The "College Admissions Game" Game

[asteriskea]

<p>Opinion piece in USA Today by William Caskey, a former Brown admissions officer turned private college counselor, contemplates the college admission process:</p>

<p>

You are in the top 10% of your class? So is everyone else applying to this school. Remain where you are. You write an essay about volunteering at a soup kitchen? It is one of many. Move back two spaces. You discover the gene sequence for spider silk? That’s interesting. Move ahead four spaces. You are the top football recruit, but your standardized test scores are weak? Tests shmests! Move ahead 10 spaces. You are an average student who wrote a bland essay, but your father is on the board of trustees? You win!..</p>

<p>What can make the process even more difficult is that forming a class is not simply a matter of selecting the best qualified applicants. There are also university needs to meet. Young, enthusiastic admission officers can become cynical and depleted when they discover that a significant percentage of a class is “reserved” for recruited athletes, the children of alumni and faculty, and students whose families have the potential to unload truckloads of cash in the lobby of the fund raising office. These “hooked” students often enter a college with less impressive credentials than those who were denied.</p>

<p>I’m not claiming that this is a travesty. Universities, like businesses and families, face inevitable financial necessities that dictate their decisions. I simply ask that colleges be upfront with families.</p>

<p>They have long admitted they have “needs” that must be met. But the examples cited by admission officers are misleading and meant to generate sympathetic nods from families. The infamous “tuba player from North Dakota” or the “destitute but brilliant Sudanese refugee from Minnesota” for whom they claim to make space are myths.</p>

<p>Instead, college admission would be far less mysterious and alienating to families if schools were more transparent about the process. Colleges should admit, for example, that hooked applicants enjoy significantly better odds. They should reveal that in general, 10% of a class is reserved for legacies and another 10% for recruited athletes. Schools should acknowledge that students from wealthy families enjoy better odds. Why not confess that an “unhooked” applicant’s odds are significantly less than those published in college view books?</p>

<p>If schools don’t drop the cloak of inscrutability, suspicion and cynicism among families will continue to grow. Even now, families assume that the process is corrupt, that applicants aren’t admitted to selective colleges unless they are hooked. This only fuels the explosion of shady websites that promise backdoor access to these schools.</p>

<p>If my board game becomes the next Monopoly, it will be because it accurately captures the reality of college admission. It will be because it reflects what families already believe ? that college admission is a game of strategy that must be manipulated if it is to be won.</p>

<p>Who knows, perhaps my game will generate a financial windfall so great that it will ensure a successful admission outcome for my own children regardless of their accomplishments.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-03-13-admission-board-game_N.htm?csp=34[/url]”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-03-13-admission-board-game_N.htm?csp=34&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[fireflyscout]

<p>Actually, there really is a college admissions board game:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.questforcollege.org/page4.html[/url]”>http://www.questforcollege.org/page4.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[jimbob1225]

<p>^Good lord, shoot me</p>

[curmudgeon]

<p>“^Good lord, shoot me”. </p>

<p>Oh, jeez. I laughed so hard I think I tore something important. Thanks, jimbob.</p>

[pjp1116]

<p>

^Good lord, shoot me

</p>

<p>Thats on one of the “Community Chest” cards</p>

[doubleplay]

<p>Colleges do not offer transparency because they do not want students/families to actually know their chances. The more people that apply, the better a college looks.</p>

<p>Say I run a lottery with $100 tickets. I tell people there’s a 1 in 10 chance of winning a million bucks. I’ll sell a heck of a lot more tickets than if I tell them there’s 1 in 1000 chance of winning. What would happen if for instance it became public knowledge that a regular unhooked joe with less than 1450 SAT stands no chance of getting into, say… Duke? Applications would fall like a rock.</p>

[bethievt]

<p>I know there is truth to all this, but if you read the posts on this forum, many of the kids the parents are talking about have gotten into selective schools without legacy, athletic or URM hooks. And it seems like most of the parents call themselves middle class.</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>Caskey, whom the OP quotes, was an AD at Brown, and in Daniel Golden’s book Brown is alledged to really bend over backwards to admit celebrity/development/legacy type students. So maybe Caskey is talking ONLY about Brown and not necessarily the others.</p>