mish mash
friday. trying to get work done early and enjoy the weekend before having to head out to missouri for all of next week. at least i'll get to eat penn station a couple of times.
first, i wanted to plug my friend mark's blog. section mate from the big h and a great guy. he's spending a year working for his company's shanghai office. anyway, check it out here: http://yearofthepigshanghai.blogspot.com/
tonight we're headed to visit my mom's family. we've been trying to see them every 7-10 days or so. i could never have believed that i would get to spend so much time with my grandmother again. i grew up with her living with us (now she lives with my mom's older sister, who is in baltimore). it is wonderful, and my cousin has two pretty adorable little girls. the oldest one keeps challenging me to hide and seek, and i keep explaining to her that i grew up playing in this house, and that i can hide in spots she doesn't even know about it. dr. w thinks i should take it easy on a four year old, but hey, i like to play to win.
good article in today's ny times magazine about college admissions. last sunday i spent the afternoon plugging emory at a high school admissions event. i was really involved in this stuff as an undergrad (i ran the tour guide program), and did a bunch of events in the years after graduating. however, i had not attended one of these events in awhile, and it was a bit shocking.
first, i had not quite realized how much more competitive the emory admissions process had become. the applicant pool has roughly doubled since i applied (which was about 12 years ago). wow. the accept rate has fallen from about 45% to 32%.
second, this was an amazingly savvy group of students and parents. now, i didn't exactly fall of the turnip truck, either, even back in my day. my parents and i trekked around the country, dutifully clutching our us news school rankings while doing the admissions circuit.
however, i generally asked questions about campus life, choosing a major, maybe even internship opportunity. last sunday, while speaking to parents, i actually had this conversation:
i'm not kidding. what 17 year old knows what industry she wants, much less what position? not ceo, not coo, not even 'i want to work i bio tech,' but cfo, specifically.
likewise, the admissions face has become way more sophisticated. one of my good friends (and fraternity brothers) is now an admission dean, and he is very good at delivering the message. the slides are smooth, the campus looks great, and the audience drips with the thought of going there.
the only gripe that i have is that the brochures paint a picture of uber-diversity that strains the limits of credibility. front and center is a picture of about 10 african american, one asian, and one latino student with their arms around each other. from emory's admissions page, about 8% of the undergrad population is african-american, 4% is latino, and 24% is asian (this includes indians). now, if this picture was in the context of other student pictures, it could be reasonable. but it is not presented that way! additionally, they show one professor: a black female. there are very few female professors, and even fewer tenured ones (this is based on having attended emory and my wife having received her ph d there). and black females professors? a minority in a minority. again, i'm glad that the picture is there. it is just not representative. however, i should note that there is certainly a school of thought (in fact, one i often advocate) that emphasizes we ought to not reduce people to their racial or ethnic identity (see the season premier of the office for a great clip on it). so is it really important that that the professor in the picture is a black female? or is it more important that she has a doctorate in history and finds it rewarding to teaching undergraduates? these brochures though, are not designed to that deep.
my point here, is that students might get a very different picture, based on the brochure. i know, i know, they should visit campus, etc. and as a minority, i do think emory does a good job with getting a racially diverse class (like its peer institutions, however, not a socio-economically diverse class). i just think the brochure should be realistic. what's realistic? i think a picture of 6 jewish guys from new jersey would be a start! in all seriousness, the brochure should just put things in the right context.
it's interesting to note that while college admissions in the middle of a boom, it won't last. we are in the middle of a demographic explosion that is expected to subside in about five years. additionally, the students are generally applying to more schools. this has been fueled, of course, by a general hysteria, but also enabled by the popularity of the common application, which lets students complete a single initial application and send it to my many colleges. a normal range when i applied was to apply to 5 - 10 schools. every school required a different application. save for some outlier students, there simply wasn't time to write more than 10 quality applications. with the common application, competitive students routinely apply to 20 schools.
