by John Devera

Created on: August 11, 2008

Top colleges obviously choose those students who they feel will most benefit their school. That means the admissions process must be geared to allow those students entry, no matter whether they are the best and the brightest. Here are the things that schools most want to recruit.

FOLLOW THE MONEY
Universities, especially private universities are businesses. The most crucial aspect of their budgets are based on wealthy alumni. What that means is that their first priority is to keep alumni happy. That means that above all, the children of alumni must have priority in admissions. Who cares if the kid is only mediocre if his father will build a new wing to the library, or fund the creation of a Zimbabwe Studies department?

KICK 'EM IN THE KNEE, KICK 'EM IN THE SHIN, GO SCHOOL, GO SCHOOL WIN WIN WIN!
Athletics can make or break a school. Having a winning football team is worth its weight in platinum because that generates TWO things that the school desperately needs: money and prestige. In order to have that winning team, mediocre students are allowed admissions because they can run fast, catch and throw or stand in the way and knock other players down. Why do universities have classes in remedial math and English? It is to give these un-academic students the opportunity to play ball for five years.

And it's not just athletics. The band director needs a trombone player desperately. The school will open up a special spot and even offer scholarship money to recruit those students who will make them look good, even if they are not up to par in academics.

DIVERSITY
Schools want and need diversity. Here's the sad truth. IF schools had admissions policies that were severely restricted by racial quotas, set according to national census totals of population in the United States, MORE Anglo-Americans would be going to the best universities than are now attending. You see, Asian Americans make up nearly 5% of the population of the United States. In spite of that, they make up 14% of the seniors in high school scheduled to graduate. And the University of California, for instance, has stated that Asian Americans are making up 36% of incoming freshmen. That, in case you're unaware of it, is a larger number than Anglo-Americans.

What all that means is that, in a system that has NO quotas, Asian-Americans are disproportionately represented in higher education. Now, I propose that the number of Asian-Americans who are admitted to Universities (except in the case of truly racially blind

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