Why Admission Tests Are Like Toilet Paper, and Other Musings

Two weeks ago I wrote a post entitled, “The College Board’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week,” borrowed respectfully and lovingly from a book title by the children’s author Judith Viorst.  I wrote about the class action lawsuit filed against the College Board in response to its on-line AP Exams this spring and the decision by the University of California to end use of the SAT and ACT over the next five years.  The UC system is the College Board’s biggest customer.

 

For the past two weeks the nation’s consciousness has been appropriately focused on the protests of police violence in the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd, and the depth and breadth of the outrage felt by citizens from all backgrounds promises transformational change. The past two weeks have also been potentially transformational for the admission testing industry. 

 

  • ·      Marten Roorda has left his position of CEO of ACT, and there have been open calls for the removal of his counterpart at the College Board, David Coleman.

 

  • ·      The College Board’s attempt to open registration on May 28 for test dates in August, September, and October became another public relations fiasco, as students attempting to register after having been prevented from testing this spring found phone lines jammed for hours and some test centers filling up in the first few hours.

 

  • ·      The College Board issued a press release acknowledging challenges in providing universal access to the SAT for high school students in the class of 2021, announcing that it will not offer a version of the SAT that can be taken on-line at home, and asking colleges to be flexible with students in recognition of the difficulties most will have in completing testing.

 

  • ·      The number of colleges and universities going test-optional for at least the coming year continues to grow, with at least four Ivies and the University of Virginia joining the list.

 

I applaud the College Board for acknowledging its difficulties after initially maintaining that the SAT registration process was, like its claim about AP exam completion and submission, a huge success.  I do wonder why the College Board always tends to communicate with its members through press releases.

 

The statement reveals that the biggest threat facing the admission testing industry is supply chain disruption.  During the pandemic that same issue has affected products ranging from toilet paper to meat.  Now add admission tests to the list.

 

The supply chain for both the SAT and ACT relies on local test centers, most of them high schools.  Now the social distancing requirements in many states mean that test centers won’t be able to test as many students.  Will students be squeezed out of testing, or be forced to travel 100 miles to find an open test center? Will school districts not allow high schools to open up to strangers on a Saturday?  And will the colleges that require admission tests step up and offer themselves as test centers? At a time when there is a lot of discussion about testing and its future, the biggest threat to the SAT and ACT might be the supply chain.  It’s hard to make money when customers can’t buy your product.

 

My last post reported on the University of California’s decision to give up requiring the SAT and ACT, and loyal reader Ethan Lewis pointed out that I had misreported part of the plan put forth by UC President Janet Napolitano.  I somehow missed that the plan to end the requirement for test scores will apply only to California residents.  Out-of-state applicants will still have to submit scores from the ACT, SAT, or the new test that the university is talking about creating.  I apologize for my oversight on that point and appreciate Ethan bringing it to my attention.

 

That raises an interesting question.  Is it legitimate for a college or university to require testing for some students but make it optional for others?  I have asked that question before about universities that are test-optional, except for engineering students or scholarship candidates.

 

I suppose that depends on your justification for being test-optional.  Are you test-optional for philosophical reasons, because you question the validity of the test?  Are you skeptical of how much value test scores add to the validity of admission decisions?  Are you not selective enough for test scores to make a difference in admission decisions? Or are you test-optional as a tool for profile enhancement, allowing you to admit students you want on your campus but whose test scores might hurt your data for ranking purposes?

 

In the case of the University of California, the argument might be that it serves California residents and knows the high school curriculum offered at California high schools.  Requiring out-of-state students to submit test scores provides an additional data point to evaluate the credentials of applicants from schools that the UC admissions offices may not know as well.

 

I wonder whether there are other iterations of the concept of requiring admission tests for only some applicants. We know that test scores have context.  If you and I have the same SAT score but I come from a wealthy family and a good school and have spent a sizable amount on test prep, while you don’t have any of those advantages, then the scores don’t mean the same thing.

 

Given that we now know that SAT and ACT scores have a high correlation with family income, and that the value test scores add to predictability is minimal, should we require test scores only from applicants who come from families above a certain income, with students from lower socioeconomic groups able to receive a decision based only on their high school transcript?  That’s the test-optional I’d like to see.

 

In the last post I argued that it is odd that after being test-optional for the next two years the University of California will allow students to submit the SAT and ACT for scholarship consideration but not for admission.  Why use test scores for a purpose for which they are not intended, scholarship consideration, when you are not going to use them for admission, the purpose for which the test was designed? 

 

That leads to one other issue.  The purpose of the SAT is predicting freshman-year GPA.  That’s certainly helpful, but shouldn’t the college admissions process be intended to predict a much broader definition of success, say likelihood of graduation or success beyond graduation?  If testing is going to be part of our admissions calculus, shouldn’t we develop tests that measure the qualities that lead to success?

 

Do we measure what we value, or do we value what we can easily measure?

 

 

 

Fortnight

It has been two weeks since my last post, and yet it feels like years given what our country has been through in that short time.  The last post came a day after the murder of George Floyd by police officers but before public awareness and outrage over that crime led people to go into the streets in protest around the country and around the world.

 

In real time we lack the perspective to know when history is being made, but this feels historic. The protests have been more widespread and lasted longer than I remember in previous cases, and in my home town of Richmond, Virginia there is unprecedented momentum for removing the Confederate statues for which Monument Avenue is named.

 

A national nerve has been touched by the recent deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.  They, and far too many of the more than 5400 people killed by police since 2015 according to a Washington Post database, lost their lives for alleged offenses in no way deserving of the death penalty.  Even if we recognize the stress and danger faced by police on a daily basis, it is hard to understand how this happens again and again.

 

The outrage is real and deep, but the vehemence of the protests has been surprising. I wonder if that’s related to living through the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders over the past twelve weeks.  That has deprived us of needed human connection, and it has made us feel powerless against an invisible enemy.  Racism is an older, more entrenched, and just as mysterious disease as COVID-19, but it’s a disease we should be able to cure together without waiting for a vaccine.  

 

I have struggled personally with how to respond.  As a white male who doesn’t have to fear that any interaction with police may turn violent or even deadly, does my background and perspective disqualify me from contributing meaningfully, or does it impose an added obligation to speak out? I want to support my students, especially my students of color. I am filled with sadness and embarrassment that my generation has failed to heal America’s racial history and social and economic inequality.  And I’m angry that some of our elected leaders are more concerned with “law and order” than justice.

 

This blog takes its beat as the intersection of ethics and college admissions, and this issue touches on both. 

 

Ethics is about ideals, about how we should live.  The killing of George Floyd reveals once again cognitive dissonance between the ideals that we as Americans claim to uphold and the reality faced by too many black Americans.  Not only is their experience with the justice system different, their economic experience living in the wealthiest nation on earth is different, and this spring the data on COVID-19 suggests that black Americans are victimized by the coronavirus at higher levels.

 

For those of us in the college counseling and admissions profession, one of our ideals is promoting opportunity and equity for all young people.  The Preamble to the NACAC Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I had a hand in writing) states that,

 

“We are committed to increasing the enrollment and success of historically underrepresented populations. We are dedicated to promoting college access and addressing systemic inequities to ensure that college campuses reflect our society’s many cultures, stimulate the exchange of ideas, value differences, and prepare our students to become global citizens and leaders.”

 

The events of the last couple of weeks are a clarion call not only for our country but also for us as professionals.  Access to education should be transformational not only for individual students, but also for our country.  How will we, individually and institutionally and as a profession, step up in this moment?

 

 

 

The College Board's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

How was your week last week?  Chances are it was better than the week the College Board experienced.  Last week the College Board found itself attacked, and perhaps existentially endangered, on two different fronts.

 

The more significant of the two is the unanimous vote by the Board of Regents of the University of California in support of President Janet Napolitano’s plan to suspend the system’s use of the SAT and ACT as a requirement for admission until 2024.  Under Napolitano’s proposal, released just two weeks ago, the UC system will extend for two years the test-optional policy it adopted in March in response to the disruption in testing for high school students graduating in 2021.  Beginning in 2023, all University of California campuses will be “test-blind,” meaning that students can submit SAT or ACT scores but they won’t factor into admission decisions.  By the fifth year the University of California will develop its own admission test or abolish the use of testing in admission altogether.

 

The California decision is a blow to the testing industry at a time when it is already reeling from lost test dates and revenue in the wake of COVID-19.  It is a particularly bitter blow for the College Board, as the University of California system is its biggest “customer.”  According to the Los Angeles Times, 80% of the UC system’s 172,000 applicants last year submitted SAT scores.

 

The impact is even bigger than that, though.  The College Board has always treated the University of California with “most favored nation” status.  It was the UC system’s adoption of standardized testing for admission as part of Clark Kerr’s Master Plan in the early 1960s that made the SAT a national test.  That wasn’t an accident.

 

According to Nicholas Lemann’s book, The Big Test, the UC decision to adopt the SAT was the product of a long marketing campaign on the part of the College Board.  The CB’s first branch office was opened in Berkeley, home of the University of California’s flagship campus, in 1947.  The University of California was the first public university to become a College Board member, with the CB making an exception to its requirement that member institutions have the SAT as an admissions requirement.  At one point in the 1950s the College Board went so far as to offer the SAT at no cost to University of California applicants.  Can we imagine such a thing today?

 

More recently, the new version of the SAT introduced in 2006 was in response by a threat by then UC-President Richard Atkinson to eliminate the SAT as a requirement for admission to the system.  Atkinson argued for a test rooted in achievement rather than aptitude, and the SAT was changed to incorporate higher-level mathematics, a writing section with an essay, and scores on a scale of 2400 rather than 1600.  The writing section with essay has since been removed from the newest iteration of the SAT, but Napolitano’s proposal for a new test captures Atkinson’s desire for a more achievement-based test.

 

An article by Eric Hoover in the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the California Board of Regents vote came after six hours of intense debate by videoconference over the pros and cons of standardized testing in admission.  Defenders of testing cited a report issued back in February by a panel appointed by the university’s Academic Senate.  That report recommended that the university continue requiring the SAT or ACT for the near future.  Those wanting to end testing argued that the testing requirement disadvantages applicants from underrepresented populations, with one UCLA student calling the SAT a “racist” exam.

