The Gatekeepers.

Want to get into an elite university? You'll have to pass muster with these people first.

The candidate is a high school senior from Florida who played soccer, built houses for Habitat for Humanity, and is taking advanced placement courses in English, calculus, and physics. Her grades are A's and B's, with straight A's in her junior year, and her College Board score is 1360 out of a possible 1600--not bad, although lower than those of many applicants.

But the 10 admissions officers of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, are focused on something else. They home in on her personal statement, where she describes a protracted bout with cancer in her junior year, when she had to fly periodically to New York for chemotherapy.

"She was still doing soccer while being treated for cancer," one officer notes.

"She was the captain," another says.

"She's apologized to us for not having submitted a third SAT II score," the acting chairman, Christian Lanser, says in nearwonder. "But she has Hodgkins'."

With that, Lanser raps his knuckles on the 12-foot-long cherry table to call the vote. Three arms rise to recommend the waiting list. Lanser and six others vote to admit.

Majority rules; the Floridian is in.

This was Day 2 of the annual rite of the admissions season known as "committee," the last round of the process at Wesleyan, when the university's gatekeepers convened to consider 368 applications still unresolved for the few spots that remained unfilled for next year's freshman class of 715 students. At a time when admission to elite colleges is more competitive than ever, Wesleyan had agreed last spring to give UPFRONT full access to its selection process to show who got in and why. It became clear that, while top grades and academic skills remained central to admission, it was often the personal details that tipped the balance.

THE FINAL ROUND

Of the nearly 7,000 applications submitted to Wesleyan, these 368 were the hardest calls, for reasons as varied as a single failing grade, an extended absence, a borderline test score, or a rating of "arrogant" from an alumnus interviewer.

At least two officers had read each of these files thoroughly and made a recommendation to the dean. But no early consensus had emerged on whether to admit these students, deny them, or offer them spots on the waiting list. Each of these 368 applicants would get a two-minute bonus hearing before the entire committee. In the end, about one in four would be admitted, roughly the same ratio as in the main round. Factors determining admission included the lobbying skills of guidance counselors; the need for violinists, science majors, or other specialists; and even whether the candidate is a resident of Oklahoma--rare in a Wesleyan class--or black or Hispanic.

There were plenty of Oprah moments as the seductiveness of the applicants' personal stories competed for top billing. In one case, the officers considered a candidate who wrote of struggling with alcoholism in the 9th and 10th grades. Though he had received B's and C's those years, he earned straight A's the rest of the way after seeking treatment.

"He overcame that," says Greg Pyke, the senior associate dean of admissions, "but other than his grades, is he doing anything else?"

There were, Pyke was told, few activities beyond the debate team and the literary magazine.

"I certainly believe people can redeem themselves," another officer says, "but given the selectivity this year, I don't think it's a risk we need to take."

The student was denied.

GOOD STORY, BAD GRADES

Raphael Figueroa, a five-year veteran of the admissions office, was impressed with a Dominican girl from New York City who had become a leader at the prep school she was attending on scholarship. Despite D's in English and a College Board score in the 900s, Figueroa argues that the candidate is worth the academic risk--in part, he acknowledges, because her immigrant background reminds him of his own Mexican family.

But Pyke, who reads the student's application next, feels that the woman's most-recent grades--another D in English and three C's--are simply too low. He recommends the waiting list, pending third-quarter grades.

Indeed, it sometimes falls to Terri Overton, a 14-year veteran of the admissions office, to remind her colleagues that "the academic part has to remain in the forefront."

After all, she says, "We're a school."

FOCUS: How Admissions Committees Screen Applicants

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand the factors admissions committees at selective colleges weigh when considering applications for admission.

Discussion Questions:

* Many people believe that college admissions Committees should give more weight to high school grades than to SAT scores when screening applicants. Make one argument for and one argument against this position.

* Many colleges encourage geographic diversity in their student bodies. Why do you believe they look for students from different parts of the U.S.?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Critical Thinking/Role-play I: Have students consider the case of the applicant who admitted he had struggled with alcoholism in the 9th and 10th grades. Do they feel he, as one of 7,000 applicants for 715 spots, should have been admitted? Break the class into two groups, one assigned to advocate admitting the young man, the other charged with defending the decision the committee actually reached--a denial. Students on each side should deliver a brief argument explaining their vote.

Have students examine the factors used by the Wesleyan admissions committee. Then have them write brief statements for each, explaining why they believe the committee took each into account. For example, why would a college "need" violinists? What benefit would Wesleyan receive from accepting black or Hispanic applicants--or students from Oklahoma?

Role-play II: Continuing in their roles as members of a college admission committee, students can design "admission criteria sheets" for gauging the admissibility of students. Each student should draw up a list of four or more factors--other than those addressed in the article--that they deem important enough to be considered along with grades. Students should then discuss and defend their criteria.

Discussion: Years ago, wealthy students predominated at selective colleges. Today, schools aggressively recruit students from varied backgrounds, including disadvantaged youth. Now that they've have had a peek inside today's admission process at one such school, do students think the process is unfairly elitist? Why or why not?