University of Chicago Drops SAT, ACT Requirement for Admissions

[warriorchick]

My son applied to a few Ivies and they found an alumnus near us to conduct the interview.  He got into every school he applied to except his first choice (which was an Ivy), despite immaculate credentials.  He must have really screwed up that interview.  That or the fact that he hit an alumnus of that school's car early in his senior year a few months after he got his driver's license.

Looks like the University of Illinois!

[theBabyDavid]

My son applied to a few Ivies and they found an alumnus near us to conduct the interview.  He got into every school he applied to except his first choice (which was an Ivy), despite immaculate credentials.  He must have really screwed up that interview.  That or the fact that he hit an alumnus of that school's car early in his senior year a few months after he got his driver's license.

I kid you not: the alumni interview for Ivy admission is important but not in the way one might think. The meeting is actually a mechanism for either screening out applicants or adding emphasis to a candidacy.

If an applicant is scheduled for an interview he is on the short list. Because these are usually done over dinner the individual's social skills are very much under scrutiny. An interviewer obviously wants to know why someone wishes to matriculate at his alma mater. And he also wants to hear how the experience will be of benefit in ways beyond trite "Miss America" expressions of world peace and free single malt for everyone.

I think that the essential value of the alumni interview to the college is to deselect candidates. I did them in Asia where the issues included language and cultural fluency, adaptation skills, and interests beyond Venturi shrouds.

[theBabyDavid]

I was extraordinarily grateful to some kid name "Sal" who helped me drag my suitcase and foot locker out of the cab and into a blue bin.  Funny that I still remember that name all these years later...I literally never saw him again after the stuff was in the bin.

There were Three Sals who prowled the Marquette campus back in the day: Sal Bellomo, Tom Salley, and John Salamanski.

Tom Salley was ASMU President who strutted around Marquette sporting a Donegal Trilby and tweed jacket. His platform was to bring back the Block Party, allow overnight visitation in the dorms, and have more name acts on campus. Sal #1 won the Presidency in a landslide over the "serious" candidate Maureen Brady.

Sal Bellomo was "The Great Unwashed" who looked as if he had neither shave nor shower since arriving on campus. Years later in Iraq, we were getting an intel briefing at a TOC when the photo of a just captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed flashed on the screen. As the intel puke droned on about how they nabbed the Sheikh my visceral reaction to seeing this photo was to picture Bellomo dragging out the last vestiges of nicotine of yet another Camel while standing outside the Todd Wehr Chemistry Building in the freezing cold.

That photo of the Sheikh often has Rosie O'Donnell's mug photoshopped onto it making for a very believable image of what Rosie must look like in the morning. But for me it is always Sal Bellomo either smoking outside of Todd Wehr or leaning up against the juke box at The Lanche swilling Red White and Blues and arguing pro hockey with Bill McKinney from Holly, MI (who was a sportswriter but became a Jesuit).

I heard Sal #2 went on to be a prosecutor back home in NJ.

John Salamanski was a great guy at MU. He and I frequently drank together at Lenny's. With graduation we were scattered to the winds but just a few years ago theBabyDavid's mother and I went to the Int'l Pinot Noir Celebration (which I HIGHLY recommend) in Oregon's Willamette Valley and there was Sal #3. He is now a specialty wine distributor in Denver, focusing on smaller volume, 95 pt labels from WA, OR, and CA. He remains a great guy living an enviable life in CO ski country. 

I have to guess that your Sal was one of these three guys.

You read all the bitching here and one would think MU grads cannot possibly get along. Fact is, back in the day, they were some of the best guys I ever met.

[MU82]

nm

[ZiggysFryBoy]

nm

Wrong thread.

[Herman Cain]

Don't disagree with anything said in this report or the other articles it linked to.  However, There were 2 quotes in particular in 2 different linked articles that stuck out:

1) At colleges across the nation, presidents and their staffs, trustees and special university task forces analyze one year's U.S. News charts and immediately begin plotting how they might raise their college's standing in the next issue. This is not surprising; the results of a rise in rank are significant, and the consequences of a dramatic fall can be severe.

2)That dirty little secret has started to slip out as competition intensifies to attract top students and scale the all-important college rankings. In an admissions battleground on which universities grapple for any advantage, rising by just one number in the U.S. News & World Report rankings leads to a nearly 1 percent increase in applications, a 2011 study at the Harvard Business School found.

Even though these articles are a few years old, my understanding is that the calculus hasn't changed and if anything has gotten worse.  How else to explain the fact that for the past 5 years the most prestigious schools such as Harvard, Stanford and their ilk have all seen increased applications resulting in lower and lower acceptance rates?

I've never denied the US News Methodology is deeply flawed, panned by most higher education professionals, yet the overwhelming majority of them still do everything they can to game the system so their institutions rank as high as possible because the rewards of moving up and consequences of slipping are potentially severe.  That's the concern.

I'll say one thing........For all my complaining about how MU doesn't play the game, they deserve a hell of a lot of credit for being incredibly courageous and remaining true to their Jesuit mission.  I'm betting that their approach will backfire and damage their reputation but who knows,   Maybe MU will be successful in convincing the higher education consumer at large that US News is nonsense.  Here's to hoping I'm wrong.   We'll see how they stack up soon enough.

The real problem MU has is that it is not willing to compete with its peer group and play the marketing game.  You are correct it will have a long term negative impact on the schools reputation, which I continue to say is snatching defeat from the Jaws of victory. If MU was willing to play the game it would be in a solid place in the rankings . The long term benefit to MU would be enormous because it would be in a better position to achieve its goals.