 

There is one irony, perhaps even an oddity, in the plan put forth by President Napolitano.  During the two-year period when the University of California is “test blind,” it will not consider test scores for admission but will for scholarship evaluation.  That means that the UC system will choose not to use the SAT or ACT for the purposes for which they are intended, but will use them for purposes for which the tests are not intended.  Regardless of how you feel about the tests, that seems misguided.

 

The second threat to the College Board comes in the form of a class action lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles asking for $500 million in damages as a result of the Board’s failure to provide adequate access and oversight of its Advanced Placement exams the past couple of weeks. Among the plaintiffs is the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, better known as FairTest.

 

Once the pandemic shut down schools nationwide in March, the College Board announced plans to offer AP exams to be taken by students online at their homes.  The exams were shortened from three hours to 45 minutes, with students all over the world taking the same exam at the same time.  The syllabus of topics to be covered was shortened, and the exams were open-book, open-note assessments.

 

The pivot to the new format raised more questions than it answered.  The College Board’s expressed justification for the change was concern for students hoping to earn college credit for their AP work, but the cynics among us will be forgiven for jumping to the conclusion that the real concern was the loss of revenue that would have resulted from cancelling the exams altogether.  But does the new online exam resemble the traditional Advanced Placement exams, and will colleges evaluate scores and award credit for these exams as they have in the past?

 

As soon as the AP exams commenced on May 11, there were reports of students getting error messages or timing out when they attempted to submit their completed answers. Those unable to complete the submission process were told their only option was to retake the exam during the makeup period.  For the second week of the exam schedule, the College Board allowed students experiencing submission difficulties to take a photo of their answer and submit by e-mail.  That didn’t satisfy critics, including those filing the lawsuit.

 

I have read both the complaint in the lawsuit and the College Board’s press release announcing the success of the online exams, and I am not convinced by either of them.

 

The lawsuit alleges that the College Board was negligent, “knowingly discriminated,” and “failed to honor its commitments to students.”  It argues that the AP Program was aware in advance that there were concerns about access to connectivity, test security, score comparability, and accommodations for students with disabilities, but “did not change its policies to address them.”

 

I’m not a lawyer, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, and while it is hard to know in our litigious society what conclusions a judge or jury might draw, I’m not sure what the College Board was supposed to do.  We are in the midst of a pandemic the likes of which hasn’t been seen for 100 years, and with schools nationwide closed the College Board’s options were limited to either rushing into circulation the online, at-home tests or cancelling the AP exams altogether.  Cancelling would have led some other group to argue that the CB “failed to honor its commitments to students.” Clearly the test format disadvantaged students with poor connectivity or needing accommodations, and the College Board makes an appealing villain, but I’m not sure what alternatives there were.

 

At the same time, the College Board’s response to students frustrated by their inability to submit answers once they finished the test was tone-deaf, right out of the public relations playbook used by the Trump administration to deny responsibility for the failed national response to the coronavirus.  The College Board had to have anticipated that there would be technology problems, and responding with “it must be your browser” and “just retake the exam” doesn’t cut it. 

 

The correct customer service response for a faulty product is to have a back-up system in place from the start, or else just apologize and refund the customer’s money.  

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Furloughed

After three years as a weekly column for Inside Higher Ed’s “Admissions Insider” newsletter, Ethical College Admissions is returning to its previous home for the foreseeable future.

 

Consider this part of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.  ECA has been furloughed, a small sacrifice compared to the millions of Americans who have lost jobs and businesses over the past three months.  We hope that the economy may recover to a degree that will allow us to continue our partnership with Scott Jaschik and the folks at Inside Higher Ed, because it’s been a good one. 

 

Three years ago, back before Rick Singer was a household name, before the Department of Justice decided that it should be spending its time investigating NACAC, and before the future of standardized testing (and perhaps higher education as we know it) came into question, I wondered how I would ever find enough material to write a weekly column year round.  That hasn’t proved to be a problem, and I’m proud of my body of work and grateful for my readers who will now have to find this site.

 

I will continue to write about the intersection of ethics and college admission, just not weekly, and I may take the summer off unless there is an issue that demands analysis.  For the big issues I will still seek Inside Higher Ed as an avenue.

 

Thanks for reading, and please spread the word.

ECA Has a New Home

The Ethical College Admissions blog has a new home.  Beginning today, ECA can be found as a column in Admissions Insider, a new college admissions based weekly newsletter published by the higher education website, Inside Higher Ed.

Here's a link to the new site:

This site, The Thoughtful College Search, will remain and we hope to develop new content.

Thank you to all the readers who have followed the blog.  We hope you will continue to read it at the new location.

The Ethical Significance of May 1

(This is the second in an occasional series on the new Statement of Principles of Good Practice and related ethical issues.)

 

Today is the first of May.  The significance of the day depends on your background and perspective.

 

If you’re fond of Germanic paganism or attended a girls’ school, you may associate May 1 with dancing around the Maypole to celebrate the coming of summer.  If you grew up in a Soviet bloc country, it’s a day for parades featuring lots of military hardware.  If you’re a loyal supporter of President Trump, you will celebrate “Loyalty Day” today.

 

On this day in 1930 a ninth planet was identified in our solar system and named for Mickey Mouse’s dog Pluto (it was later “de-planeted” before returning to planet status last month).  The Empire State Building was commissioned in 1931, and three mismatched cultural icons were born on this day—Calamity Jane, North Korea, and SpongeBob SquarePants.  Hopefully none of them will choose to celebrate their birthday by shooting something off.

 

For those of us in the college admissions profession, May 1 is arguably the most important day of the year.  It is the National Candidates’ Reply Date, the date by which high school seniors should have made one, and only one, enrollment deposit.  In theory May 1 brings the admissions cycle to a close, although we know that many rolling admission places continue enrolling into the summer and that the use of Wait Lists has become a distinct part of the admission cycle.  

 

For admissions offices May 1 can be a time for celebration, a time for relief, or a time for panic.  If deposits are slow, May Day can turn into “May Day! May Day!,” the international distress call.

 

May 1 can also produce anxiety for students.  Up to now the college search and admission processes have been about options and possibilities.  Now choosing one door means closing others.  The finality of May 1 is hard for some students.

 

In 2005 May 1 fell on a Saturday.  I was in the dugout coaching a baseball game when my cell phone rang.  It was one of my seniors, one of my son’s best friends.  He was having trouble making a final decision among three good options, and as I recall his mother wanted him to deposit at the school he liked least.  We talked through the options while I kept the scorebook and finally he decided where he was going to mail his deposit.

 

An hour later the phone rang again.  “I just mailed all three envelopes!” he exclaimed with panic.  “What should I do?”  I told him to calm down and on Monday he called the two schools that he wasn’t attending.  “I bet I’m going to become one of your stories,” he prophesized.  And so he has.

 

May 1 serves as the cornerstone for the ethical infrastructure underlying college admissions.  The current (but not the new) Statement of Principles of Good Practice has a list of what are called “Member Conventions,” defined as “a set of understandings or agreements to frame our code of ethics.”  May 1 does not appear on that list (but does appear elsewhere in the document), but May 1 is the ultimate admissions “convention.”  There is nothing sacred about May 1, but we have agreed on this date as a “finish line” to ensure that both students and institutions have a level playing field.

 

May 1 supports the ethical principle that students should be able to make a college choice that is informed and made without undue coercion or manipulation.  A student should be able to receive decisions from all the colleges to which he or she applied and have time to compare the pros and cons of each option before choosing the best fit.

 

May 1 also helps college admission remain a profession rather than a cutthroat business.  It provides a framework that keeps us from falling prey to our baser motives to serve ourselves and not our students, and it keeps the college process from deteriorating into a “Wild West” where there are no rules.  As a result it helps preserve public trust in our profession.

 

That is not to say that May 1 is not under constant threat of erosion.  As a marketing and business mentality comes into conflict with college admission’s traditional emphasis on education and counseling, and as more institutions struggle for survival, there are more challenges to May 1 every year.  Attempts to circumvent May 1 constitute the vast majority of complaints made to Admission Practices committees both at the national and affiliate levels.

 

Those challenges to May 1 take the following forms:

 

            --Requests to deposit by an earlier date without making it clear that the student has until May 1;

            --Incentives to enroll earlier, ranging from a discounted enrollment deposit, early registration for classes, a scholarship reserved for students who deposit by a particular earlier date, and even backstage passes to a concert;

            --Insinuations that enrollment, housing, or placement in a certain program might disappear “unless you order now.”

 

I asked Lou Hirsh, Chair of the National Admission Practices Committee for NACAC, to comment on the importance of May 1.  As usual, he is far more eloquent than I am.

 

The May 1 National Candidates Reply Date protects both students and colleges:

·      It frees students from the chaos – and unfairness – of being forced to commit to a college before they have heard from other colleges or weighed other financial aid and scholarship offers.

·      It ensures that colleges compete fairly with each other. It lets them plan their mailings, phone calling, off-campus receptions, and on-campus yield events knowing that they are reaching students before they have been forced to make a commitment elsewhere. Without it, colleges would be embroiled in a self-defeating “early deposit deadline arms race.”

But what also makes May 1 so central is that it is so pedagogically important. For the first time in their lives, these (mostly) 17-year-olds are being asked to make an informed and life-changing choice. As their teachers (and whether we work on the counseling side of the desk or the college admission side, we are, indeed, “teachers”), we want them to enter their adulthood weighing pros and cons, reining in their impulsiveness, and taking the time to think about the human beings they have become and the ones they hope to be. Like so much else in education, the process is as important as the outcome.

Colleges that bully students into forgoing their May 1 rights by making them commit early in order to secure a scholarship offer or by implying some other disadvantage betray a fundamental ethical and pedagogical imperative. Other colleges play by the rules and in the process serve the best interests of students. Why can’t they?

