5 Points of Hypocrisy in College Admissions

Is there hypocrisy in the world of college admissions? You bet (photo credit: Sach1tb).

Are there points of hypocrisy in the world of college admissions? Oh yes, just as hypocrisy exists in government, in the world of finance, in real estate, it exists in college admissions. Over the years, we’ve pointed out several of these points of hypocrisy in quite a bit of depth on the pages of our college admissions blog. But we figured we’d devote today’s post to aggregating some of these points of hypocrisy  — specifically, 5 points of hypocrisy in college admissions. So here goes. Are there more? You bet. This is just to wet the appetite of our readers. We like to tease like that, what can we say.

5 Points of Hypocrisy in College Admissions

5. Need-blind admissions is a lie. So many highly selective colleges claim to be need-blind. But if they were truly need-blind, then why on the vast majority of college application supplements do colleges ask if students need financial aid? Why would this question be on a document that the very admissions officers who are evaluating a student’s case for admission can see with their own two eyes? Also, if colleges were truly need-blind, they’d need to dip into their endowments and that would be financially unsustainable. Colleges rely on tuition dollars. They can’t risk admitting a class in which everyone — or nearly everyone — depends on financial aid dollars. And if colleges were truly need-blind, they’d be at risk of admitting such a class.

4. Critics of private college counselors so often become private college counselors. Many college admissions officers are quick to scorn private college counselors. Maybe they say that students don’t need help navigating the highly selective college admissions process. Maybe they say that parents shouldn’t have to pay to improve their child’s case for admission. But do check out LinkedIn. Do peruse the websites of hundreds upon hundreds of private college counseling firms. These very admissions officers who are quick to scorn private college counselors so often become private college counselors themselves. It’s certainly more lucrative than a gig in a college admissions office.

3. There is indeed Asian American discrimination in admissions but the challenge Asian American groups have mounted to fight this discrimination has little to do with Asian American discrimination. The face of the challenge to Asian American discrimination is Michael Wang, a student at Williams College who applied to Ivy League colleges with a perfect ACT score but a well-rounded profile. A piece in “Business Insider” states the following: “He [Wang] also stressed that he was not just academically driven, but also a well-rounded applicant who maximized his extracurricular activities. He competed in national speech and debate competitions and math competitions. He also plays the piano and performed in the choir that sang at President Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration.” Highly selective colleges are not seeking well-rounded students — Asian American or not. They’re quite open about this. They’ve been quite open about this for decades.

2. Colleges seek to admit a diverse class and yet they continue to offer preferential treatment to the progeny of alumni. In spite of colleges seeking out underrepresented minorities, low-income students, students who will be the first-generation in their families to attend college, and more, they continue to admit legacy applicants — who are overwhelmingly Caucasian and from well off families — at an alarming rate. 25% of students admitted in the Early Decision round to the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 2022 were legacy applicants. A quarter of admits is just too much.

And our personal favorite…

1. Private college counselors love to ridicule us at Ivy Coach for our fees. We make no apologies for our fees. We charge the fees we command. Just as not all attorneys, plumbers, and dentists charge the same fee, not all private college counselors charge the same fee. We work with a limited number of students each year. We’re not interested in working with the masses. Our fees surely make it impossible for a number of folks to work with us, which we fully understand. We’re not for everyone. Last time we checked, this is the United States of America — not the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Our nation is proudly built on a foundation of capitalism. We will charge what our expertise commands. And the private college counselors who ridicule us for our fees, well, you’d charge the same fees if you could. You see, sometimes for kicks, we reach out to these critics to see if they’d like to work for us at Ivy Coach. In almost every instance, unsurprisingly, they would indeed.