In This Issue

Summer camp used to involve cabins, crafts, swimming, bug juice, and writing letters home, but for current high school students, whose parents are willing to fork over the cost, camp is now a place to learn how to apply to college. Some assert that these camps contribute to parents' and students' anxiety, and that they are another advantage for the wealthy, while supporters argue that training will ultimately help these students select and get into a fitting college or university. Nonetheless, during these months usually meant for leisure, high school juniors and seniors are packing their bags for camp, where they will tour several campuses, participate in mock interviews, prep for the SAT or ACT and learn how to write an attention-grabbing essay.

These camps hope to help students present themselves as accurately as possible on paper. Kelly Harrington, author of the Open Forum, "The Pleasure, Privilege and Agony of Application Reading," attests that the essay portion of the application helps him, as an admission officer, to get into the heads and hearts of students whose faces he's never seen.

Application readers also examine the several hurdles students must jump to earn a college acceptance letter. To add to the stress, students now have to pass state-wide tests to graduate high school. In the cover story, "College Dreams: High-Stakes Testing Reality," Kenneth Vogler argues that state-wide testing, as a single indicator, is not an accurate measure of educational quality.

As students work through the application process, hoping to earn a position among the best and brightest, colleges and universities are busily trying to attract them. As with summer camps, and any business that revolves around college admission, ethical questions arise. Jim Jump discusses this pull between business and profession in "Admission, Heal Thyself: A Prescription for Reclaiming College Admission as a Profession."

As a business, college admission is becoming a game of deals, forcing the student and the institution to a marriage of convenience, complete with dowry, rather than finding the best match. In "How to Humanize the College Admission Game," David Reingold criticizes Early Decision and other early application policies.

Recent court cases have revolved around another aspect of admission, affirmative action. Read affirmative action's history from Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and consider its failures and successes, in Chance Lewis and Dorothy Garrison-Wade's "Affirmative Action: History and Analysis."

After persevering through state-wide testing, standardized tests, and essay writing, a student's final obstacle is to accolade their accomplishments in front of an interviewer. Often students leave this nerve-wracking experience thinking, because of an encouraging word, that they arc guaranteed a spot, only to be disappointed later. Bert Hudnall comments on this phenomenon in the Last Word, "Alumni Admission Interviewers."

For Journal information, visit http://www.nacac.com/ ncws_journal.html. Enjoy your summer!

Sarah E. Smith

Journal Editor

Copyright National Association of College Admissions Counselors Summer 2004
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