An essay by Admissions VP Dan Lundquist that calls for a re-evaluation of the admissions process has struck a chord with prospective students, their families and high school counselors.
“Competitive admissions'
elusiveness – its lack of predictability and apparent lack of fairness – seems
only to fuel public frustration and fascination, and set up a results-oriented
approach to college admissions that threatens to displace thoughtful
self-analysis and the search for the most appropriate college environment for
the student,” Lundquist writes in an essay prepared for The Best of Our Knowledge, a show that airs on public radio stations nationwide.
“Environmental pressures have been
mounting over the past few years that show signs the college admissions process is
becoming a transaction – an episode to get through quickly – and that
expediency is trumping honesty and authenticity. Fueled by the frantic inertia
of high aspirations in an increasingly-competitive college market, the
proliferation of services that help package an application are cause-and-effect
evidence that the “package” is more important than its contents –
with the cynical implication that admissions committees reward style over
substance.
“The most important way coin-of-realm
colleges could ante up to show their desire to see values reign over expediency
would be to abolish what appear to be complicated sets of admissions options
and an over-reliance on standardized tests.
“The debate of so-called Early
Decision is a case in point: Many high school counselors and teachers feel that
students, as impressionable and malleable as teenagers are, need the extra few
months to make a right decision. From a qualitative point of view, protracting
the search process, “playing the field” – and all that it can entail
– only produces benefits: more options, greater maturity and self-awareness,
and improved focus on senior year studies. And from a symbolic point of view
colleges´ willingness to give up an institutional advantage could, in one
stroke, both set a good example and help level the playing field.
“So let's eliminate constraining
application plans and give students – all students – equal time to experience
and consider the college search process. At the same time, admissions
committees might pledge to let scores inform, rather than drive, the selection
process.
“And in return, could we turn the
clock back on college rankings? With metrics that imply an impossible
precision, let's do away with college rankings just as students would have us
do away with high school class ranking. This might compel students to examine
potential colleges as carefully as they, themselves, would wish to be evaluated
by admissions committees.”
To read the full text (and
comments from guidance counselors) visit: http://www.union.edu/Admissions