I'm as offended as anybody by the concept of cheating to get kids into elite colleges. But I had a moment of wondering what might happen if felines were involved. That tickled my funny bone, so I couldn't stop myself from writing, and self-publishing, a short book called "Feline Operation Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal." It turned something foul into an even stinkier possibility!
And then there's my recent take on the college emissions scandal, inspired by cats everywhere. It's a book that I self-published about a week after the news broke, and it's called "Operation Feline Barfitty Blues: The College Emissions Scandal." The feline version of the cheating may be even stinkier than the humans' version of it!
This article was mainly about talking about the college admission scandal that erupted. It tells you types of of books that will help understand why the got away with for so long.And this article also gives description about what the book is about read how hard and what the price might be to get into a good collage
Why do private universities even exist? With all the great state universities at much lower prices it seems insane. I guess the same people that drive Range Rovers when a Prius would be fine fill these schools. It’s all about trying to impress someone. Guess what? I’m not impressed.
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I have to laugh at Lemann's prescription: “Test-prep should consist of mastering the high-school curriculum, not learning tricks to outwit multiple-choice aptitude exams.”
Exactly, pray tell, does one determine what "mastery" is without an assessment and given the state of high school curriculum, mastering it seems a very low bar to set. With every state and most districts setting their own curriculum, how does mastery provide ANY meaningful information as to future performance in college.
We may not like it, but a universal exam for admission to college is the easiest and ultimately fairest solution as most other developed countries have discovered.
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I read “The Price of Admission” when it was published 10 years ago. I was so upset I immediately stopped my contributions to Princeton’s annual fundraising campaign. That book ruined all the happy memories i had from my time there. Sad and mad.
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These revelations -- while relevant -- obscure the practices of the non-elite schools, who continue by admitting students who are not all pedagogically prepared to function in an academic environment. Yet the academic standards are lowered enough to keep them enrolled, qualified for loans that basically subsidize the continuity of the institution and the financial industry, and ensure the accreditation of the program. Some students definitely benefit from this arrangement, but it also further stratifies the value of the college education. The established system of higher ed is faltering, and we need new models.
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I am a professor at a decently-ranked research university, with many grad school and postdoctoral colleagues who are now teaching at "merely" moderately-ranked universities. During my education, I attended one Elite School, and several state schools. Guess where I got more thoughtful instruction and better guidance from my professors? The state schools! And guess how I rank my colleagues now teaching at all levels? Very highly! The pool of talented, motivated new faculty is vast, and I can say with certainty that any school, anywhere in the country, will have plenty of excellent teachers, eager to help young students find their path (which is more than can be said about the droves of parents who torment their kids starting in jr. high with threats of what will happen if they don't get into a "good school"). There is absolutely no need to get in to an elite school. We gotta chill, guys!
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@Teddy I agree that the quality of education at a state school can rival or exceed the elites. But the parental stress is driven in part not by the quality of the "product" itself, the education, but by the perception of that product by future employers.
If "elite" companies don't also buy into the fact that students from "xyz State" are as well educated as students from elite schools, it will become that much more difficult to obtain an entry-level job with them. (Post entry-level is a different story)
It's not just the parents/students' perspective, it's the employers'.
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@Teddy What were the sizes of the various schools? I went to a small private undergrad college, and the teaching there was superb. Professors demanded a lot, but they were also willing and able to provide support so we could master the material. It spoiled us all for graduate school at even high-faluting places like Harvard, where the teaching and demands were mediocre. (I am referring to professional schools and masters programs. I don't believe the same is true of doctoral programs, where much is demanded everywhere.)
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Maybe I'm missing something, but "Getting In: 8 Books That Expose College Admissions Mania" only lists 7 books. Very helpful article otherwise.
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The SAT and ACT should be have unlimited time for all takers, not just the ones who can obtain a (deserved or not) waver. This would be one very small step in leveling the application process
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There is something inherently wrong with "getting your kid into college". Kids should be getting themselves into college.
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With the current focus on the 1% and their part in Ivy League admissions, it is worth reminding people that many private schools---including Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford---have need-blind admissions and generous financial aid programs. At several of these schools, the MAJORITY of undergraduates receive financial aid. At Yale, financial aid does not include loans, allowing students to graduate debt-free.
