Think the college admissions scene is a mess? It may be less equitable and more arbitrary than you think. I finished reading Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo and was surprised by what turns out to be an even-worse-than-I-had-conceived-of system. Selingo highlights disturbing facts about legacies, for example: Between 2009 and 2015 the acceptance rate for legacies at Harvard was 34%, which compared to a 6% acceptance rate for everyone else during that time period. And in every given year, legacies made up about 1/3 of Harvard’s freshman class. Selingo chronicles how paying for college is also a mess, as schools report wanting more underserved students, while they court those who can pay full price, even offering “discounts” to some.
Ron Lieber from the NYT covers this economic angle in his latest book The Price you Pay for College, which I have not read yet, although I did hear a great interview of him on Kara Swisher’s Sway Podcast. He emphasizes the tomfoolery that colleges employ to get full-paying students.
Enjoy!?