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American Morning

Campus Quest

Aired November 07, 2002 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This is high-anxiety season for teenagers across the country. High school juniors are taking their SAT tests, and as for seniors, some are waiting to learn whether they've scored an early admission decision. Others are struggling right now, working on their applications. So how do you get into the college you want to attend? You're really going to be real amazed. We're going to try to unravel for you this morning. Jacques Steinberg had an unique view of how the whole admissions process works. He actually spent a year watching it in person at Wesleyan University, and wrote "The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process." And he joins us now.
Good morning.

Before we get to the specifics of what every parent needs to learn this morning, explain to us just how much access you had in the process?

JACQUES STEINBERG, AUTHOR, "THE GATEKEEPERS": It was pretty extraordinary. This is a really secretive process. Colleges often shred the records of admissions decisions right after these decisions are made.

ZAHN: Really?

STEINBERG: If you would want to see why they made the decisions they made. Wesleyan was very open, one of the most highly selective colleges in the country. They allowed me to spend the better part of eight months with them as they were assembling the class of 2004.

ZAHN: And this was as they were analyzing SAT scores, analyzing essays.

STEINBERG: Saw everything from their recruitment of students, to admissions officers reading alone at home, which is when a lot of these decisions are made, and then the final committee round, when the final decisions are made, with some of the toughest cases discussed around the table.

ZAHN: Now, obviously, what happens at Wesleyan, is not necessarily going to happen at every school across the country, but what's the most surprising thing you learned that parents out there could just about apply to any school that their kids are considering?

STEINBERG: Well, Wesleyan is actually representative of about four dozen highly selective schools, including Harvard, and Yale, and Princeton and Stanford, the way they do it more or less is the way these other colleges do. And the most surprising thing to me is that there was such a human element of the process. We hear so much about the odds being so high against you getting in. That's true. There's more applicants than seats. But the fact is that every application gets read twice. As somebody that spent a time on the essay, it was nice to know that at least two people read it, in many instances, the entire committee discusses it.

ZAHN: How arbitrary is the decision?

STEINBERG: Well, it certainly is subjective. This is not science, these are not decisions that are made by a computer. They have certain guidelines, and yet, they will often cast aside these guidelines if there's somebody that they really want. I think it's really important, and we showed this in the "Gatekeepers" a lot, for applicants to sort of be themselves because there's a real good chance they can make a connection the person that picks up the file. We don't tend to think about that. We tend to think of it as test scores, but it's more than that.

ZAHN: You also point out that kids that come to the process say with 4.0 grade point averages, with superb SAT test scores, great extracurricular activity, they don't necessarily get in it is not a guarantee.

STEINBERG: There are few guarantees in this process. There are so many good applicants at Wesleyan. They had to turn away three of every four kids that applied. At Harvard, it's closer to nine out of every 10. There are so many good kids that are rejected, and it's easy having watched the process to see why. These are very hard calculations to make, and they're not necessarily fair.

ZAHN: So if everybody is coming in on basically the same playing level, what was the most important thing? Was it the essay? Does that trip the balance?

STEINBERG: The very first thing is how hard were the courses a student took? And again, Wesleyan is not unique on this. Other colleges are like this, too. They want to see, is the sort of person who challenges himself or herself, and would they use this university as a place where they would challenge themselves? So, you know, for students looking to gain the process, and I think it's really hard to outstrategize it, but certainly, one thing to bear in mind to take the toughest courses to handle. They really looked at that that before grades.

ZAHN: That is so interesting, something to keep in mind as we try to get your kids to do their homework every night. Jacques Steinberg. It's absolutely fascinating. The name of the book is "The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admission Process," something I don't have to worry about for years, but nevertheless, we should all be educated. Thank you for dropping by.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 7, 2002 - 09:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This is high-anxiety season for teenagers across the country. High school juniors are taking their SAT tests, and as for seniors, some are waiting to learn whether they've scored an early admission decision. Others are struggling right now, working on their applications. So how do you get into the college you want to attend? You're really going to be real amazed. We're going to try to unravel for you this morning. Jacques Steinberg had an unique view of how the whole admissions process works. He actually spent a year watching it in person at Wesleyan University, and wrote "The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process." And he joins us now.
Good morning.

Before we get to the specifics of what every parent needs to learn this morning, explain to us just how much access you had in the process?

JACQUES STEINBERG, AUTHOR, "THE GATEKEEPERS": It was pretty extraordinary. This is a really secretive process. Colleges often shred the records of admissions decisions right after these decisions are made.

ZAHN: Really?

STEINBERG: If you would want to see why they made the decisions they made. Wesleyan was very open, one of the most highly selective colleges in the country. They allowed me to spend the better part of eight months with them as they were assembling the class of 2004.

ZAHN: And this was as they were analyzing SAT scores, analyzing essays.

STEINBERG: Saw everything from their recruitment of students, to admissions officers reading alone at home, which is when a lot of these decisions are made, and then the final committee round, when the final decisions are made, with some of the toughest cases discussed around the table.

ZAHN: Now, obviously, what happens at Wesleyan, is not necessarily going to happen at every school across the country, but what's the most surprising thing you learned that parents out there could just about apply to any school that their kids are considering?

STEINBERG: Well, Wesleyan is actually representative of about four dozen highly selective schools, including Harvard, and Yale, and Princeton and Stanford, the way they do it more or less is the way these other colleges do. And the most surprising thing to me is that there was such a human element of the process. We hear so much about the odds being so high against you getting in. That's true. There's more applicants than seats. But the fact is that every application gets read twice. As somebody that spent a time on the essay, it was nice to know that at least two people read it, in many instances, the entire committee discusses it.

ZAHN: How arbitrary is the decision?

STEINBERG: Well, it certainly is subjective. This is not science, these are not decisions that are made by a computer. They have certain guidelines, and yet, they will often cast aside these guidelines if there's somebody that they really want. I think it's really important, and we showed this in the "Gatekeepers" a lot, for applicants to sort of be themselves because there's a real good chance they can make a connection the person that picks up the file. We don't tend to think about that. We tend to think of it as test scores, but it's more than that.

ZAHN: You also point out that kids that come to the process say with 4.0 grade point averages, with superb SAT test scores, great extracurricular activity, they don't necessarily get in it is not a guarantee.

STEINBERG: There are few guarantees in this process. There are so many good applicants at Wesleyan. They had to turn away three of every four kids that applied. At Harvard, it's closer to nine out of every 10. There are so many good kids that are rejected, and it's easy having watched the process to see why. These are very hard calculations to make, and they're not necessarily fair.

ZAHN: So if everybody is coming in on basically the same playing level, what was the most important thing? Was it the essay? Does that trip the balance?

STEINBERG: The very first thing is how hard were the courses a student took? And again, Wesleyan is not unique on this. Other colleges are like this, too. They want to see, is the sort of person who challenges himself or herself, and would they use this university as a place where they would challenge themselves? So, you know, for students looking to gain the process, and I think it's really hard to outstrategize it, but certainly, one thing to bear in mind to take the toughest courses to handle. They really looked at that that before grades.

ZAHN: That is so interesting, something to keep in mind as we try to get your kids to do their homework every night. Jacques Steinberg. It's absolutely fascinating. The name of the book is "The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admission Process," something I don't have to worry about for years, but nevertheless, we should all be educated. Thank you for dropping by.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com