media hysteria

Pam and I live in Rhode Island, and we subscribe to the weekend edition of the Providence Journal. We both love to read and we savor the weekend paper over coffee.

We have our reading routines. I'm a Headlines, Education, and then the Sunday sudoku puzzle. Pam heads to the Business section first, then Headlines, and the ads for a little coupon hunting.

Of course I am always drawn to articles about the college admission process. Last Sunday, Jay Mathews of the Washington Post wrote an article printed in the Journal titled, "April the cruelest month for college hopefuls". Where he proceeded to provide a survival guide for this years college applicants.

These types of stories drive me nuts. Billed has "helpful", they actually do little to assist college bound students and their families navigate the college selection process. But last weekend, Jay took it one step further when he wrote, "Nobody including the college admissions officers, has a clear idea why certain students are admitted and others are not."

WHAT!

I have chaired the admission committee at Lasell College for over 6 years, and while I can't speak for other colleges and universities, I can say that we review every candidate against a combination of curricular benchmarks used to measure students' academic abilities. We take the application review process very seriously, and the subsequent decisions it yields are in the best interest of our applicants, as well as the College.

So it will come as no surprise that I respectfully disagree with Jay's perspective. My colleagues and I do have a clear idea why certain candidates are admitted and others are not. Last fall, Lasell admitted about 60% of our roughly 3600 undergraduate applicants. Approximately 40% were not offered admission, and its often this group of decisions that we struggle with most. Just once provide the disappointing news to a student in person, and you'll understand why denying admission is so difficult and why we don't take it lightly.

I believe the cruelest thing for college hopefuls isn't the month of April, its the media exploiting an already anxiety-filled time in a young persons life.