Get Going Workshops

by Joanne Levy-Prewitt

Book Examines Our Fascination With The Ivy League

Everyone talks about college admissions. National magazines report on admissions trends, and major newspapers publish articles, even whole sections, addressing college life or admissions data several times each year. There seems to be a particular obsession with colleges that are the most selective. Everyone wants to know the same thing: Who is getting in to these schools -- especially Harvard -- and why?

That is the premise of Joie Jager-Hyman’s new book, "Fat Envelope Frenzy" ($14.95; Harper), which follows five students as they apply to, among other colleges, Harvard. They are from different geographic regions, races and economic backgrounds. They are all extraordinarily talented and bright, and some have to overcome great adversity as they prepare for, and apply to, the best colleges in the country. You’ll find the five students, and Jager-Hyman’s commentary about them, fascinating.

I can only speculate about the reasons for our national obsession with Harvard. According to its Web site, Harvard is the "oldest institution of higher learning in the United States." It has a huge endowment ($25.9 billion). Seven presidents graduated from there.

OK, it’s the oldest, and the richest. It has history and prestige. Americans like old and rich, and we are both mystified and challenged by exclusiveness. We believe that with hard work, our children can reach a higher station in life than we did. Jager-Hyman’s own mother illustrated this as she dropped her daughter off at Dartmouth, saying, "I can’t believe we went from Auschwitz to Dartmouth in two generations."

So it is no great surprise that Jager-Hyman wants to probe and ponder the Ivy League mystique. After graduating from Dartmouth, she became an admissions officer there. She tells me that in that position, she was sometimes confronted with a "lack of transparency and poor communication" between admissions officers and prospective students.

Furthermore, she wants readers to know that admissions are not random, that there is a "system of institutional priorities" at colleges, meaning that admissions officers have to please many people -- administrators, directors, wealthy alumni, even coaches -- resulting in the denial of hordes of qualified and talented students each year.

Sadly, she says these admissions officers probably "do not understand the full effect of their policies" on the applicants, adding that if students understood the complex goals that admissions officers try to meet, they might not take a denial so personally.

While Jager-Hyman’s book isn’t really an attempt to explain or even justify her feelings about her time as an admissions officer, there is some implication of internal conflict when she admits that her strategy "for mitigating these conflicting objectives was to distance myself from the students I met."

However, all the students in her book fare well, so in some ways, "Fat Envelope Frenzy" belies its title. And Jager-Hyman tells me that, in the end, everyone benefits when students aim for selective colleges: "It has to be a good thing that these kids are so well-prepared and so motivated and that they want good things for themselves."

She also says that all colleges, not just the selective ones, are benefiting from students who are dynamic, engaged in their communities and arrive on campus with good skills: "The kids who suffer from the fat envelope frenzy are blessed, and I want them to see that. In the end, the students in my book were happy to look forward to their graduation, college and adult life. They were not resentful. When they step back, even if they don’t go to their first-choice school, they all went somewhere good, and they were happy."

COPYRIGHT 2008 JOANNE LEVY-PREWITT