 

The draft of the new Statement of Principles of Good Practice includes a section outlining dates, deadlines, and procedures for the college admission cycle, and May 1 is the central component of that calendar.  The new document requires colleges to abide by May 1 for enrollment to not just institutions, but to special programs, majors, and institutional scholarships, even those that are administered by departments.  It also requires institutions to be explicit about whether deposits received before May 1 are refundable.

Regardless of how you celebrate May 1, take time today to appreciate the role this day plays in preserving the integrity of the college admissions process.

  

Haggling: A Follow-Up

The previous post, “To Haggle or Not to Haggle,” was selected by insidehighered.com for its “Around the Web” section.  We are always grateful to have recognition from that respected site.

 

 

After the post was published on Wednesday, I received an e-mail from Jon Boeckenstedt at DePaul, and I asked his permission to post it.

 

You’ve equivocated two terms: Tuition discounting and merit aid.

 

Almost all financial aid, whether it be ‘need based’ or ‘merit based’ (which are silly distinctions without meaning any more, but I’ve written about that enough to justify my not doing more today) is discount.  That simply means that if your tuition is $60,000 and you offer $30,000 in aid, you simply forego the revenue, in the form of a discount (in this case, 50%).  You essentially agree to educate that student for $30,000 in revenue.

 

There are exceptions, in the case where specific scholarships are funded and restricted (the Miller family sets up an endowment to fund ten scholarships of $30,000 annually).  In that case, you charge $60,000, and you get $60,000 in revenue: $30K from the student and $30K in cash from the funded award.

 

But for new students, most aid is discount, even if the endowment is huge.

 

I have great respect for Jon, and always pay attention to his comments and insights.  In this case I oversimplified.  I knew the distinction, and probably should have made that clear.  The point I was trying to make was that tuition discounting does not automatically correlate with willingness to haggle, which is what the New York Times article was suggesting.  I think Jon’s point that most aid, whether labeled as “need based” or “merit,” is actually a tuition discount is an important and misunderstood point.”

 

 

Another reader, an independent consultant I will not name because I haven’t asked permission, wrote to say:

 

“I don’t know any independents who haggle.  Parents may.  I won’t.”

 

I wasn’t alleging that most or any independent consultants haggle with colleges for their clients, but I thought the Times insinuated that providing advice for haggling was part of the package of services offered by many independent consultants.

 

I am thankful for readers of the blog who take the time to write or to speak to me in person.  I started Ethical College Admissions nearly five years ago not knowing if I had anything worth saying or if anyone would read it, but knowing there are regular readers who care about these issues is gratifying.

 

 

I hope to be back with a post on Monday reflecting on May 1 as an ethical cornerstone for college admissions as a profession.

 

To Haggle or Not to Haggle

A couple of weeks ago an article in the “Your Money” section of the New York Times encouraged high school seniors and their families to engage in what the article described as an “annual ritual” in the college application process, appealing financial aid packages.  The article quoted a certified public accountant in New York as claiming that a family might cut $5000-$10,000 off their tuition bill with a little “strategic haggling” prior to May 1, and even suggested that families consider hiring a professional haggler.

 

I found several things about the article misleading and even troubling, but I also know that I tend to be naïve and idealistic, which sometimes masquerades as bemused cynicism.  I’m not ready to accept that financial aid appeals are an “annual ritual” or that families should believe that haggling a normal part of the admissions process. 

 

Paying for a college education has become a greater challenge as the cost of higher education outstrips family incomes, and in the past five years or so I’ve seen economics determine students’ college choices more often and more significantly than used to be the case. That usually involves choosing public in-state options over private or out-of-state public universities rather than renegotiating financial aid.

 

The Times article suggests that the increasing use of tuition discounting (or what is often euphemistically referred to as “merit aid”) means that colleges are more amenable to haggling over price, but I’m not sure the two are connected.  In my experience tuition discounting (which may be well over 50% at many tuition-dependent private colleges) takes place at the front end, with the exception of a few schools trying to stay alive.  Is that about to change?  I hope not.  I don’t want paying for college to resemble buying an automobile.

 

The other contention in the article that doesn’t smell right is that the last two weeks of April are timely for trying to negotiate with colleges.  It is true that colleges are under pressure to make the class, but the implication in the article is that a pool of scholarship dollars becomes available as students turn down the offer of admission and financial aid package to attend a different institution.  That’s like assuming that a college will take a student off the Wait List for every admitted student who doesn’t enroll.  I haven’t worked in a financial aid office, but in my experience that’s not how financial aid works.  Please feel free to correct me if I’m off base.

 

I’m also bothered by the suggestion that families should think about hiring a “haggler” to help negotiate.  Parts of the article read like an infomercial for independent educational consultants, reporting that the number of full-time independents has grown by more than 400% in the past decade.  I want to be clear that I am not bashing independent college counseling, which is a legitimate part of our profession.  It’s the implication that one must hire a consultant to haggle that I am questioning.

 

The most interesting question posed in the article is whether the early FAFSA and the advent of prior-prior year data will increase the number of financial aid appeals.  Is the downside of prior-prior that the aid evaluation system will not have the ability to respond to dramatic changes in a family’s financial situation that occurred in 2016?  And how will colleges deal with those situations?  Will they be fluid in adjusting aid packages to take into account changed circumstances or will they conclude that those changed circumstances will come into play a year from now?

 

I have written about this issue before (more eloquently than I am now), and changed financial circumstances is one of three reasons for which I would advise a student to appeal a financial aid offer.  A second would be when another college has a more generous financial aid offer, recognizing that one institution might be more willing to give merit aid to a particular applicant than another.  The third is when finances are an impediment to a student’s attending his or her first-choice college.  The college may or may not be able to do anything to help the student, but I want the college to be aware.

 

What I don’t want is students and families haggling with the sole goal of getting the lowest price possible.  College is a huge investment for families, second only to buying a home, and cost is an important consideration, but the real issue is the relative value of the college experience among the various options a student has. 

 

Buying socks at Walmart or Costco should not be the model for choosing a college.  The college process may seem bizarre, but it shouldn’t resemble a bazaar.      

The New SPGP is Here! The New SPGP is Here!

Whatever happened to comedian Steve Martin’s career?  Last week I had the television on, barely paying attention, until I saw an ad that featured a guy who looked a lot like, maybe even exactly like, Steve Martin.  At first I thought that the ad, promoting a new online class on comedy to be taught by none other than Steve Martin, was a comedy bit, but I never saw a punch line, so either the ad is serious or else the humor was so subtle I missed it.  The company promoting the course, Master Class, looks legit, offering online courses taught by celebrities ranging from cooking taught by Gordon Ramsey to tennis taught by Serena Williams, and now comedy taught by Steve Martin.

 

We all know that fame and celebrity are fleeting, that in the age of YouTube and social media Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” may last three minutes and 48 seconds.  One minute you’re the next big thing, playing a banjo and cracking jokes with an arrow through your head, then hosting Saturday Night Live and starring in serious films, and before you know it you are teaching an online class on comedy.  What’s left, being in the cast of Celebrity Apprentice or Dancing With the Stars?

 

If indeed Steve Martin’s career is in decline, it may have started with the movie, “The Jerk.”  In the most famous scene from that movie, he announced with exuberance that “The new phone book is here!  The new phone book is here!” It is out of homage to that scene that I devote this post to announcing that “The new SPGP is here! The new SPGP is here!”

 

A little over a year ago NACAC appointed a Steering Committee on Admission Practices to review and revise the organization’s Statement of Principles of Good Practice.  The Steering Committee consists of nineteen members and is chaired by Todd Rinehart from the University of Denver, past chair of the National Admission Practices committee.  (In the interest of full disclosure, I am a member of the Steering committee.)  If Master Class decides to offer a course on the SPGP, Todd would be the ideal choice to teach it.

 

The Steering Committee/Commission approach is one NACAC has used in dealing with other big issues (Bill Fitzsimmons at Harvard chaired a commission on testing ten years ago, and Phil Ballenger from the University of Washington chaired a commission looking into international recruiting issues about five years ago) and in my opinion represents NACAC at its best, bringing multiple respected voices together and giving them time to work on issues that are challenging and controversial.

 

The Steering Committee on Admission Practices was charged with looking at the SPGP with a fresh set of eyes, including:

 

--engaging a cross-section of NACAC members in discussion about the document and what it should represent;

 

--simplifying the document and modernizing its language:

 

--adapting the SPGP so that it sets ethical standards for the changing educational landscape of college admission.

 

What is that changing landscape?  It can be hard to define, although as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about pornography, we know it when we see it.  It is an outgrowth of the tough market conditions that many colleges and universities find themselves in and the pressure on admissions offices to be marketers and salesmen rather than educational counselors. 

 

It also reflects an increasing divide between the college and secondary sides of our profession.  That shows itself in different answers for the sentence completion, “Why doesn’t NACAC…?”  Secondary school counselors are more inclined to finish that question with a request to legislate or regulate [insert admission practice or enrollment strategy], while colleges’ answers tend to congregate around “leave us alone”? 

 

The Steering Committee has developed a working draft of the new document, and has asked for feedback from individual members by April 28.  Presentations about the document and the Steering Committee process will be featured at affiliate conferences throughout the Spring.  I will be presenting next week with Lou Hirsh (current National AP Chair who has done much of the writing of the new document) at the Potomac and Chesapeake conference in Williamsburg.

 

It is my plan to do a series of blog posts (interspersed with posts on other topics) on the new document and some of the ethical issues related to it, but here are some quick thoughts.

 

The proposed SPGP is simpler, if not shorter.  It addresses issues involving transfer admission, international recruitment, and housing deposits in a way the previous document didn’t.

 

The new document is built around ethical principles, at least partly due to my influence.  I have argued before that the SPGP had a lot of rules and very few principles.  The new document is organized around ethical principles including truthfulness, transparency, confidentiality, professional conduct (engaging in respectful discourse and avoiding conflict of interest), and protecting the best interests of students.  Under each broad principle is a section called “Implementation” which includes many of the specific rules that have been part of the SPGP.

 

The other piece in the proposed SPGP is a section devoted to the responsible practice of college admission, covering topics such as application plans, admission cycle dates and deadlines, Wait Lists, transfer admission, and the use of international agents for recruitment purposes.  The document also includes a glossary defining admission terms.

