To the Editor:
''To Land a Top College, Students Cast Wider Net'' (news article, March 21) offers another example of how the selective college admission process seems to be spiraling out of control.
The growing number of ghost applications — referred to as multiple, shotgun applications — forces colleges to set admission targets on shakier assumptions, becoming falsely more selective as well as creating huge wait lists as an insurance policy that they will fill their classes.
Admissions at highly selective colleges now occur in three phases: early decision, in late fall and early winter; regular decision, in early spring; and, well, indecision, after May 1.
If students applied to a reasonable number of colleges — say six — and included one or two sure bets, all parties to the process would probably be better off.
Dan Lundquist
Schenectady, N.Y., March 21, 2006
The writer is dean of admissions at Union College.