No loyalty in college admissions
Here’s a true story that is also a cautionary tale for all those parents who believe they have a super smart son or daughter who will have no problem getting into the college or university of their choice especially those institutions from which one or both parents have graduated. A long time friend who received his undergraduate degree from a highly regarded southern “public” university in the state where he still resides was shocked when his school put his son on a waiting list for admission with very little encouragement that he ultimately would be accepted.
He had heard the complaints by other parents that qualified students from the better high schools in the northern part of the state were being passed over to make room for a growing percentage of students from out of state who pay higher tuitions. But school officials had assured him there was no such quota (at least on paper).
The son had done everything right. His high school GPA was 4 point plus and he had participated in a number of out-of-class activities designed to broaden his perspectives and make him better prepared for college.
He had never caused his parents or his teachers a moment’s problems.
The father, soft spoken and even tempered, immediately called the director of admissions for his alma mater and quietly asked for an explanation.
He was informed that there were only so many slots available for incoming freshmen and they had been filled by exceptionally gifted applicants. The father, a doctor of dental surgery quite capable of paying full tuition, then asked if being a “legacy” would help and was told in most occasions it did. When he informed the admissions person that he was an alumnus, there was a long pause and then the person said ultimately that “might” be taken into consideration.
Then the frustrated parent politely and firmly asked whether the person on the other end had access to the computer list of those who had provided financial support to the institution over the years.
“You know,” he said, “the so called loyal alums who help make the school what it is and less dependent on state money?” The admission’s official said that he did have access and my friend said to look up his record on the computer.
Within a minute or two there was a gasp,”oh, my gosh!”
“That’s right,” my friend said, his voice taking on a decidedly sterner tone, to put it very mildly.
“Now I must ask you to do two things. Take my son’s name off your waiting list. He is not going to attend your school under any circumstance and then inform your superiors from the president on down to take my name off solicitation for any future fund raising. Your institution will never receive another nickel from me and if you want me to put that in writing, I will be glad to do so. I was not asking for a favor for an unqualified young man, just a bit of reverse loyalty for the deserving son of a dedicated alum. And since your school – it is no longer mine – doesn’t get it, it will get no more from me.”
It is a dilemma faced by thousands of parents and their qualified offspring who are now beginning to spend a large part of their senior year focusing on their education after high school. Will they be accepted at the institution they most want, having done “everything right” to give themselves the best shot at it? Or will they tragically be rewarded for their diligence by becoming the victims of a system that is often whimsical and unfair in its decisions?
Most parents don’t have the wherewithal to dole out a bit of vengeance for this unfair treatment.
But fortunately, not all schools show as callous a disregard for those who have been faithful to them as my friend the doctor’s alma mater.
But here’s the deep, dark secret, kids. There are hundreds of colleges and universities in America where the undergraduate education is equal to if not better than the one that turned you down even if it’s Yale or Harvard or the University of Virginia.
(E-mail Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, at thomassondan@aol.com.)