Jacques Steinberg
2002
Jacques Steinberg, a New York Times reporter specializing in education, spent eight months observing almost every aspect of the college admissions process at Wesleyan University, and his account of what he saw and heard during that time is the basis for a new book, The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College. According to a review of the book by Dan Seligman, the admissions process at Wesleyan includes "elaborate procedures for reinterpreting grades and test scores in order to guarantee high admission rates for minorities," procedures that Seligman, a contributing editor of Forbes, calls "patently unfair." Seligman, who describes the book as "enormously readable" and "revelatory," is struck by the personal investment of some admissions officers in particular applicants, especially minority or disadvantaged applicants. To read the book review, which appears in the September 2002 issue of Commentary Magazine, surf to http://www.educationnews.org/getting_in.htm. Or dive into the book itself, which is published by Viking (see http://www.penguinputnam.com/Book/BookFrame/0,1007,,00.html?0CS^0670031356).
