From the fall of 1999 to the spring
of 2000, New York Times education reporter Jacques
Steinberg was given unparalleled access to an entire admissions season at
Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In that time, he discovered just how
difficult it could be to winnow down a list of nearly seven thousand
applicants to seven hundred freshmen for the class of 2004.
Steinberg follows an admissions
officer and his eight counterparts through the daunting task of recruiting
students nationwide, reading through each of their applications, and
meeting behind closed doors for a week in March to finalize the incoming
class.
He also recounts the personal
experiences of a half dozen high school seniors of various ethnic and
economic backgrounds as they struggle through the often byzantine
selection process. Find out why:
| high SATs and many
extracurricular activities are not always critical |
| a student's "story" can
either be helpful or detrimental |
| one student with a 1480 SAT
score and high grades can face stiff competition from another three
thousand miles away whose board score is 900 and who has a handful of Ds
on her report card |
| an officer peering into the
application pool is often most excited to see a reflection of him—or
herself staring back |
The Gatekeepers is a
suspenseful, highly readable account that moves from the applicant's high
schools to the admissions office and back again to the student's homes, as
the academic futures of thousands of young people hang in the balance.