The Gatekeepers by Jacques Steinberg #1

The Gatekeepers by Jacques Steinberg is a book about the admissions process from the point of view of an admissions officer.  When I picked out this book, I picked it because I figured it would be somewhat interesting, but like most books read for school, that it would also be relatively boring.  When I finally starting reading, I was blown out of the water.  The Gatekeepers reads like many of the fantasy/sci-fi books I usually.  Jacques Steinberg writes about the admissions process by following admissions officer for Wesleyan, Ralph Figueroa.  Steinberg prefaces the book by saying that it is in no way a formula for how to get into a selective school like Wesleyan, and he follows through.  The book doesn't read like a formula or an instruction manual; I blasted through over 100 pages without noticing.  At this point Steinberg is describing the early action (binding) admissions process. 

While it is interesting to learn about what shorthand is used and how the admissions officers admit, defer, or reject a student, one thing stuck out for me.  There were two students, one with a slightly better academic record than the other; the weaker student had a previous connection to Wesleyan and so he was admitted.  While the rationalization was given (Wesleyan wants to keep its alumni happy so that they might be encouraged to donate) I still find this practice very unfair.  While it might be argued that the weaker student provided a different benefit to the school than did the stronger student, it still nags at me that the reason a student was admitted was because of his connections.

Now that I've given my two cents on that I will return the the admissions process itself.  Wesleyan has a small admissions staff of 9, two of whom will read each application (one selected at random and the other from the region of the applying student); in most cases, the student's file will then proceed to the full committee where a majority will decide if the student is admitted.  If five officers vote to either accept or reject the student then that is what will happen, otherwise the student is deferred and reconsidered later.  During a committee voting session each student is given about a minute or two of limelight; the admissions officers who read the application will summarize the application to the committee and then there will be a vote to decide the student's fate.  The process is quick, and it needs to be since Wesleyan must go through thousands of applications in only a couple months.

I'm sure The Gatekeepers will continue to present interesting information about the college application process as I read more.