NYT on College Admissions

NYT on College Admissions April 11 The New York Times has a piece on highly selective college admissions, featuring an amusing quote by the Dean of Admissions at Stanford (photo credit: King of Hearts). There was recently an article in The New York Times entitled Best, Brightest and Rejected: Elite Colleges Turn Away Up to 95% that we figured wed discuss for the readers of our college admissions blog. The article essentially details how competitive it is to get into highly selective colleges like Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. Gasp. Who knew? This is certainly breaking news, just like all of the latest happenings announced on CNNs coverage of the doomed Malaysian Airlines flight. Yes, were being a bit sarcastic. There isnt much interesting in this article. Admission rates are dropping at highly selective colleges and high school students are applying to more colleges than ever before. But just because admission rates are dropping, it doesnt mean its getting more selective. More students applying to a college, as weve said many times before, doesnt make that school more competitive. Applicants with D averages and subpar SAT scores dont make it more difficult for the A student with near-perfect SAT scores to get in. Its that simple. The one line that we found interesting is at the bottom of the article, a quote by Stanfords Dean of Admissions Richard Shaw. This is how its written in the piece: Mr. Shaw, the Stanford dean, said he could not predict where the rates would bottom out — in fact, he never expected them to go as low as they have. Honestly, he said, I’m sort of in shock.' Our response to Mr. Shaws comment? Thats silly, Richard. Richard Shaw is a respected, seasoned highly selective college admissions officer. Before he ran admissions at Stanford, he ran admissions at Yale. Admission rates have been dropping for years, though this is not an indicator that admissions is getting more competitive year after year for the reasoned outlined above. He certainly wasnt shocked that Stanford admitted so few students this year. Its a trend a long time coming. And hes one of the leaders selecting the applicants! He definitely wasnt shocked.