Language Games

Language Games ( see Ludwig Wittgenstein) 

Do you think that admission to highly selective colleges and universities is fair?   

For a number of years, in the part of my information session for prospective students and parents that covered the admission process, I would begin with this question. I have asked it in Manhattan, Beijing, Bogotá, Geneva, London, Kansas City, Kuala Lumpur, Ulan Bator, Charlottesville, and lots of other places too.

 I do not think there was a precipitating moment which led me to ask this question. Instead, my curiosity arose after many years of talking to people who would ask questions that led me to believe that there was and still is what the fancy folks in philosophy departments would call a hermeneutics of suspicion (read: distrust) in the information they were hearing from admission offices and higher education in general.

Here are a few of those questions:

Is it harder to get into a selective university if you attend a private school?

Is it harder to get into a selective university if you attend a public school?

Do you have a better chance of admission if you are a recruited athlete?

Is geographic diversity a plus factor?

Is it harder for white females to get in over white males?

Is it harder for international students to get in?

Is it better to apply as an international student even though I am a US citizen living abroad?

If I apply for financial aid does that hurt my chances?

How important is being a legacy?

Is it better to apply to a particular school within a university?

A particular major?

How important is affirmative action?

Are Asians hurt in the admission process?

My friend said he got a board member to write a letter of recommendation. Does this make a big difference?

How important are special talents (visual arts, or music, or dance etc.) in the evaluation process?

Should I get a consultant to help my son with this process?

I can now say I have asked the fairness question of at least 10,000 people, and while my findings are anything but scientific, they still, to me at least, outline in broad terms the current landscape surrounding the admission process.

Approximately 50 people have raised their hands to indicate they believe the process is fair.  In my view, a 1% positive response means something is terribly wrong with either what people like me are doing or, at the very least, saying.

I usually follow my question with another. Who do you think it is unfair to, and the consensus of almost everyone is that is unfair to them regardless of background, experience, location, and school. In other words, the response is personal. And this is not good. For anyone.

This blog hopes to address the 99% of those people who think selective college admission is unfair. My goal is not to convince anyone that the world of admission is a gentle entry into unqualified honesty or transparency; no, it is an attempt to talk about issues that are thorny...

…they seem to understand, intuitively, that the electronic brain of the new media has an affinity for suspicious minds. Walter Kern