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College Admissions: 'the Equitable Distribution of Unhappiness'?

Ohanian Comment: I
don't think this is an outrageous statement. I
only wish that schools could have the luxury of
having "multiple, overlapping, and competing
priorities." I wish the bozos who covered
education for the New York Times and the
Washington Post recognized this. More
and more, schools are in the business of
Inequitable Distribution of Unhappiness: We
pile it on the children of poverty.

by Eric Hoover

Winston-Salem, N.C. — Christoph O. Guttentag,
Duke University’s dean of admissions, has
thought a lot about why sports matters so much
to so many people. In a world of ambiguity,
games provide clarity, an end result—a win, a
loss, or a draw.

By contrast, admissions outcomes can seem
arbitrary to those outside the profession, Mr.
Guttentag said here on Wednesday: After all, in
sports, unlike admissions, he said, “there are
obvious rules.”

Speaking on the first day of Wake Forest
University’s “Rethinking Admissions”
conference, Mr. Guttentag suggested that
colleges do more to explain the admissions
process to students and parents. Namely, that
admission decisions are not always about them —
and that admissions is “not simply a
meritocratic process.”

“We as colleges define success in admissions
for ourselves,” Mr. Guttentag told an audience
that included many admissions officials. “We
have multiple, overlapping, and competing
priorities that we have to deal with.”

So what is it, exactly, that admissions deans
do for a living? Mr. Guttentag’s answer drew
knowing laughter: “The equitable distribution
of unhappiness.”

— Eric Hoover
Chronicle of Higher Education
2009-04-15
http://chronicle.com/news/article/6321/college-admissions-the-equitable-distribution-of-unhappiness?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

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