 

The other significant change is that the new SPGP eliminates the distinction between mandatory practices and best practices.  Everything included in the new document will be considered mandatory and subject to enforcement.  One early Steering Committee discussion was about whether NACAC should even try to enforce ethical practices, given that many other professional associations have ethics statements that are aspirational but not enforced.  There was a strong consensus among committee members and affiliate leaders that NACAC should continue to enforce its ethical principles.

 

Obviously attempting to come to agreement on the principles guiding the day-to-day practice of college admission is a challenging process, and all of us may not agree on what’s included or what’s omitted.  I’m proud of the work that the Steering Committee has done, and proud of the objective to create a document that protects both students and institutions and also makes a statement about what our profession stands for.  I urge you to read the draft and submit your comments by April 28.

 

 

 

 

The Real March Madness

The basketball extravaganza known as “March Madness” has come to an end.  Before you rush off to remind me that the Semifinals and Final (otherwise known as the “Final Four”) have yet to be played, please allow me to point out that the remaining games will take place not in March but in April.  “April Madness” doesn’t have the same lilt or ring to it, which is why the NCAA hasn’t trademarked it along with “March Madness” and “Final Four.”   

 

I have always loved college basketball, especially when played by real college students rather than the rent-a-pros who treat college as a sabbatical between high school and the NBA.  I will watch this weekend’s games with interest, although I much prefer the first-round games when I can root for underdogs.  Three of the “Final Four” teams—Gonzaga, Oregon, and South Carolina—are fresh faces but hardly underdogs.

 

Then there is North Carolina.  I had a love/hate relationship with the basketball program at UNC-Chapel Hill long before the academic fraud involving paper courses that involved a significant number of student-athletes.  I used to admire legendary coach Dean Smith and the way his teams played, yet always found myself rooting against them.  That changed when one of my best friends from college married one of Dean Smith’s daughters, making the Carolina coach virtual kin.  After attending the wedding and seeing him in his father-of-the-bride role, it became much harder, but not impossible, to root against him and the Tar Heels.

 

The real madness of March doesn’t take place in basketball arenas but rather in admissions and college counseling offices.  At this time of year I always feel like a contestant in a reality show.  When my students receive good news I feel relief rather than joy, relief to have made it through another episode without being voted off the island.  Is that exhaustion, lack of perspective due to being in the midst of the admissions season, or a college counseling version of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

 

I don’t think that’s just me.  I have talked with several colleagues recently, people who are stars in our profession, who are suffering from a mid-career crisis, questioning whether it’s time to go back to the classroom or time to get out of education altogether.

 

One close friend works in a school where the narrative is “how do we recover from this tragedy?”, the tragedy being this spring’s college results.  The irony is that the perception does not match the reality.  The year has been good at worst and great at best.  The voices of the minority who are disappointed are much louder than the majority who are thrilled.

 

Another friend is living the spring change in title from “Director of College Counseling” to “Director of Blame.”  When college decisions aren’t as desired, it must be the counselor’s fault, and the fact that blunt discussions about the realities of the process have been had doesn’t prevent students and parents from being stunned.  So why is that?

 

One reason is that all of us process the world on two levels, one intellectual and the other emotional.  We may know intellectually that admission to a given institution is a long shot, but emotionally we don’t really believe it, and when the reality hits it hurts at a deep emotional level.  That’s hard for students who don’t have much experience with rejection and failure, and perhaps even harder for parents, who at an unconscious level may see college admission as validation of their success as a parent.

 

The other reason is that, at least in independent schools, there is a belief, or maybe a hope, that college counselors are like Hollywood agents, able to cut deals for their students.  I try to dispel that “suburban legend” by confronting it directly with my parents, and it always draws laughter, but the laughter is nervous.

 

For me the biggest frustration each spring is the widespread and growing collegiate worship at the altar of selectivity.  Early in my career I remember a legendary Ivy League admissions dean making the comment that “the admissions process is rational, but not necessarily fair.”  Another Director of Admissions from a Little Ivy expressed his belief that if a student has the right kind of credentials and applies to enough highly-selective schools, he or she will end up with a reasonable option.   

 

I’m not sure either of those is true today.  The gospel of selectivity is a cousin to prosperity theology, where wealth is a consequence of virtue.  The admissions equivalent is that selectivity=quality.  That unexamined assumption underlies the U.S. News and World Report college rankings and drives many of the unsavory games that colleges feel compelled to play.

 

I’m happy for all the colleges bragging about their record application numbers and their 2-3% admit rates in regular admission and sad for my students who are victims of the quest for selectivity.  It is true that they are not entitled to admission to a certain school or group of schools, and that they will have a good college experience wherever they end up.  It is also true that being disappointed is good preparation for adulthood.  But I worry that we have created a system where admission has become random rather than rewarding merit.  The long-term result is societal disillusionment with the college admissions process and lack of trust in our profession.  As a counselor there are certain schools I no longer recommend because they want my students’ applications, but not the students themselves.

 

The marketing expert Seth Godin did a TED talk entitled “This is Broken,” highlighting things and processes that are poorly designed.  At this time of year I wonder if the college admissions process is broken.  Do admission conventions like Early Decision still make sense?  If more colleges are measuring demonstrated interest, should we be more intentional about the role interest plays and how students demonstrate it?  Should we redesign the college process to look more like the matching process that medical residency programs use? 

 

The psychologist Michael Thompson once wrote that the college admissions process can make normal people act nutty and nutty people act quite crazy.  I’m trying to determine which of those categories my March madness belongs in.     

Incentive Compensation

Several weeks ago I received a phone call from an admissions dean friend with an ethics question.  If this were a movie trailer rather than a blog devoted to the ethics of college admissions, I might describe the question as “ripped from today’s headlines.”

 

The dean works for one of the myriad of small liberal-arts colleges that are tuition driven, whose very existence is dependent on its admissions office achieving enrollment targets.  Enrolling the freshman class is never going to be easy, but the dean is a pro, an institutional icon, with a staff that does a remarkable job representing the college year-in and year-out, and as a result the college is holding its own as much as any small liberal-arts college these days.

 

The consequence of that success is that the college, for budgetary reasons, has set an ambitious freshman class goal, above anything the college has previously achieved.  As you might expect, the admissions staff has been under great pressure to bring in the freshman class, and the dean wants to support the staff and reward them for meeting goals.

 

The dean’s question was what kinds of rewards are appropriate and which are in conflict with the ban on incentive compensation in the NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice.  Can a college give a staff member a bonus for reaching an enrollment goal?  The word on the street was that competitor colleges are doing exactly that.  If such a bonus is impermissible, what about adding an amount to the following year’s salary, or paying off student loans?

 

The relevant section in the SPGP is I. A. 3. a., which states that:

 

            “Members will be compensated in the form of a fixed salary, rather than commissions or bonuses based on the number of students recruited.”

 

The idea that admissions professionals should be compensated by salary rather than on a commission basis is as old as the Statement of Principles of Good Practice itself, and is in fact the very first statement in the earliest version of the SPGP I’ve seen.  It reflects the principle that college admissions and college counseling are a profession rather than a business, that we are educators and not salesmen.

 

The prohibition on per capita compensation extends beyond the SPGP.  It is also part of U.S. Federal law.  A 1992 amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965 prohibited colleges and universities eligible for federal financial-aid funds from paying commissions, bonuses, or other incentives for recruiters based on the number of students they recruit.  In 2010 the Department of Education issued regulations for improving the integrity of federal student aid programs, regulations intended to respond to abuses in the for-profit college sector. Those regulations included the following statement on incentive compensation:

 

            “Institutions will not provide any commission, bonus, or other incentive payment based in any part, directly or indirectly, upon success in securing enrollments or the award of financial aid.”

 

Of course the incentive compensation issue was a major part of the discussion about the use of agents to help colleges recruit international students in certain parts of the world.  Per capita compensation is a common, and economical, way for American colleges to contract with agents, and NACAC’s decision to allow colleges to pay agents per head to recruit internationally, albeit with conditions intended to ensure “accountability, transparency, and integrity,” remains controversial.  I have talked before about the ethical tension between ideals and pragmatism, and allowing agents to be paid per head was a compromise recognizing the complex nature of international recruitment and the lack of an infrastructure for college counseling in many parts of the world.

 

Let’s return to the dean’s dilemma (“Dean’s Dilemma” would be a perfect title for a drab novel set in academia).  Which kinds of staff rewards are legitimate, and which are questionable?

 

My response to the dean was that it is perfectly legitimate to give a bonus to a staff member, as long as the bonus is not tied to meeting a particular enrollment goal or area target, but I also wanted to consult with two friends who are also supporters of this blog.  They also happen to be the current Chair of the NACAC Admission Practices Committee and his immediate predecessor, Lou Hirsh and Todd Rinehart.  In addition to the SPGP expertise, both have experience running an admissions office, Lou at the University of Delaware before his retirement and Todd currently at the University of Denver.

 

Both gave similar answers.  Part of being a good manager is motivating staff members to achieve goals and then validating and rewarding them when the office finds success.  Both commented that both salary adjustments and bonuses are legitimate forms of reward, although Lou added as an option “the catered gourmet meal with expensive wine pairings for the entire staff.”  That’s even better than the box of Cheez-It’s I would have gladly accepted in my admissions days (or daze).

 

Lou and Todd cited two tests for determining whether a staff reward is within the spirit of the SPGP.  The first is whether the basis for the reward is holistic, not tied to the number of students an individual staff member recruits.  Todd commented,

 

A staff member may have a goal to increase applications and/or deposits in a certain territory, but focus can also be paid to how many schools they visit, fairs covered, communications to students, applications reviewed, and other duties like campus visit programs/marketing materials/social media campaigns/tour guide programs/etc., (and if they completed these tasks within stated deadlines, and within our program budgets). Most counselors have responsibilities outside of territory management, and chances are if apps and deposits are increasing, so is their work in these other areas, which can be rewarded for having a successful year.

 

Todd documents and recognizes all of the areas of responsibility as part of the annual performance review.

