Wait Chapel

Slumdog Ivy Leaguer

Dan Golden, author of “The Price of Admission,” gave a stinging indictment of the admissions practices of colleges and universities for favoring students from wealthy families, children of alumni and athletes. He estimated those students make up a third to 40 percent of the student […]


What about alumni loyalty?

Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch questioned Golden’s contention that universities offer preference to children of alumni only for monetary reasons. What about loyalty that transcends how much people give, he asked. Golden answered that if the system were changed, if schools made it clear that […]


The future of preferences

Golden noted that a movement is underway to stop the preferences of privilege, with several lawsuits working their way through the courts. What would an end to preferences mean? “It would open more slots for students of demonstrated intellectual brilliance or creative talent, and more […]


Impressive research

Joseph Soares, associate professor of sociology at Wake Forest, says he was very impressed and pleased by the research reported by Prof. Tom Espenshade, Princeton University. “By using Mellon Foundation data and running simulations of different admissions policies, he showed that our policy of using […]


It's about us, not you

Christoph Guttentag, dean of admissions at Duke University, led off the session on “Crafting a Freshman Class.” His specific topic was on athletics and admissions, but he had a larger meaning beyond athletics. Every school, every team, defines “success” in its own way, and its […]


The growing divide

Sally Donahue, director of financial aid and senior admissions officer at Harvard, talked about efforts Harvard has undertaken to enroll a more diverse student-body. “Nationally there is a growing divide between those who come from families with resources and those who don’t.” She noted the […]


Strong feelings lead to debate

One panelist provided well-known statistics that college applicants with parents who spend their children’s formative years talking with and encouraging their sons and daughters–will do well academically and score well on the SAT. The panelist suggested that intervention for lower income applicants needs to begin […]


About

On April 15 and 16, 2009, Wake Forest University hosted top admissions officers and leading researchers from Berkeley, Duke, Harvard, Ohio State, Princeton, Texas, Virginia, Yale and other universities along with the director of data research for U.S. News & World Report for the Rethinking Admissions conference.

Archives