above a bit dated.
I believe the part about the hockey player employs a good bit of poetic license though . . . even in a high priority sport like hockey, I don’t believe that athletic recruits with “crappy grades, dismal scores” and one sentence essays are making it past Yale admissions.
^^ More like 2000 or 2001 when the applications were around 14,000 and the acceptance rate was about 14%.
It’s the NY Post. I take it with a pound of salt.
Yes, it is dated, but things are worse now. The article also mentions that.
“Because we had to get through about 300 applications in each two-hour committee session, we developed shortcuts.”
“(By today’s standards, 14 percent doesn’t seem so brutal. In 2014, Yale got nearly 31,000 applicants and accepted a mere 6.3 percent of them.)”
I assume if we compare numbers, they now have to go through 600 applications every 2 hours!!! Assuming they kept the same number of AOs.
I think the process is dated. They need to eliminate a lot of applications upfront before getting to the review.
Yale’s class of 2019 has 14.4% first gen students (up from 12% 2 years ago). Things definitely have changed.
Ratio of public school attendees has gone up to 60% from 57.6% 2 years ago.
http://admissions.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/class_profile_2019_final.pdf
Currently reviewing only 8 applicants for a local non-profit scholarship and I am in a quandary about who to recommend! Can’t imagine having thousands of qualified applicants to consider…