 

The second test is whether a reward is tied to the success of an individual or the success of the team.  Lou commented,

 

That’s an important distinction. Staff members can contribute to their meeting their targets in all sorts of ways:
 

· The folks in processing responded more speedily to inquiries and other requests.

· Campus visit programs were better organized, and the tour guides were better trained.

· The counselors visited more high schools, attended more college fairs, and did a better job of following up with the students they met.

· The office valued teamwork. If a colleague was overwhelmed with an important office project, someone always volunteered to help out to ensure that the project was successful.

· Most important of all: none of the counselors was under pressure to recruit (and admit) each and every student they encountered. If the college wasn’t a good fit for a student, they could say so. The goal was never to recruit students at all costs. Rather, it was to help the office do a better job at presenting its case to prospective students and at counseling them through the admission and enrollment process.

One sure sign that a dean is violating the SPGP is if the bonus is available only to the staff who come indirect contact with students and parents and not to the support staff.

 

College admission is an on-going battle between its aspiration as a profession and the reality that higher education is an industry.  Each of us fights that battle in daily skirmishes, and the choices we make matter.  I’m glad my admission dean friend is sensitive to the care, validation, and well-being of staff members, and even more glad with the commitment to do it the right way.

 

 

      

Maintaining Ideals

How do we uphold our values while at the same time dealing with the demands of our work?  How do we maintain equilibrium between our ideals and our day-to-day realities?  How do we keep what we do from becoming who we are?

 

Those questions are existential, as old as the concept of work itself. Each of us answers them intentionally or by default on a daily basis.  But I have found myself thinking about them over the past couple of months as the result of an e-mail I received just before Christmas.

 

The correspondent was a school counselor who recently changed jobs, moving from an affluent independent school to a suburban public high school. She wrote that she struggles every day with a tension I wrote about back in November in the post, “College Admission as Resume Building.” 

 

Here is the part of the post that prompted her to write:

 

“As a college counselor, it’s my responsibility to provide my students with information about the realities of the college process, even if I find those realities repugnant.  At the same time, as a human being, should I enable a process that is in conflict with my values?”

 

Here is the rest of the e-mail, with minor edits:

 

“You mention that you don’t face that dilemma daily; unfortunately I do because I used to work for an independent school where many of my students were affluent, well-connected and heavily coached.  Recently I changed jobs and am now working for a public high school located in an affluent community that is home to multiple top-notch private secondary schools.  I know what my counterparts are doing and what I am not.  I like that in my current job I do not give my students as much hand-holding as I did previously.  Their words are more theirs and theirs alone.  I also appreciate that many of my current colleagues are not former admission officers because they still believe the best student gets in.  To me, this all seems more authentic and more the way it should be.  However, I am still upset.  The inequity bothers me greatly.  I am torn with knowing how the game is played versus how it should be played.  To this end, I put forth my questions to you:  What can I do that I haven’t done already to make this process fair (even when it never was to begin with), and how do I sustain my values even in the face of a changing world?”

 

The e-mail touched me, making me both feel guilty for the privilege I enjoy and also grateful and proud that there are colleagues on the front lines struggling with those questions.  I promised to devote a post to her questions, and it has taken me longer than hoped because I’m not sure I have good answers.

 

The philosophical debate about whether ideals or realities are more important goes back at least as far as Plato and Aristotle.  Ethics might be defined as the merger of the two.  Ethical principles are expressions of ideals, of what should be the case, and yet any ethical theory that can’t be applied practically has no value.

 

So how do we sustain our values/live our ideals in a world that may not seem to value or reward them?

 

It starts with being clear about what your guiding values are.  Throughout my career I have been guided by a belief that helping young people make decisions about their futures is a noble calling, with the college search and application processes being important developmental stages in the transition from adolescence to adulthood.  There are certainly moments when I wonder if that belief is naïve or outdated, but it serves as the foundation for my counseling.

 

I also believe, and am not hesitant to say, that the college process is not ultimately about getting into college.  It’s about readiness for college (which assumes that college is an experience rather than a credential), and it’s about discernment, about students figuring out who they are and what they hope to accomplish with their lives.  As counselors our job is to be a trail guide for that journey.

 

Having spent most of my life working in an independent school (something I would never have envisioned), I don’t accept that “hand-holding” or “coaching” or “packaging” are norms for independent school college counselors.  There are probably parents who think that is what they are paying for with their tuition, but I see my responsibility as using my experience and professional judgment to help the student develop independence, not remove the need for independence.

 

That leads to the second piece in sustaining one’s values, finding a work environment that supports or is consonant with our values.  Most of us talk to students about the importance of fit in choosing a college, but fit is even more important in a work environment.  It is hard to pursue one’s vision of college admission or college counseling when the rest of the institution is on a different page.  I used to believe that I could make a difference no matter where I worked, and I still believe that to some extent, but after working in one dysfunctional institution I realized that being in the wrong environment takes a toll on one’s psyche and one’s soul.

 

How does one help make the process more fair and how does one deal with knowing how the game is played versus how it should be played?  I’m not sure I have great answers.  There is inequity in the college admissions process just as there is inequity in society and inequity in life.

 

I have never been a member of a twelve-step program (but might need to be by the time I end my career), but I have found myself referring to the Serenity Prayer as having real relevance for college admissions and college counseling. 

 

The Serenity Prayer talks about the wisdom of knowing the difference between things over which you have control and those you can’t control.  I can’t control the changing nature of the college process and the games colleges feel pressured to play, but I can help my students and parents understand the reality of the college admission process.  I can help them navigate a process that can be confusing, and I can dispel myths, whether those myths be grounded in naivete or grounded in sophistication through trying to game the system.

 

One of my philosophical heroes, William James, talked about how each of our lives is a scientific experiment in how to live.  We make choices and decisions without knowing what is right, and every choice involves moral risk. We have to make choices based on what we value and what we believe, and we will probably never in this life be certain about whether we have chosen/lived correctly. 

 

To my correspondent, the very fact that you are asking those questions and struggling with those existential issues gives me hope for our profession.  Don’t give up your ideals, and keep fighting the good fight.

 

 

 

 

Rescinding a Rec

Is it ever appropriate for a teacher or counselor to rescind a college recommendation letter?  That question is among the issues at the heart of a Massachusetts school controversy that has attracted attention from publications including the Boston Globe and Huffington Post.

 

Just before Thanksgiving a student at Stoughton High School in Massachusetts made a swastika out of tape while decorating the halls after school and propped it against a recycling bin in a classroom.  Another student told him it was offensive and to throw it out.  The creator of the swastika did, but not before making a comment about Hitler’s killing of Jews during the Holocaust.

 

After local police determined that the incident did not constitute a hate crime, the school disciplined the students responsible.  But students weren’t the only ones disciplined arising from this incident.  Two Stoughton teachers received letters of reprimand for talking about the situation with colleagues and students, and a third has been suspended for contacting a college, rescinding her letter of recommendation for the student who made the swastika, and telling the college her reason for doing so.

 

I was unaware of this issue until receiving an e-mail early last week from Scott Jaschik, the Editor of InsideHigherEd.com, who was writing a story about the incident and wanted my take on the ethical and practical ramifications of rescinding a letter of recommendation and punishing a teacher for rescinding.

 

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn that I responded with an essay answer to what might have been a short-answer question.  There are multiple issues in this situation germane to this blog.

 

First is the role of the recommendation letter in the college admissions process.  Recommendations are part of the student’s “voice,” helping put a human face on a student’s application.  A recommendation serves as the admissions equivalent of a legal brief, making a case for the student.  It also serves as a footnote for the student’s transcript, providing context and explanation.

 

What it should never be is an indictment.  I have written more than 2000 in my career, and I have never intentionally written one that is negative.  I say “intentionally” because my career almost ended before it began due to a recommendation I wrote that came across as more negative than I intended.

 

The student in question had a modest high school record at a good school, and in a self-evaluation she admitted that she had not worked that hard.  I had worked in admissions at the college level and thought that was true of most high-school kids and included the quote, naively seeing it as evidence of potential for better work in college.  I learned the hard way that not everyone read it the same way after one university, seeing that the application fee was missing, returned the entire application package to the student, including my letter of recommendation.  (How’s that for an ethical issue?)  Fortunately I was able to rewrite the letter, repair the damage with the student and family, and salvage my career.  The student was admitted everywhere she applied.

 

But what happens when the expectation that a recommendation will be positive comes into conflict with the truth?  The value of any recommendation consists partly in the credibility of the writer.  I tell teachers that they are not obligated to write a letter and should decline if they have reservations about their ability to put the student in a positive light. 

 

As a counselor I don’t have that option, so I always write the most positive evaluation I can.  Every recommendation tells a story.  There is the story of accomplishment, the story of growth, the story of adversity overcome, and the story of potential. Obviously some of those stories are easier to tell.  

 

Does that mean that a letter of recommendation is the truth but not necessarily the whole truth?  Perhaps, but in small schools we sometimes know our students too well and may not have perspective on how they compare to the larger applicant pool.  My rule of thumb is if you can’t say something nice, say nothing.

 

But what happens if subsequent events render a recommendation letter no longer accurate?  Does a teacher or counselor have the right to rescind a letter?  I believe the answer is yes from an ethical perspective, because the writer owns the recommendation (I am not aware of legal precedents regarding who owns the recommendation).

 

I have personally never considered rescinding a recommendation I had written, but remember talking to a colleague at another school a number of years ago who was thinking about doing so.  It would take something egregious on the part of the student, and I would simply inform the college that “My recommendation is no longer valid” without offering any explanation.  I would assume that the statement itself would raise a red flag.

 

So what behavior is egregious enough to take this step?  In the Stoughton case I don’t have enough information to know whether the student making the swastika out of tape is just being a stupid teenager (not to downplay the offensiveness of the symbol) or is a potential danger to both his high school and college communities.  Stupidity (or my being offended) is not cause enough to rescind.

 

That seems to be a point of contention in this incident.  The Stoughton police determined that this didn’t meet the definition of hate crime, but it is clear that a number of teachers felt that the student wasn’t sufficiently disciplined for what they considered hate speech.   The three teachers were disciplined after the parent of the student who made the swastika contended that the boy was being targeted by teachers.

