The Foreign Service Journal, June 2015

72 JUNE 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT olds enrolled in college rose by 32 per- cent. Bruni doesn’t dwell too much on this statistic, but it is significant. His primary focus is on two relatively modern changes to the college admis- sions process: the Common Applica- tion and the U.S. News & World Report college rankings. Each in its own way has contributed to the college admis- sions race. The Common App, as it’s called, has streamlined the admissions process so that instead of filling out individual paper applications for each college, a student can now hit the “submit” button online, sending one application to many schools. Not surprisingly, this has led students to file more applications than ever before. More applicants mean more rejec- tions, because most colleges cannot admit more than a certain number of students: There just isn’t room, despite an increase in on-campus construction in recent years. (That improvement in facilities is often due more to competi- tion with other colleges than a desire to add more beds. College administrators count on 17-year-olds being drawn in by state-of-the-art fitness centers and vegan cafeterias.) Then there are the rankings. When U.S. News & World Report started its col- lege rankings in the early 1990s, it struck gold. The list rapidly became not only a moneymaker for U.S. News , but an easy way for students (and their parents) to select colleges. It also fueled a system which colleges try to “game.” For example, the college can increase “selectivity” by encouraging more students to apply and then rejecting a higher proportion of them. Several col- leges have been penalized for inflating their numbers—and those are just the ones who’ve been caught.