The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College

Rating:
Summary: untangling the ivy
Review: "The Gatekeepers" follows not only the admissions crew at Wesleyan, but five or six seniors undergoing the admissions process. Although some were minorities, almost all attended outstanding private schools with supportive staff and guidance counselors who communicated with Wesleyan and other elite college staff via warm personal notes. Which was probably why, as someone who attended public high school ten years ago, which lacked any kind of helpful program to assist its students into getting into the school of their choice, reading this book left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Too often, as much as the Wesleyan staff seemed to genuinely care about their job and do it to the best of their abilities, they seemed more than a tad hypocritical in the advice they gave to high school seniors. Don't pin your hopes on just one college, but they were the ones who pinned their hopes on a few outstanding (mostly) prep school stars, many of whom, wanted to go to an Ivy. This just widens the gulf between private and public school applicants, the latter of whom (like me) do just as well once they're finally in a stimulating, diverse college environment.

I also found some of the "gimmicks" these schools used to snare students more than a bit inappropriate. One admissions officer informed a senior via email that he was his "absolute favorite," another that he was going to "create a fragrance" in this boy's name. Even in jest, that seems to cross the line between wooing a student and out and out begging for his presence.

For every overachiever that goes on to set the world on fire, there's another who winds up struggling due to financial, emotional or other problems beyond his/her control. I knew a lot of people who went through a period of being exceeingly miserable at the school they chose; ultimately, despite fancy packages meant as bait, it's up to the student himself to make his way.

Rating:
Summary: The Human Elements of the College Admissions Process
Review: "The Gatekeepers" is not a "how to" book, but rather a "how it truly is" book. Jacques Steinberg's non-fiction account of the college admissions process reads like a mystery novel. He presents sensitive portrayals of the students who submit their applications and of the admission officers who plow through them to fashion a freshman class that is consistent with the university's philosophy.
Mr. Steinberg is a gifted storyteller who keeps the reader glued to the page and begging for more.
The book is a terrific read for students, parents and anyone curious about how the college selection process works.

Rating:
Summary: A Scary Thriller and a Wonderful Read
Review: A must read if anyone close to you is thinking about applying to one of America's elite colleges. (Full disclosure demands that I admit that next fall my son will enter college, and his first choice at that.) A few facts to keep in mind before panic takes over.

1) Of the 3000 colleges in USA, one can find at least 100 good colleges, many nearby and easy to get into, where one can get a fine education.

2) There are only about 50 or so elite colleges that play these admission games. I call them the Orwellian colleges based on George Orwell's book, not 1984, but Animal Farm. You remember the famous quote, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." Animal Farm should be required reading of all admission officers. Did Orwell saw this coming?

3) This book illustrates in a gripping story all the ups and downs of the admission process at one of the Orwellian schools. The racial and ethnic preferences can be disturbing if you were expecting merit to matter. Jonathan Kozol questions on the back cover, "Whether it is actually a 'meritocracy' at all." That is a euphemism for "It sure ain't."

4) Are all the elite colleges like that? I am afraid so. Only a few elite have avoided this fate. CalTech is still strictly merit. The CalTech admission officer said recently, "Race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc. do not count at all." And Cornell gives a fairer shake than the other Ivies. My alma mater, MIT, is about the worst of all. MIT's admission policies are abysmal. If you can believe the president (Don't ever believe admission people!), over 75% of those accepted at MIT are based on preferences. I had thought it was only about 60%. No wonder that MIT has dumbed down so much that a significant percentage of freshman are taking remedial math and physics.

5) One last caveat: "Assume nothing!" Admission is one big ...shoot. Just because a friend who is a weak student gets into Harvard doesn't mean that you will even though you are a much better candidate. This is a common error. Acceptance is like a lottery. In fact, a giant lottery makes more sense and would save millions in admission staff.

6) "And who plays God in America?", a question posed by Samuel Freedman in a blurb. Admission staff is a motley collection. It includes young temps who do it for a few years until they get tired of reading thousands of applications and older ones who have variegated backgrounds. One was rumored to be in the federal witness protection program, probably not what one was expecting to find in a judge of one's abilities.

7) Are there great colleges or universities that are readily accessible? Two come to mind.
a) University of Chicago. It is probably better than any of the Ivies and much easier to get into. A word of warning: it is rigorous. This frightens away all but the serious student. No free ride there!
b) Reed College in Portland, OR. It is also rigorous and serious. It requires a comprehensive exam and a thesis from all. No wonder so many go on to graduate school from Reed.