 

Should a teacher be disciplined for rescinding a letter of recommendation?  In this case it appears the teacher was suspended more for volunteering the reason for rescinding than the rescinding itself.

 

The fact that two other teachers were also disciplined suggests larger issues within the school.  These kinds of incidents are teachable moments, and if teachers are prohibited from addressing them it leaves a void of rumor and innuendo that can make the issue much worse inside the school and in the community.  I also wonder about the school’s procedure for reporting disciplinary offenses to colleges.  If a school policy is to report nothing, then the only option a teacher would have to alert college officials about a student who might be dangerous would be through rescinding a recommendation.

 

Is this an isolated incident, or another example that offensive speech will come out of the closet in the Trump Era?  Time will tell.

 

Physics Lesson

I was reminded once again last week why I majored in philosophy and not physics.  I have always gravitated toward the humanities, and when I graduated from college opted to receive the Bachelor of Arts degree rather than the Bachelor of Science degree (which I was eligible for because I had completed Calculus), largely because I didn’t think it would look good to have a B.S. in Philosophy.

 

In college I satisfied the science requirement by taking the Astronomy/Geology sequence.  What may be most telling are the connections I drew between what I learned in the Geology course and my real-world experience and previous knowledge.  When we studied the geological feature “drumlins” I was reminded of a golf course of the same name located near Syracuse, New York (apparently now owned by Syracuse University).  In addition, almost every Geology class made me remember an episode from the old Superman television series.

 

My clearest memory from my Physics class back in high school was the day I dressed up to look like the teacher and taught a lesson.  It was a big hit, with a crowd assembled in the hall looking into the class, but if only I had paid more attention to the content of the course and less to my act, I might have avoided the mistake I made in the last post.

 

The last post was about being an eyewitness to a possible violation of the Statement of Principles of Good Practice, and in the midst of trying to get a cheap laugh with the interposition of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Einstein’s Bagels, I stated that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states that the presence of an observer changes the reality itself.  I didn’t get the cheap laugh, and I didn’t get the Theory of Relativity right.

 

The post was selected last Wednesday by InsideHigherEd.com for its “Around the Web” feature.  Recognition by that excellent website is always gratifying and appreciated.  Later that day, I received an e-mail from Dr. Fred Gray, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.  He had linked to the blog through InsideHigherEd.com, and he was writing to point out politely that my understanding of physics and Einstein were both wrong.

 

What I mistakenly referred to as relativity turns out to be quantum mechanics, to be precise the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the scientist behind the theory was not Einstein but Niels Bohr.  (I am proud that I recognized the name Niels Bohr and that I wasn’t tempted to make puns based on his last name or the fact that Copenhagen is a brand of smokeless tobacco.)  Not only is it not Einstein’s theory, but Fred Gray reports that Einstein fought against it on philosophical grounds and never fully accepted it.

 

I am grateful to Professor Gray for educating me about the difference and for giving me permission to credit him for helping correct my mistake.  In his e-mail he requested that I feel free to send anyone interested in studying physics, or anything else, at a small Jesuit college in Denver to look at Regis.  I hope readers of the blog will join me in doing so.

 

ECA will return next week with a post about a subject I know more about than Physics.

 

 

 

 

Eyewitness

They say that eyewitness accounts are inherently unreliable.  Of course we don’t know who “they” are, so that assertion may itself be unreliable.

 

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity apparently has nothing to do with bagels but states (if I understand it at all) that the presence of an observer actually changes the nature of the reality itself.  I recall a digression in one of George Plimpton’s books about sports where he writes about a guy whose job consisted of wearing a Mr. Peanut costume and walking around Times Square.  Because that doesn’t come close to being strange compared with much of what takes place around Times Square, he had the opportunity to people watch in a way that only a Mr. Peanut costume allows.  Couples argued and broke up in his presence unaware that he could hear everything they were saying, and he witnessed muggings and other crimes, imagining that witnesses asked by police if they saw anything suspicious might respond, “Well, there was this giant peanut.”

 

I have spent enough hours watching Law and Order reruns to know that four witnesses to the same event may have four very different accounts of what took place.  That can make it challenging to piece together a picture or narrative of an event after the fact.

 

I recently sat in on a disciplinary hearing involving unauthorized use of a cell phone in class.  There were minor discrepancies about timeline and about whether the class was reading or watching a video, but one witness testified that a sandwich was being eaten, introducing evidence at odds with all other testimony.  I wonder how Einstein would explain that sandwich.

 

Eyewitnesses to a crime or accident often experience a sense of disbelief or unreality, questioning whether what they just saw or experienced actually happened.  I experienced that myself just before Christmas when I thought I might have witnessed first-hand a violation of the NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice.

 

I was at a lunch for counselors sponsored by a college that my students regularly attend.  It’s a good place with a success story to share, but it also tries too hard.  I appreciate institutions that are self-aware and comfortable enough with their identity that they share both their strengths and their challenges in presentations to counselors, because no place is perfect.  This school chooses to present a picture that is free of any blemishes whatsoever, such that the lunch is more infomercial than discussion, and I always feel that every two minutes they ask, “Have we mentioned how good we are?”  I want to tell them that 1) Yes, they have; 2) I’m already convinced; and 3) Schools that know they’re good don’t feel the need to convince others constantly.

 

Early in the presentation I thought I heard the Dean of Admissions say that merit scholarships would be awarded only to Early Decision and Early Action applicants, and that any counselor with a regular-decision applicant interested in a merit scholarship could contact the Dean and have the student’s application moved to Early Action.  I wasn’t the only one.  The other counselors at my table exchanged glances.  Had he actually said that?  Wasn’t that a violation of the SPGP?

 

It turns out it isn’t, at least technically.  I considered filing a complaint with the Admissions Practices Committee at both NACAC and my regional affiliate (Potomac and Chesapeake), but first consulted with two friends with AP committee experience.

 

They pointed out that the relevant section of the SPGP, II.B.4 under Mandatory Practices, states that postsecondary members will “not offer exclusive incentives that provide opportunities for students applying or admitted Early Decision that are not available to students admitted under other admission options.” The SPGP deals only with incentives for Early Decision candidates. Because Early Action applicants are also eligible for merit aid, the Dean’s statement does not violate the letter of the SPGP.

 

But does it violate the spirit of the SPGP, which is that colleges and universities should not discriminate against applicants based on how and when they apply (as long as they apply by an application deadline) and that there shouldn’t be incentives to coerce students to apply or enroll?

 

That raises some larger questions.  Aren’t most marketing practices attempting to convince students to apply or enroll?  Where is the line between marketing and coercion?  Are the assumptions many of us in the profession hold about college selection being about free choice outdated in today’s competitive higher education environment?

 

My judgment and suspicion may be clouded by the fact that a couple of years back the President of the same institution announced at the same gathering that the only students admitted would be those who applied either Early Decision or Early Action.  Both deadlines had already passed, causing the Admissions Office to backtrack and scramble.  It also raised a larger question.  Why have regular decision if you don’t intend to use it?  Why not rebrand Early Action as regular decision?   

 

Both of my Admission Practices contacts suggested that the institution could have avoided even the appearance of wrongdoing by establishing a scholarship priority deadline, even if that deadline happens to be the same as the Early Action deadline.  That gives students interested in merit scholarship consideration a clear deadline and does not tie scholarship consideration to applying early.

 

I ultimately decided to contact the Dean directly rather than go through the AP complaint process, and he replied quickly and thoughtfully.  The institution has instituted a new priority deadline for scholarships this year, which was not clear on the college website.  That was partially in response to scholarship funds becoming depleted the last couple of years by a stronger early pool.  Whether he misspoke, or we misheard, the reality is that students who apply regular decision are at a disadvantage for merit scholarship funds.  The priority deadline should help families (and counselors) understand that reality.

 

Three conclusions from this experience:

 

1)    Being an eyewitness is not all it’s cracked up to be.

2)    I suspect we’ll see more admission practices that are not necessarily wrong, but not necessarily right.

3)    I may start wearing a Mr. Peanut costume to all campus visits and counselor breakfasts/lunches.

 

 

 

 

Off-Duty

My first job after college was working as an Admissions Counselor for my alma mater.  I was the junior member of a four-person staff (Director included) that was described by another college’s Admissions Dean as the best admissions staff he had ever seen.  In our first year together, we brought in a freshman class that was 90 students over budget and also the best class in college history in terms of metrics like SAT scores and class rank.

 

At the end of that year, the Director completed the required administrative evaluation for each of us.  The only thing I remember from the evaluation was that none of us received the top grade, “Exceeds Expectations,” for the category, “Is available for duties as needed.”  His rationale was that we were expected to be available 24/7 and therefore none of us could possibly exceed expectations.

 

That logic seemed as specious then as it does today (although, to be fair, it made enough of an impression that I remember it 40 years later).  But it also introduced me to a question that I struggle with every year during this season.  As college counselors, are we ever “off duty”?

 

I’m obviously not alone in struggling with that question, because I have had several conversations with colleagues around the country who are considering, or being forced to consider, holding office hours during the holiday break to help students complete applications with a January 1 deadline.

 

This may not be the right time to reflect on this topic, coming near the end of a three-month marathon (I believe the operative word is “slog”) where most of my days are consumed with thinking about recommendation letters that must be written and applications that must be processed.  Just last week my office processed close to 150 (those of you who don’t feel sorry because your load was even greater have my sympathy along with a request that you let me wallow in self-pity and not share with me how easy I have it).

 

The demands and rhythms of the college admissions season mean that I come to Christmas break (ECA doesn’t want to show up on Fox News accused of being part of the alleged war against Christmas) exhausted and, quite frankly, unable to truly enjoy the holiday.  In some years (this is one) I don’t even think about Christmas shopping until school closes for the break, and as a result you can imagine the quality and thoughtfulness of my gifts.  In most years, I will get sick between Christmas and New Year’s as my body’s defenses let down their guard.  (I just re-read this paragraph and recognize that I come across as Scroogy or even Grinchy.)

