Is this a new trend?

emdee
Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:34:46 +0000

[Behind The Scenes: How Do You Get Into Amherst? : NPR](Behind The Scenes: How Do You Get Into Amherst? : NPR)

This piece from NPR Morning Edition is a must listen to about college admissions and how the process works, at least at Amherst, but is instructive for those seeking boarding school admissions. Near the end the Dean of Admissions says

Mr. PARKER: There is going to come a point where it’s going to be very close to, you know, closing your eyes and doing that, because we’re exhausting the meaningful criteria to separate John from Mary. For that group, it’s effectively a lottery. It really is.

SMITH: Parker concedes it’s a disturbing notion to many high achievers, but in an odd way he hopes it may also be a kind of relief to kids to know that the decision is a little random and not a referendum on their worth. It’s kind of like that old break-up line: it’s not you, it’s me.

Mr. PARKER: Yes, indeed. There are years that it’s great to be a runner and there are years that it’s great to be a lacrosse player, and there are years that it’s great to play the piccolo and there are years that it’s great to play the piano. But the candidate doesn’t know that.

SMITH: Parker will spend most of the next month trying to reassure kids a rejection is not the end of the world.

The process is extremely subject. At the beginning they wl a young man with stellar academic credentials but he, and others they discuss, was “missing that je ne sais quoi.”