<p>There’s this really surprising sequence in the Amherst video that emdee linked to. Tom Parker, the Dean of Admissions is in the conference room with his deputies and assistants and there’s a candidate that he goes to bat for. He badly wants this applicant. But the others shoot him down, and they quickly move on to the next file. All he says at that point is that he thinks that decision was a mistake. And then on to the next file.</p>
<p>That was the Dean of Admissions. In the room. And even he didn’t have enough clout to get the applicant in. And let’s face it…if he wanted that applicant to be admitted, I’m pretty confident that that applicant was 100% qualified to be an Amherst student. For whatever reason that applicant just didn’t tickle the funny bones of the entire group.</p>
<p>It really is a crap shoot. And you can feel pretty good about things and even have your interviewer on your side…and it just depends on what side of the bed a bunch of strangers got up on that morning.</p>