 

In any case, throughout my career my policy has been that the school and the College Counseling Office are closed during the Christmas holiday.  Any school materials that must be sent for applications a January 1 deadline have to be sent prior to the beginning of break, and I begin making daily announcements as soon as we return from Thanksgiving and talk face-to-face with any senior I think has a January 1 deadline that all January 1 giving precise instructions about when applications need to be turned in to my office.  Students can submit their applications at any point before the deadline, but my office will not process application materials during the break.  If students decide to add schools to their list on December 28, that’s fine, but transcripts and recommendations will be sent as soon as school reopens in January.

 

For the most part that policy has worked.  I have never had the experience a close college counseling friend had where a student rang her doorbell on Christmas Eve, just as her family was about to sit down for dinner, bearing not gifts but rather college applications (this was pre-electronic submission).  The policy also doesn’t mean that my office doesn’t work during the break.  My administrative assistant will generally come in for a day or two to finish processing applications while it is quiet, and we review essays and meet with students as needed, but the office, just like the school, is officially closed.

 

This may be another of those areas where the college counseling landscape is changing.  The advent of electronic submission of documents means that we can work from home during a break rather than having to go to the office.  But should we?

 

My school changed from trimesters to semesters seven or eight years ago (is it my imagination or do all schools on semesters wish they were on trimesters, and vice versa?), and one of the negative consequences is that exams are just before Christmas rather than just before Thanksgiving.  That is generally a good thing, but it imposes a greater burden on seniors with January 1 deadlines who have to work on college applications at the same time they are studying for exams.  In the past couple of years I have seen more stress in my students than ever before, and this year I have a couple of good students who seem to have shut down from the college process.  Is that driven by the calendar change, or are we seeing a new generation of students, the product of a new generation of parents?

 

The other generational change that is coming is within our profession.  I have asked before whether the next generation of college counselors and admissions officers will be as committed/neurotic as my generation.  Millennials want a balance between work life and professional life that I admire and think is healthier than I have achieved, but that poses a huge challenge to institutions whose economic model is based on employees who work beyond the contract, who are never off duty.

 

What do those changes mean for my approach to college counseling?  I have always believed that the college process is not just about getting into college, but also about readiness for college.  The application process is about developing the kind of ownership and independence that will lead to success as a college student.  How do we help students develop that ownership and still maintain a safety net?  What is appropriate help, and at what point do we not just help but enable a student in avoiding responsibility?

 

Having once again posed lots of questions and provided few answers, I am going off duty as a blogger if not as a college counselor, returning in 2017.  Thanks for reading.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah/Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or even Festivus, have a wonderful holiday season.

Bias

Is the college admissions process biased, either consciously or unconsciously?  Is the playing field level for all applicants, or are some students advantaged and others disadvantaged by what information colleges ask for, how they ask for it, and when they ask for it? Is an admissions process free from bias even possible?

 

Those questions are far from original, and in fact this blog has discussed issues related to fairness several times.  I’m also not convinced that “bias” is the right word.  But two recent conversations have made me reflect on the biases, assumptions, and unintended consequences attached to the application and admissions processes.

 

The first conversation was with a retired admissions dean whose opinions I trust greatly.  He observed that the admissions process is biased towards kids who are verbal, who are able to write well.  I think that’s true, with possible exception of engineering applicants, but I would also amend his hypothesis to “write well in a certain way.”  The personal essay is a different, and perhaps even peculiar, form of writing, and many students who are perfectly good academic and analytical writers struggle with the personal essay format.

 

Another dean for whom I have great respect but who is nowhere near retirement, Lee Coffin at Dartmouth, has observed that a student’s voice (activities, essays, recommendations) is more important in the admissions process at highly-selective colleges and universities than data (transcript, test scores) because every competitive applicant has superb data, making the voice piece what distinguishes among applicants. 

 

That raises two questions.  How much does a personal essay reveal about applicants, especially when so many personal essays are crafted with so much assistance?  I used to think I could identify a legitimate Ivy candidate just by the depth of thought and creative flair found in their essays, but I’m not as sure today.  The other question is whether the personal essay actually translates into the kind of writing and thinking that a college student will be required to do.

 

The second conversation was with the Executive Director of one of the nation’s leading merit scholarship competitions.  The scholarship recognizes excellence in scholarship, citizenship, and leadership.  Just as almost all the applicants to highly selective institutions have outstanding data, making voice more important, in the scholarship competition all the nominees have outstanding scholarship and citizenship, making leadership the most important of the three supposedly equal “legs.”

 

I wondered if the scholarship foundation was thinking any differently about what signifies leadership.  In her best-selling book, Quiet, Susan Cain argues that the unique leadership strengths of introverts are often overlooked in a culture that values a certain style of leader.  Another scholarship competition has moved away from judging nominees based on resumes and elected leadership positions to looking for evidence of the growth mindset identified by Carol Dweck, defining leadership as making a difference rather than holding office.

 

The answer was that the scholarship process had always recognized that leadership comes in many forms, but the Executive Director also commented that the nature of the scholarship competition is very different from, and potentially alien to, schools with an ethos of modesty and self-deprecation.  The scholarship competition is not necessarily designed this way, but it advantages those who are at best self-confident and at worst self-promoting. 

 

Are there other examples of admissions procedures or conventions that may have unintended consequences?  Much of what passes for merit, particularly heavy reliance on test scores for admission or scholarship consideration, may actually reflect socioeconomic privilege, advantaging those who are already advantaged.  Colleges that admit half their freshman class under Early Decision or Early Action help students from affluent, educated families or who have access to savvy college counseling.

 

Not all the consequences of admission practice may be unintended.  Jerome Karabel’s fascinating history of admission at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, The Chosen, argues that application mainstays such as essays and recommendation letters were put in place back in the 1920’s to make sure that the “right” kind of applicants were admitted to keep the percentage of Jewish students in check, to make admission to college more like admission to a social or country club.

 

Fortunately the admissions process today does not seek to exclude certain groups, although some Asian-American groups would beg to differ.  But admission, particularly in hyper-selective places, is a zero-sum game.  Valuing or giving preference for one type of skill or talent may disadvantage those with a different skill set, and making progress with one type of diversity may hurt a different kind of diversity.

 

Karabel’s history identifies three epochs in the selective college admissions process.  First came Best Student, where the evaluation was based purely on academic preparation.  Then came Best Graduate, where personal qualities assumed greater importance.  The current epoch is Best Class, where the aim of the admissions process is not admitting individuals but rather a class full of differences that helps an institution achieve a variety of institutional goals.

 

Is it time for a new epoch?  I don’t pretend to know the answer, but I hope we will question the admissions process we currently have.  Do we ask the right questions and measure the right qualities?  Do our assumptions stand scrutiny?  Are there subtle, unintended biases?  Do we have an admissions process we’re proud of, or merely one we’re satisfied with?

 

 

College Admission as Resume' Building

Several weeks ago the communications office at my school sent out a news story that caught my eye, especially when viewed through my ECA lens.  The story was about one of our juniors having been selected as a “Richmond Forum Scholar.” 

 

The Richmond Forum is a subscription speaker series, the largest of its kind in the United States, that brings speakers ranging from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to Jane Goodall and Steven Spielberg to Richmond.  Each year the Richmond Forum selects five area high school juniors as “Richmond Forum Scholars” for what the Forum website describes as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” (a description that seems just a bit hyperbolic).  The students selected are essentially interns whose responsibilities include staffing VIP receptions, escorting speakers, introducing speakers to student groups, and additional duties as required.  I’m not sure how selective the program is--my students who have been selected have been great kids, but I’ve also had a couple of great candidates who didn’t get selected.

 

What got my attention was a sentence that listed one of the benefits of being a Richmond Forum Scholar as the opportunity to list it on college applications.  That bothered me, so I walked over to the communications office to talk to the new staff member who had written the story.  It turned out that phrasing had come directly from the Richmond Forum website.

 

It will not surprise those who know me or who read this blog on a regular basis that I am skeptical of the claim that being a Richmond Forum Scholar will provide the promised college admission benefits.  It certainly isn’t a negative in any respect, but is it a plus factor, enhancing one’s chances of being admitted? Is this the kind of thing that impresses admissions officers?

 

I would assume that the students selected for the program have been chosen because they are already outstanding and involved in their schools and community. For none of them will being a Richmond Forum Scholar constitute their most important activity.  Their selection probably doesn’t significantly enhance their extracurricular record or their college chances.

 

But even it was a student’s sole extracurricular commitment, how significant would it be?  It’s a nice experience and an opportunity, although perhaps not once-in-a-lifetime, to meet famous people.  But from what I know of the program, it is in no way compelling. It’s certainly not comparable to curing cancer or winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The greatest college admission benefit of being a Richmond Forum Scholar is not the title, but the fact that you have been selected from a pool of outstanding students from throughout the community.

 

This case begs the kind of larger questions this blog loves to pose.  What is the value of extracurricular activities in the college admission process?  Is quantity of activities important or quality of activities?  Should activities be chosen because of the experience they provide or because they impress admission officers?  And what does it take to impress admission officers?

 

Those questions are relevant because the Richmond Forum is far from the only organization promising, or overpromising, college admission benefits. College admissions advantage seems to be a core marketing strategy for any program aiming to make a living off the anxiety that students and parents experience from the college process.

 

A number of years ago a former parent and Lower School faculty member at my school started a business advising students on summer opportunities, and for several years my Head of School contracted her services.  She was very knowledgeable and had done her research, but I didn’t buy the fundamental premise behind her business, that participating in summer programs would have college admissions benefits. I never found that to be the case.

 

There is as much mythology about the role of extracurricular interests as there is about other parts of the college admissions process.  Several years ago one of my student applying to the Ivies listed 17 different significant activities.  When I advised him to prioritize and cut the list, he said he couldn’t, that all were important. He actually added a couple more at the urging of his mother.  He wanted to send a message about the breadth of his extracurricular interests, and he did, but it was not the message he thought.  Because he cared about everything, he appeared to truly care about nothing.