Rating:
Summary: great resource for high school parents
Review: A terrific book -- on many levels. It is, first, a series of excellent suspense stories, with vivid characterizations of the students seeking admission to Wesleyan. The author found some fascinating students to follow, with the result that the reader really cares what happens to them. Even more important -- especially to someone about to embark on the college hunt -- he provides an invaluable insight into how the admissions process works. The admissions game, I now realize thanks to this splendid tale, is a crazy-quilt mixture: at Wesleyan, at least, the process focuses on the individual, quirks and all, far more than I imagined. At the same time, the process comes off as frighteningly random -- with so much depending on which admissions officer reads the application, and what that person focuses on in the few minutes available. The book is also a vivid reminder that admissions officers are people, too -- people of infinite variety.
So it was a pleasure to read -- and it will also prove immensely useful to parents. One common theme kept repeating: take the hard courses, even if it means lower grades. Another: having a passion is a real plus, but the rest of the record can't be a disaster. But those are just the beginning.

Rating:
Summary: More tangled than I thought
Review: A wonderful underscoring of the fact that these decisions are made by humans, not automatons. This, I suppose, is both good and bad: on the one hand, qualified applicants with some quality that doesn't necessarily manifest itself as anything special in test scores often still comes across to admissions officers. On the other hand, you get all sorts of biases, and admissions officers who hope to "discover" themselves in the applicant pool.

One interesting observation. Many people who've reviewed this book have expressed near glee that the underqualified affirmative action admit went on probation and failed to return to Wesleyan. This is exactly what affirmative action has done to us: instead of bridging gaps of culture and inheritance, it pits us in some sort of imagined zero sum game where we actually start crowing over someone's misfortune.

Steinberg is obviously sympathetic to affirmative action throughout, but he does an incredible job of displaying its pitfalls, too.

Rating:
Summary: The god's do play dice with the universe
Review: About a week ago my English Teacher suggested us to purchase this book and read. She has been prepping us for the College process ever since September, and figured that the book would be a great way for us to understand what kind of thought that will be put into are applications. At first I was not excited about the book because I thought it would be dry and boring, but after reading the first couple pages, I could not put it down. Not only was the information very helpful, but the author really knows how to write a book, and he keeps you interested. I litterally could not wait to know what happens to the students protrayed in the book.

On the bad side though it did scare me a little, because I realized that different students are put on different pedistals. It really goes to show you that school are look for diversity and they will take some pretty major steps to get it (for example a minority student that attends a Prep School with a 3.2 GPA and a 1150 on the S.A.T.'s got excepted with a full ride with a non-minority student at the same prep school with a 3.9 GPA and a 1350 SAT did not).

The Other complant about the book is that it describes the admissions mostly for IVY or IVY-like schools (NOT STATE SCHOOLS), which for the first hundred pages make for confusing calculations (like when they say they like to see scores higher than 1350, for a state school that means 1000).

But all in all I am glad that I picked up the book and started to read, it was one in a long time that I could not put down, and one that I am happy that I have to put on my ever growing book shelf (Thanks Mrs. H!).

Rating:
Summary: Behind-the-Scenes Information, you normally wouldn't get
Review: About a week ago my English Teacher suggested us to purchase this book and read. She has been prepping us for the College process ever since September, and figured that the book would be a great way for us to understand what kind of thought that will be put into are applications. At first I was not excited about the book because I thought it would be dry and boring, but after reading the first couple pages, I could not put it down. Not only was the information very helpful, but the author really knows how to write a book, and he keeps you interested. I litterally could not wait to know what happens to the students protrayed in the book.

On the bad side though it did scare me a little, because I realized that different students are put on different pedistals. It really goes to show you that school are look for diversity and they will take some pretty major steps to get it (for example a minority student that attends a Prep School with a 3.2 GPA and a 1150 on the S.A.T.'s got excepted with a full ride with a non-minority student at the same prep school with a 3.9 GPA and a 1350 SAT did not).

The Other complant about the book is that it describes the admissions mostly for IVY or IVY-like schools (NOT STATE SCHOOLS), which for the first hundred pages make for confusing calculations (like when they say they like to see scores higher than 1350, for a state school that means 1000).

But all in all I am glad that I picked up the book and started to read, it was one in a long time that I could not put down, and one that I am happy that I have to put on my ever growing book shelf (Thanks Mrs. H!).

