Book Review: The Gatekeepers, by Jacques Steinberg

This book is essentially an outsiders account of the college admissions process. In 2001, Jacques Steinberg, then a journalist for the New York Times Review on Higher Education, took a few months off of his desk job to shadow a college admissions officer at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Steinberg chose to shadow officer Ralph Figueroa, a Stanford grad who attended UCLA Law School before ending up at Occidental College (Obama's Alma Mater) in California as an admissions officer. The book is constantly revealing more about Ralph, from his relationship experience and connections within the college admissions field to the way he fits his Mexican-American heritage into a traditionally "WASPy" field.

A lot of what I deduced from the book was in fact the diversity of the readers in admissions offices and that as a general rule, especially at schools that have a committee decision process, there will usually be someone to speak out for your application. Many times during the admissions round at Wesleyan, counselors got personally attached to applicants and there was a surprising amount of give and take in how the admissions process works. On one hand, this can be seen as more random and less formulaic, but in general I think it speaks to the desire to bring interesting people to the campuses of elite institutions, culminating in genuinely diverse campuses.

The race card came up several times throughout the book, especially in respect to Ralphs Mexican-American heritage and the role of one African American young woman who ends up at Yale. After reading the book, I believe that I have a further understanding of how ethnicity and geographic location really play into the process. In the example of the African American and another Native American applicant, it really all boils down to the unique cultures and hardships that those applicants have gone through that culminates in them being interesting. Likewise a white applicant who has gone through financial hardship or problems at home has an equally unique story to bring to the campus.

The format of this book is really what made it so enjoyable. Though much of Steinberg's observation occurs in the traditional college admissions office, a lot of his story is told through profiling six or seven individual students from across the country. It's interesting to see where the students apply and how the college admissions officers interpret the paper representation of each person.

Overall, this was a really fantastic book that was able to squeeze the rough details and objective advice into an easy to read and ultimately enjoyable package. Now I'm even considering a career in the admissions field, as an interesting way to funnel all of your experience in life to evaluating others - each person in their own way.

Fun Fashions in the News

The only thing funnier than Dolce & Gabbana fur hats and white pants for men are the "fashions" recommended for college interviewing by a private college counselor in New York . The show couldn't be more hilarious, not the least for featuring fashions that The Preppy Handbook loved to mock. It personified the fever dream of those who wish they could "summer" on the Vineyard drinking 'tinis and discussing their plans for the new yacht. Education? Not an issue; just the label, please.

The show was featured in Jacques Steinberg's NY Times blog, The Source, and you can read the whole thing here. He's already made fun of it, as have the two admission deans he asked about it, so I won't pile on too much here. You have to read it to believe it.

But it does once again demonstrate the insecurity and credulity of a certain group of people for whom designer labels mean something, even in college education. They are to be pitied more than scorned, I suppose, because in their desperation they deform their children to fit the mold they think will get them into Elitist University. They read all the "How to get in" and "Secrets of" books and then do everything they say, no matter what their children want or are capable of. I imagine grasping parents poring over those books and planning out little Heather's day from the time she's in kindergarten. They are like the nouveau riche capitalists in the late 19th century who married their daughters to penniless European aristocrats for the titles and the lands (which were mortgaged, of course--the aristocrats were no fools). Henry James would have a field day.

Finally, it all shows how anyone with even a tangential relationship to college admission can make a fortune (up to $15K at a time, not counting the DVDs--$45.00) soaking rich rubes. We can complain about them but as long as people have too much money (hard to believe these days) and not enough sense, these independent counselors will continue to embarrass themselves and their "clients." Shannon Duff enters the Hall of College Admission Indignities with this foray into ridiculous fakery.