 

Do some activities carry more value in the admissions process?  A commonly-held belief is that colleges love community service.  That’s true, but probably less true than the days when community service was relatively rare.  Not all community service is equally impressive.  Long-term service is preferable to short-tern service, and there is a clear difference between service that is voluntary, service that fulfills a graduation requirement, and service that is court-mandated.

 

The belief that activities should be chosen because of their college admission value is part of a larger phenomenon.  Is preparing for college (and life) about accumulating experiences or about building a resume?  About substance, or the illusion of substance?

 

Back in the spring, the “Turning the Tide” report produced by the Making Caring Common initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education argued that the college admission process could serve society by valuing students who want to serve the common good rather than enhance their resume.  That’s a laudable goal.  But it ignores the more important question, which is whether the current admissions process, especially at super-selective institutions, encourages and rewards students who are about building resumes.  And, if so, what are the implications for those institutions?  

 

 

 

Suppose that a certain activity or honor by itself had the ability to move a student’s application into the acceptance pile.  Should we advise our students to pursue that activity?  I’m torn, with cognitive and moral dissonance.  As a college counselor, it’s my responsibility to provide my students with information about the realities of the college process, even if I find those realities repugnant.  At the same time, as a human being, should I enable a process that is in conflict with my values? 

 

Thankfully, that’s not a dilemma I face on a daily basis.  After my visit to the communications office, the reference to the college admissions benefits of being chosen as a Richmond Forum Scholar was deleted from the news story.  

 

The China Syndrome, Part 2

The most recent ECA post dealt with issues arising from the Chinese company Dipont bringing admissions officers from prestigious American colleges and universities to China for a summer workshop on applying to American colleges.  The ethical issues had to do with paying travel expenses and, in some cases, an honorarium, and Dipont’s marketing the admissions officers’ attendance as evidence of a special relationship the company had with those colleges.  (That post was featured in Inside Higher Ed’s “Around the Web” section, recognition that always means a lot.)

 

After the post was published, I received an interesting e-mail from Judy Oberlander from the Ojai Valley School in California.  Judy reported that she had been among a group of high school counselors invited by Dipont to come to China and work both with students and counselors.  Judy has given me permission to share her perspective on her Dipont experience, and it appears below, with minor edits.

 

 

I've been following the news about Dipont with interest because I (and several other US high school counselors) spent several summers in China working at a Dipont summer camp for Chinese high school students.  We were initially recruited by Bruce Hammond, who quit Dipont in June of 2010, just before we started the summer program.  Bruce was upset about dishonesty and cheating in China.  I had several phone conversations with him.  He assured us that he felt that we would be treated well and that the camp was a legitimate operation. That first summer nine of us went to China, five to Nanjing and four to Shenzhen.  I returned for the next two summers to Shanghai along with several of the original counselors and some others as well. 

 

I found the camp to be fairly well run (although things are always different in China), the people were nice, and the students were almost all great kids.  We were each responsible for 14 -16 students for two weeks, taking them through the application process, writing essays, practicing interviews, making college lists, the whole thing.  We each worked with 2 or 3 counselors from Chinese high schools so that they could observe a college counseling program.  These counselors were supposed to be learning from us so that they could work with students in their schools on applying for admission to US/UK schools.  All of the Chinese counselors I worked with were great people, and I still keep in touch with some of them as well as with some of my former students. 

 

As part of the program we had a steady stream of college reps from "name" schools who presented their spiel and then sat in on the classes and talked with students.  They were all nice people, and I never got the impression that they thought they were being used or that the students thought they were getting special access.   However, we (US counselors) did notice that the college reps always seemed to be treated like visiting celebrities while we were just everyday counselors.  We thought it was funny because most of those reps were not directors; mostly they were regular admissions reps who did not have a lot of clout.  One friend (now a Director of Admission) visited some Dipont schools around the same time and she told me that her institution had been approached by Dipont with what sounded like expectations of special treatment in admissions.  That was the end of their relationship. 

 

Dipont has a relationship with a number of public schools in China.  They established an AP/IB curriculum for students who did not intend to stay in China for college but who wanted to go to another country.  They recruited teachers from the US, Canada, and the UK.  By 2012 (my last summer) they had hired a number of US high school counselors to work in their schools.  The counselors that I knew were committed to helping the Chinese students make honest applications.  I have heard that these programs are controversial because admission to these public schools is very selective, but admission to the AP/IB programs is not.

 

I had a wonderful time those three summers and I learned a lot.  So I was very disappointed to learn that Dipont too was caught up in the frenzy.  A number of people that I know worked for them full time, and it is sad to know that the company has acquired this reputation.

 

One funny thing happened during the summer of 2011.  I was at the Shanghai airport with another friend waiting for our flight to Los Angeles and we ran into the Directors of Admission from three UC schools waiting for the same plane.  They had been at a camp sponsored by another company.  I'm sure they were a big draw.  I have no idea how much money they were paid.  I wish Dipont had offered me first class airfare, but I was just happy that they paid for my trip and put me up in a hotel for the duration of the camp.

 

I want to make it clear and I, and most people I know, are a bit dubious about the way things are done in China.  I think Dipont was really trying to do a good thing; establishing the AP/IB programs is one of those good things.  And they really seemed to want us US counselors to share how we do things with Chinese counselors so they understood how the applications work.

 

 

I appreciate Judy sharing her experience and her perspective on Dipont.

 

 

Dipont Circle

My first opportunity to serve our profession (beyond my daily counseling role) was as the assistant program chair for the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling conference in the spring of 1991.  I had no idea that role would set me on a path that would eventually lead to serving as President of NACAC.

 

The conference was in Wilmington, Delaware, and the committee chair (my friend Lucy Neale Duke, currently a counselor at the McDonough School outside Baltimore) and I proposed that the conference theme be “Better Living Through Counseling,” a take-off on “Better Living Through Chemistry,” the slogan of Delaware’s leading corporate entity, DuPont. Unfortunately, the other members of the conference planning committee did not share our enthusiasm.

 

I was reminded of that theme several weeks ago when I saw that a Reuters investigation was alleging that a company had bought access to admissions officers at a number of top American colleges. At first glance I thought the company in question was DuPont, and wondered why a chemical company would diversify into the world of college admissions, but upon further review (as they always say after NFL replays), I realized that the company in question was not DuPont but the Chinese company Dipont.

 

The controversy surrounding Dipont is three-fold.  At a basic level Dipont has been paying admissions officers from prestigious American colleges and universities, covering travel expenses and in some cases providing cash honoraria, to come to China for a summer program advising Chinese students who are Dipont clients on how to apply to American colleges.  At a more complex level Dipont advertises itself as having a special relationship with those colleges, promising that the admissions officers become “exclusive consultants” to Dipont clients.  And the ultimate underlying issue is that Dipont has been accused by former employees of encouraging behavior ranging from writing application essays for clients to changing high school transcripts.

 

Dipont (or should we call it Dipont-gate?) is, in other words, a textbook case study of the ethical challenges of recruiting in China.  American colleges and universities look to China as a source of bright, full-pay students, but entering the Chinese market means entering a game where it is hard to know whether you are a player or being played.

 

Let’s attempt to sort through the ethical issues present in this case.

 

First of all, there is nothing necessarily wrong or questionable in an admissions officer having his or her travel reimbursed to attend the eight-day admissions workshop or serve as a presenter.  That’s common practice in the United States.  What is questionable is that it’s not clear that Dipont’s compensation was limited to travel reimbursement.  According to the Reuters article, during the past two summers each admissions person received compensation worth $4500, with the option of receiving business-class airfare or economy-class airfare plus a cash honorarium.  According to a Dipont consultant, one-quarter to one-third went for the second option.  When an honorarium was paid, it was ordinarily done in cash, usually with $100 bills.  I probably watch too much Law and Order, but payment by C-note is generally reserved for activities that are either illicit or likely to embarrass your mother. 

 

Ignoring the method of payment, is there anything wrong with an admissions officer accepting an honorarium in addition to being reimbursed for travel?  That’s a more complicated question.  The NACAC Statement of Principles of Good Practice does not speak to that issue (although in light of the Reuters article, that may be about to change).  But should an admissions officer receive payment, whether by check or in cash, for presenting at an event such as that workshop sponsored by Dipont?

 

That requires answering another question.  Was Dipont contracting with admissions officers as individuals or as institutional representatives?  In other words, were the individuals invited because of their personal experience and expertise as college counseling professionals, or were they invited because of where they worked?  If their presence at the Dipont event was tied to their knowledge of the college admissions process and not their institutional affiliation, then accepting payment for services rendered is appropriate, as long as Dipont is advertising them as representing their institution.  If they were invited because of their institutional role, then their remuneration should come from their employer, as part of their official duties on behalf of the college or university.  If they were paid by both, is there potential for conflict of interest?

 

I think it’s clear what Dipont’s motivation was.  It was marketing access rather than knowledge.  The admission officers’ presence at the Dipont workshop implied a special relationship for Dipont clients at the colleges and universities represented.   

 

From an institutional standpoint, are the colleges and universities involved complicit in sending the “special relationship” message?  Should they have known better?  Several years ago, when NACAC was considering expanding its college fair program to China, there were clear red flags.  Representatives from the State Department advised members of the NACAC Board not to allow anyone in China to take their photo, lest the photo appear as evidence of NACAC sponsorship or support of some event or agency? An American working in China responded to concerns about fraud and misrepresentation by saying, “Of course they are going to cheat.” Did the desire for easy access into the Chinese market override concerns about ethics or propriety?

 

That question must be asked because the Reuters article quotes eight former Dipont employees who report that the company’s business practices are at the forefront of the application and credentials fraud that is endemic in China.  That is ironic in that a non-profit set up by Dipont, the Council for American Culture and Education, has given $750,000 to the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice at the University of Southern California to create a program to combat fraud among Chinese applicants to American colleges.

 

Is dealing with fraud a consequence, unintended or recognized, of trying to recruit in China?  Can we maintain our values and ethical standards in a culture where the norms are very different?  Where is the line between being compensated and being bought?  Hopefully the Dipont case will provoke new introspection and discussion about the tension between ethics and enrollment goals.