Seven Potential College Admissions Reforms

In Surviving the College Admissions Madness, I attempt to unpack why the American admissions system is absurd and inefficient. I’m less interested in offering policy recommendations to unaccountable politicians or proposing admissions reforms to nonresponsive university bureaucracies. However, throughout I provide ample possible solutions to remedy the system-wide madness. Most of my suggestions boil down to

·       fewer essays and application requirements such as recommendation letters, interviews, Subject Tests, and letters of continued interest,

·       diminishing or eliminating the role of holistic review at less-selective universities,

·       more transparent and accountable admissions standards, i.e., publishing what’s required to be competitive,

·       consistent enrollment management policies that don’t exploit students as consumers with a decreased emphasis on aggressive marketing and recruitment,

·       putting the applicants’ needs on par with university budgets, and

·       removing the tax-exempt “charity” status for elite universities unless they serve broader swaths of society.

In my book’s conclusion, I also make a serious proposal endorsing a partial admissions lottery. Universities are highly resistant to change because they are unwilling to sacrifice an iota of control or lose any recruiting or admissions edge relative to their peer institutions.

I contend that no professionals affiliated with institutions or education consulting firms are willing or able to provide such a comprehensive takedown of the admissions system. They’re either overly concerned about their professional reputations, or their freedom of speech is hamstrung by their institutions. Other counselors simply choose to do nothing or fail to acknowledge their complicity in aggravating hundreds of thousands of families each year. They talk amongst themselves at conferences and private Facebook groups where I lurk, yet the public remains mostly in the dark regarding higher education and college admissions policy debates. Their conversations behind closed doors are out of touch with the lived realities and primary concerns of the families they supposedly serve.

Elite universities do not care about you.