This is a very good point, an honest point that is not always said when discussing admissions policies. As a long-time reader of this blog, I think I know what the author believes the problem to be, but he may not have said it explicitly here. I say this at the risk of being corrected, but I am happy to be so corrected if I am wrong.

I think the author feels it is disingenuous–or perhaps flat out wrong–to project to applicants that they have to present themselves as fully formed people at 17 years of age, and that much of the applications process encourages, maybe even demands, that applicants present themselves that way.

That is my takeaway from this blog. It’s a point on which I am in agreement with the author, if this view is in fact held by him.

At Swarthmore I found my people. I went to a public high school of one thousand and graduated without friends, but the needle-threaders are Swarthmore felt so familiar. More familiar than my own family. I don’t know if I have ever made a friend who I could not picture at Swarthmore. Certainly there is sameness here. I don’t think we were all of one type, but there was a well-represented type that I felt community within.

I have also been on an admission committee and I am quite happy to seek out students in whose success I am confident and who I believe will contribute positively to my school.

I just don’t understand what the problem is. This probably means that I am not recognizing something important.