I attended Yale on 100% financial aid. I'm an interviewer for Yale undergraduate admissions, and several of the admitted students whom I interviewed required financial aid. Elite universities are not just for the super rich.
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@Alex
And your comment highlights a real middle class problem that the current scandal’s commenters are ignoring.
If you otherwise qualify, many colleges will pay for poorer students’ entire tuition. For some poorer students, room and board are covered, and some private colleges pay for poorer students to travel to and from home.
If you’re rich, no problem with the cost.
But if you are middle class with an income that is considered “high,” you’ve got to take the loans to pay for the college bills —Even if you are cash poor because of other expenses, children, etc.
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Please stop lumping kids into one category. We were lucky our kids had talent at a sport. We were very pleased they worked their best to achieve on tests and through their GPAs. They chose schools and they worked to get there.Do Not lessen their achievements because what may have set them apart was a talent. My daughter will graduate Yale from a middle class family with no legacy. She earned her spot with her grades in a rigorous IB program. She aced the SATs. She''s also an athlete that by senior year became captain with a 3.4 average in a biomedical field. She is superstar and Yale allowed her to continue her trajectory. She is not an elite. She just wants to be the best she can be and years ago she fell in love with that beautiful school. I am heartbroken by the scandal. I am more heartbroken that this, by some, takes away from her work. Who among us could achieve that GPA while training 40-50 athletically hours a week?
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@Kerry DeRochi
The problem with the assement of “talent” is that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Not all intelligent, driven children come from the same backgrounds, and just the same as your daughter’s 40-50 athletic hours, I know plenty of kids who put that time into a job just to pay for the commute to school and take care of their bills. That doesn’t look flashy on an application. I know others who have to stay home and eschew after school programs (read: college application tokens) in favor of looking after their siblings. Not flashy. The kinds of social and economic forces that sort children into supposedly meritocratic testing brackets, programs like AP and IB, expensive and time-consuming sports and extracurricular programs, etc. are hardly based on talent.
I understand that your daughter worked hard to get into college. Millions of people did and do. And she’s probably smart as a whip and deserves all the success she’s had. But having attended one of those schools, she has bought herself into an elite class of the American educated, and consequently, a promise of a future better than one many young people feel has rapidly obsolesced for them. And as it stands, it is mightily hard for talented students from average and below-average backgrounds to get their pass to a future as well.
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@Kerry DeRochi Well, she is definitely an elite now that she is at Yale. Elite does not necessarily just mean money. I come from a middle class family, and actually make a fair bit less than my parents. But I went to a so-called elite college, and, for better or for worse, this now means I am an elite. There are connections, reference points, knowledge and culture that you pick up going to a place like this. I note that the students in my college were extremely diverse when we entered, but much less saw when we saw each other at our 10th reunion.
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@Oliver Eagan This is timely. Just last night my teen son was telling me how he told a couple of his classmates that he is rich. I asked him what he meant. He said that he takes lots of AP and IB course, which have expenses associated with them; his mother has a car and can pick him up if he has an emergency or last minute change of plans; he lives in a single family house that his parents own; he has lots of data on his phone and wifi at home, so it is easier for him to do research at home because he isn't limited to the hours at the public or school library.
He notes that while almost every kid in his school has a smartphone, many of them are without data for part of all of the month. Even a little thing like this can make a difference.
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Daniel Golden’s “The Price of Admission” —published way back in 2006—reminds us that parents’ buying their child a place at an elite university is nothing new. Today’s more insidious scam, the “side door” approach in the current scandal—bribing athletic coaches, test administrators and proctors—is nothing short of criminal.
This selection of books reminds us that this problem has been around a long time. I have only read one of them, Korelitz’s novel, “Admission,” and I highly recommend it. Thanks for pointing out the others as well.
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Public funds support all colleges and universities, including direct expenditures for public colleges, loans and grants to students, research and other grants to all schools, and tax deductible donations and expenses for taxpayers. It seems to me there then should be some form of standard that all schools should be held to.
At the very least it could a standard on reporting admissions criteria and what percent fall into basic categories, including alumni admits and sports "scholarships" (maybe they should at least change the name to "sportships") - with compliance auditing.
Public universities should be held to a higher standard of admitting only the most academically qualified, and consider eliminating sportships as training athletes for professional careers in sports is not part of their basic role. Perhaps pro sports should fund their own farm teams.
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