<p>I’m not sure tk-- but I do believe that in this book ([Amazon.com:</a> Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education: David L. Kirp, Elizabeth Popp Berman, Jeffrey T. Holman, Patrick Roberts, Debra Solomon, Jonathan VanAntwerpen: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Einstein-Bottom-Line-Marketing/dp/0674016343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242141775&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Einstein-Bottom-Line-Marketing/dp/0674016343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242141775&sr=1-1)) Kirp talks specifically about a crisis of identity faced by UChicago in the mid-90s stating they absolutely had to increases number of applicants and selectivity to maintain its standing as a top institution. Guide books were coming out at the time touting how more UChicago students were in fraternities than at Brown (no, really, specifically that example) in an attempt to combat the sense that UChicago was, for lack of a better phrase, a miserable place.</p>
<p>I don’t know O’Neill left or the origins of those questions in particular, but I do know there was a clear concerted effort at that time to increase applicants for fear that UChicago could no longer continue to do what it did so well otherwise.</p>
<p>That being said, I think that danas remarks that students “perceive more practical obstacles to their goals at U of C then at Brown” is still quite vague. If she’s say what I think, I’m not sure that I agree that her conclusion is well-founded.</p>
<p>I agree that far less students want to “learn for learnings” sake, but I think that has to do with changing expectations of society placed on the university alongside changing demographics of college students in the United States, period. There are still enough highly qualified individuals to fill the top schools who have that mentality, and bringing them to campus is the admissions department’s job, however, I don’t think admissions has any to take on any blame for the changing motivations of the applicant pool as a whole.</p>