Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions

I read Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo for book club. The book description says, "Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a 'good college.' Hint: it’s not all about the sticker on the car window.
Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices—a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus—closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers. While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets In and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that “who gets in” is frequently more about the college’s agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors—like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted."

This was an interesting read. The friend who suggested it has a daughter about to apply to college, so it was super relevant to her. For me, the book is not super applicable right now, but it was still interesting to learn about the process and the behind-the-scenes choices colleges make. The main gist of what I got out of the book is something an admissions officers said in the book is his advice for students: "Do the best you can, pursue your genuine interests, and let the chips fall where they may." You may or may not get into the college of your dreams, but that doesn't mean you weren't well qualified or aren't a great student or person. There are lots of factors considered in accepting students (including how many full-pay students a college needs or things like that).

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)