The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College

As I sit down to write this review, schools around the country are starting another academic year. For parents, this time of year may signal a reminder that time passes far too quickly, even if they are glad to send the little ones off. Parents of high school seniors may experience this pang a little more acutely since their children are just about ready to step off into adulthood. The seniors themselves are probably looking forward to being the top dogs, maybe finally playing on varsity, getting ready for the senior prom, and, of course, the college application process. While it's certainly not a how-to book by any means, both parents and students would do well to read THE GATEKEEPERS: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jacques Steinberg, for it provides a fascinating and in-depth look at how one college selects its freshman class. Steinberg, an education reporter for the New York Times, spent an entire year with Ralph Figueroa, a senior admissions officer for prestigious Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. His reports initially appeared in the Times. Considered by many to be just a slight notch below the Ivy League, Wesleyan offered Steinberg complete and unfettered access to every step of the admissions process. Steinberg followed Figueroa through recruitment meetings with prospective students, the arduous application reading process, two rounds of admittance decisions, and eventually the wooing of admitted students. I attended a large midwestern university, which, at the time, offered admission to all graduates of any accredited in-state high school. Being an out-of-state student, I was held to a slightly higher standard. I believe I had to demonstrate my ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. So, I really had no idea of the extent of agony and debate that takes place in the admissions offices of these highly selective schools. Steinberg invokes empathy for both the admissions officers and the students. Steinberg masterfully creates a sense of community by closely following six high school seniors from application through matriculation. He is at his best when describing these students, all from widely disparate backgrounds. Surprisingly, no names have been changed. Steinberg reports their names, scores, hopes, and dreams with complete frankness. With permission, Steinberg describes students like Becca Janol, an outstanding leader whose adolescent flirtation with a marijuana laced brownie creates a nightmare for Ralph Figueroa and the admissions committee. He also follows, among others, brilliant, biracial Julianna Bentes, who scored a perfect 1600 on her SAT, and Jordan Goldman, a cocky aspiring writer. As you might imagine, the students agonize over their decisions, especially those who are, at least initially, rejected. We must remember that these kids are the cream of the crop. All of the students are exceedingly bright and most have ultra-supportive parents. I found it difficult to cry too

I just finished reading "The Gatekeepers" after it was recommended by other mom in my daughter's senior's class. Since several of the schools my daughter is applying to are mentioned in the book it was definitely a must read for me. However, it is a must read for any parent whose child is applying to a selective college/university."The Gatekeepers" is written in a wonderfully thoughtful and fascinating manner that it reads like a novel you just can't put down. The insight it provides into the admissions process is invaluable not only in the useful information it provides but also in the "shot in the dark" aspect to applying to a selective school. I think it may help my daughter and myself to relax a bit during this whole thing since so much of it seems random, especially for white middle class kids with great grades and scores.My daughter is off right now on college tours with my husband and I keep calling her with advice I've learned from the book--she may start blocking my calls. But if you want to know what goes on, read this book, you won't be sorry you did.

First, let me say that I thought that this was an excellent book and would recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in the college admissions process. Second, I was surprised at how many of the reviewers seemed shocked--shocked!--that applicants got bonus points for coming from minority backgrounds. Was this some kind of revelation? However one thing that surprised me a little bit is how--even moving beyond race entirely--the more advantages you have had in life, the more disadvantageous it will be for your admissions process. For example, I was unaware that having successful parents would be, in essence, held against you on the theory that more would be expected of you. While other reviewers have (jokingly?) said that they would advise their white kids not to check the "Caucasian" box, I might advise my (still very young) kids to say that their parents have been unemployed their whole life. I suppose that the main issue which this whole process really boils down to is the following: As a college applicant, is it more important to succeed in life relative to the world around you (i.e. relative to your classmates, to others of your race, to others of your geographical area, to your own parents' life and accomplishments, etc.) or is it more important to succeed absolutely and not on a relative scale. This book clearly informs us that the answer is the former and not the latter. Whether that should be the answer is another question. For example, say that a student's entire life could be distilled into 2 numbers each on a sliding scale from 1-10. The first number is simply your academic performance (grades, SAT's, course load, etc.) The second number is your background (race, economic circumstances, gender, etc.) In the case of Wesleyan, it seems clear to me that they would rather have a student whose first number was, say, a 6 if his or her second was a 2 (take Mig for example in Steinberg's book) than a student whose first number was an 8 if the second number was a 9 or 10 (take Tiffany Wang for example). Whether that is the right approach is certainly a legitimate issue for discusion and I'm not saying that it's not. I suppose that one of the things that would be interesting to know (even though one never really can know of course) is whether those numbers will change in the future. For example, if one were to know that Mig would always be a 6 and Tiffany would always be an 8, would that change the analysis as to which is the right approach? I suspect that part of the reason that a school like Wesleyan would favor the overachieving 6 over the underachieving 8 is due to the hope or expectation that those trends will continue in the future and that one day the 6 will actually be ahead of the 8. And maybe that's the way it works. Who knows.

As a mother of three high school and college age children, I can't put this book down. It is a very well written, engaging look at a year in a small college admission officer's life. It is well written, like a newspaper series. I am gratified to see that the "whole child" is considered, not just a test score composite. However, as a Midwestern public school parent, it is very disturbing. We have an ideal, but not "big name" public high school. It provides a good education and is quite diverse in its student composition. But it is not a prep school! So should my kids even bother?? This book answers that question "NO"!! It doesn't seem as if these colleges really want a Caucasian person unless the student has attended a prep school. There is only one of the students Ralph follows that is a public school grad. Even the minority students have to be prep school kids to hit his radar screen. I frankly don't like what this book says about the future of our country. If you assume that the grads of these schools will rule the world in a few years (which is a scary thought and hopefully not accurate), the world will be run by prep school kids who have had little exposure to the real world. The admission officers seem to have a keen sense of obligation to make their schools, and, hence, the world a better place. Part of that obligation should be to pepper the admitted classes with a large number of non-prep school kids if they truly want representative places.

I agree with the reviewer who is an admissions officer that this book could have been about any private college. The methodology and procedures are the same everywhere, I am sure.The book only reinforced what I already believed...that parents of those kids who are not star material are the ones who end up paying the bills for those who are at elite private colleges. I am one of those parents who paid! AS Steinberg says: "To help offset their financial losses due to increased costs for financial aid, colleges initiated an intense search for other 'customers' who could pay full price, whether from the U.S. or abroad."I think the author did a marvelous job of making this a really interesting book, and immediately recommended it to my sister and brother, who both have boys in high school now. I did warn them, however, that what they read might be somewhat discouraging.First, these admissions officers are very subjective (and how could they be anything else?)with a huge case load to handlein a very short period of time. Second, I was appalled that one of the most important issues for college admission staffs seems to be how their rejection/yield rate is perceived by U.S. News and World Report.And third, the way admissions standards are tweaked for academic stars or to achieve diversity can seem very unfair to those who have sons who fall into neither of these categories (a star or a minority).I think there are many lessons about the college application process to be learned from reading this book. Perhaps the most important lesson is not to set your heart on one school.I suggest this book as "must" reading for parents, students, and high school guidance counselors.