first, i wanted to plug my friend mark's blog. section mate from the big h and a great guy. he's spending a year working for his company's shanghai office. anyway, check it out here: http://yearofthepigshanghai.blogspot.com/
tonight we're headed to visit my mom's family. we've been trying to see them every 7-10 days or so. i could never have believed that i would get to spend so much time with my grandmother again. i grew up with her living with us (now she lives with my mom's older sister, who is in baltimore). it is wonderful, and my cousin has two pretty adorable little girls. the oldest one keeps challenging me to hide and seek, and i keep explaining to her that i grew up playing in this house, and that i can hide in spots she doesn't even know about it. dr. w thinks i should take it easy on a four year old, but hey, i like to play to win.
good article in today's ny times magazine about college admissions. last sunday i spent the afternoon plugging emory at a high school admissions event. i was really involved in this stuff as an undergrad (i ran the tour guide program), and did a bunch of events in the years after graduating. however, i had not attended one of these events in awhile, and it was a bit shocking.
first, i had not quite realized how much more competitive the emory admissions process had become. the applicant pool has roughly doubled since i applied (which was about 12 years ago). wow. the accept rate has fallen from about 45% to 32%.
second, this was an amazingly savvy group of students and parents. now, i didn't exactly fall of the turnip truck, either, even back in my day. my parents and i trekked around the country, dutifully clutching our us news school rankings while doing the admissions circuit.
however, i generally asked questions about campus life, choosing a major, maybe even internship opportunity. last sunday, while speaking to parents, i actually had this conversation:
parent: 'so what do you do today?'
me: 'i work at a healthcare technology company.'
parent: 'that's great! our daughter wants to be a cfo at a bio-tech company someday. she really likes combining finance and healthcare.'
me: 'wow. that is amazingly specific. your daughter has more career direction than i do. perhaps she can counsel me?'
i'm not kidding. what 17 year old knows what industry she wants, much less what position? not ceo, not coo, not even 'i want to work i bio tech,' but cfo, specifically.
likewise, the admissions face has become way more sophisticated. one of my good friends (and fraternity brothers) is now an admission dean, and he is very good at delivering the message. the slides are smooth, the campus looks great, and the audience drips with the thought of going there.
the only gripe that i have is that the brochures paint a picture of uber-diversity that strains the limits of credibility. front and center is a picture of about 10 african american, one asian, and one latino student with their arms around each other. from emory's admissions page, about 8% of the undergrad population is african-american, 4% is latino, and 24% is asian (this includes indians). now, if this picture was in the context of other student pictures, it could be reasonable. but it is not presented that way! additionally, they show one professor: a black female. there are very few female professors, and even fewer tenured ones (this is based on having attended emory and my wife having received her ph d there). and black females professors? a minority in a minority. again, i'm glad that the picture is there. it is just not representative. however, i should note that there is certainly a school of thought (in fact, one i often advocate) that emphasizes we ought to not reduce people to their racial or ethnic identity (see the season premier of the office for a great clip on it). so is it really important that that the professor in the picture is a black female? or is it more important that she has a doctorate in history and finds it rewarding to teaching undergraduates? these brochures though, are not designed to that deep.
my point here, is that students might get a very different picture, based on the brochure. i know, i know, they should visit campus, etc. and as a minority, i do think emory does a good job with getting a racially diverse class (like its peer institutions, however, not a socio-economically diverse class). i just think the brochure should be realistic. what's realistic? i think a picture of 6 jewish guys from new jersey would be a start! in all seriousness, the brochure should just put things in the right context.
it's interesting to note that while college admissions in the middle of a boom, it won't last. we are in the middle of a demographic explosion that is expected to subside in about five years. additionally, the students are generally applying to more schools. this has been fueled, of course, by a general hysteria, but also enabled by the popularity of the common application, which lets students complete a single initial application and send it to my many colleges. a normal range when i applied was to apply to 5 - 10 schools. every school required a different application. save for some outlier students, there simply wasn't time to write more than 10 quality applications. with the common application, competitive students routinely apply to 20 schools.
posted by Wintermute at 11:58 AM
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