Rating:
Summary: This book leaves a strange taste in my mouth
Review: As a mother of three high school and college age children, I can't put this book down. It is a very well written, engaging look at a year in a small college admission officer's life. It is well written, like a newspaper series. I am gratified to see that the "whole child" is considered, not just a test score composite. However, as a Midwestern public school parent, it is very disturbing. We have an ideal, but not "big name" public high school. It provides a good education and is quite diverse in its student composition. But it is not a prep school! So should my kids even bother?? This book answers that question "NO"!! It doesn't seem as if these colleges really want a Caucasian person unless the student has attended a prep school. There is only one of the students Ralph follows that is a public school grad. Even the minority students have to be prep school kids to hit his radar screen. I frankly don't like what this book says about the future of our country. If you assume that the grads of these schools will rule the world in a few years (which is a scary thought and hopefully not accurate), the world will be run by prep school kids who have had little exposure to the real world. The admission officers seem to have a keen sense of obligation to make their schools, and, hence, the world a better place. Part of that obligation should be to pepper the admitted classes with a large number of non-prep school kids if they truly want representative places.

Rating:
Summary: You'll enjoy THE GATEKEEPERS.
Review: As I sit down to write this review, schools around the country are starting another academic year. For parents, this time of year may signal a reminder that time passes far too quickly, even if they are glad to send the little ones off. Parents of high school seniors may experience this pang a little more acutely since their children are just about ready to step off into adulthood. The seniors themselves are probably looking forward to being the top dogs, maybe finally playing on varsity, getting ready for the senior prom, and, of course, the college application process. While it's certainly not a how-to book by any means, both parents and students would do well to read THE GATEKEEPERS: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jacques Steinberg, for it provides a fascinating and in-depth look at how one college selects its freshman class.

Steinberg, an education reporter for the New York Times, spent an entire year with Ralph Figueroa, a senior admissions officer for prestigious Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. His reports initially appeared in the Times. Considered by many to be just a slight notch below the Ivy League, Wesleyan offered Steinberg complete and unfettered access to every step of the admissions process. Steinberg followed Figueroa through recruitment meetings with prospective students, the arduous application reading process, two rounds of admittance decisions, and eventually the wooing of admitted students. I attended a large midwestern university, which, at the time, offered admission to all graduates of any accredited in-state high school. Being an out-of-state student, I was held to a slightly higher standard. I believe I had to demonstrate my ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. So, I really had no idea of the extent of agony and debate that takes place in the admissions offices of these highly selective schools. Steinberg invokes empathy for both the admissions officers and the students.

Steinberg masterfully creates a sense of community by closely following six high school seniors from application through matriculation. He is at his best when describing these students, all from widely disparate backgrounds. Surprisingly, no names have been changed. Steinberg reports their names, scores, hopes, and dreams with complete frankness.

With permission, Steinberg describes students like Becca Janol, an outstanding leader whose adolescent flirtation with a marijuana laced brownie creates a nightmare for Ralph Figueroa and the admissions committee. He also follows, among others, brilliant, biracial Julianna Bentes, who scored a perfect 1600 on her SAT, and Jordan Goldman, a cocky aspiring writer. As you might imagine, the students agonize over their decisions, especially those who are, at least initially, rejected. We must remember that these kids are the cream of the crop. All of the students are exceedingly bright and most have ultra-supportive parents. I found it difficult to cry too many tears over someone who "only" got into 4 selective colleges and eventually ends up in the Ivy League. Some of the students draw this conclusion themselves, and it is refreshing to see the maturity with which they address their youthful shortcomings.

Steinberg is at his best when describing the process and the students. At times, he gets bogged down in numbers. I felt I was drowning in a sea of SAT scores and ratings. Likewise, Steinberg spends too much time detailing the background of Ralph Figueroa. While relevant, it certainly could have been edited more tightly. The main message that Steinberg drives home is that there is no magic password, no formula of X test scores times Y grade point average plus Z extracurriculars that will guarantee admission. It is an imperfect, human process, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your view. Steinberg treads lightly on the issue of race, clearly elucidating Wesleyan's affirmative action policies, however controversial they will seem to some. He forces the reader to address their own views as well, since Wesleyan believes they are obliged not just to admit the best students, but to find students that will fit best with their open (some might say too open) atmosphere.

Even if you're not a parent of a pre-frosh, to use Wesleyan's term, you'll still enjoy THE GATEKEEPERS. It provides a glimpse into the lives of some interesting, high-powered kids. It's a fascinating peek behind the curtain into a process that is sometimes unfair, sometimes fatiguing, but always compelling.

--- Reviewed by Shannon Bloomstran ([e-mail])


Rating:
Summary: A Personal View of the College Admissions Process
Review: College admission has become a rite-of-passage for many American teenagers. The entire process is documented with a human touch in the Gatekeepers. The author followed several applicants and an admissions officer through the grueling process of assembling the Wesleyan class of 2004. The author details the lives of a half-dozen high school applicants and how emotionally taxing the college admissions process is for all sides.

The Gatekeepers provides quite a bit of insight into the admissions process. I was surprised to learn how personally admissions officers take the job of recruiting applicants they believe will impact their campus and how much they believe in their school. A good read to remember the college admissions process does not define a person.