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September 01, 1989 - Image 64

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1989-09-01

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.



• s •

••\:, • ••

BACK TO SCHOOL



A

Artwork from Newsday by Ned Levine. Copyright c 1989, Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

Creative College Tactics

AMY KOSSOFF

Special to The Jewish News

0

ne college aspi-
rant sent a
worn, once-
white Nike run-
ning shoe with
her application to the Univer-
sity of Virginia.
"Now that I have one foot in
the door," she wrote, "I hope
you'll let me have the other."
But that would have been
impossible. The other shoe
had been mailed to Gary Rip-
ple, dean of admissions at the
College of William and Mary,
with an identical note.
It was not the first time off-
beat tactics have been used by
a high school student trying
to get an "in" at a respected
university.
Every Jewish mother
dreams of sending her child to
a top-of-the-line college and,
as a result, "application anx-
iety" has become as familiar
as gefilte fish to an entire
generation of Jewish
children.
But these students now face
stiff competition. For exam-
ple, Michigan State Universi-
ty's 2,500 Jewish students
make up just 5 percent of its
population. How can the
average student hope to be
noticed in a crowd of 50,000
competitors?
And Jewish students aren't
alone. The current emphasis
on education at the "right"
school has affected students of
all ethnic backgrounds. Add
in tougher admission criteria

64

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1989

In the competition to get into the prestigious
colleges, students have come up with all
sorts of ingenious tricks. Do they work?

and higher education costs,
and some students feel they
must resort to attention-
grabbing tricks to be noticed.
Students hope to make an
impression as entry to many
colleges has become increas-
ingly difficult. Last year at
Harvard and Radcliffe Col-
leges, the undergraduate
components of Harvard
University, for example, only
17 percent of the 13,000 ap-
plications were accepted;
Jews comprise 20 percent of
the student body. Similarly,
the University of Penn-
sylvania (40 percent Jewish)
received 11,200 applications
for 2,200 spots. Boston
University (20 percent
Jewish) said no to 16,500 of
the 20,000 who applied.
Anxious students are also
applying to more schools than
ever before. In 1983, each stu-
dent applied to an average of
two colleges, according to the
McClean, Va.-based National
Association of College Admis-
sion Counselors (NACAC).
That number has increased to
almost six applications per
student, although multiple
applications may be at a
plateau for a while, according
to Dr. Frank Burtnett, ex-
ecutive director of NACAC.
The highly competitive cli-

mate drives some students to
submit creative gimmicks
with their application in
hopes of making a difference.
Many of these gimmicks
• came to light in a recent
survey of about 150 colleges
and universities.
For example, at Brandeis
University, which is more
than 70 percent Jewish, one
girl from Los Angeles sent a
giant bouquet of balloons

In addition to
sending gimmicks
with applications,
anxious students
are applying to
more colleges
these days.

near decision time to "re-
mind" the counselors how
much she wanted to be ac-
cepted. The girl was admitted
but, says assistant director of
admissions, Roger Segal, "she
wasn't admitted because of
her balloons."
The survey turned up a
George Mason university
hopeful who sent a ceramic
frog with her application, in-
dicating that she wanted to
be "one leap ahead" of the

other applicants. One high
school student sent a shirt,
saying he would give the shirt
off his back to get into GMU.
Following similar suit, a
young woman sent Boston
University a school T-shirt,
custom designed with her
name in the felt press-on let-
ters: "B.U. is for me. I am for
B.U." A subsequent con-
ference revealed that at least
three other colleges had
received the same gimmick,
according to Kevin Kelly,
associate director of admis-
sions at Boston.
A tie made out of copper,
with "University of Penn-
sylvania" etched in, was sent
to that school's admissions of-
fice. Penn's associate dean of
admissions Christoph Gut-
tentag also received a sort of
jack-in-the-box gimmick.
"When you open the box,
there's a folded paper that
pops up on a spring and plays
a song," he said.
Another appicant mailed a
catnip mouse crocheted in
Duke University blue and
white with the Gothic "D"
emblazoned on its tummy.
"My cat loved this from about
1973 until her death in 1984,"
said Thurletta M. Brown,
then the associate director of
undergraduate admissions.

Not all students resort to
attention-grabbing tricks.
Judy Paikin, director of ad-
missions for Yeshiva Univer-
sity, New York City, said, "We
have a dead serious crowd."
The most unusual applica-
tions Paikin has received are
pieces of artwork with Jewish
themes and tape recordings
for the cantorial school.
Nevertheless, college of-
ficials say that unusual ap-
plications are on the rise.
Fairleigh Dickinson Universi-
ty in New Jersey once receiv-
ed an "acceptance letter"
from a Pennsylvania appli-
cant. This was in anticipation
of the message she hoped to
receive from school.
"It was extremely well writ-
ten, appeared to have been
written at about the right
time of the year, and very
closely resembled the text of
our letter," said George Lynes,
former director of admissions.
After calling the girl's
guidance counselor, Lynes
learned that "it was her
creative way of telling me
what she would like to have
me write to her. Although she
created confusion for the staff
she did qualify, was accepted
and received a bona fide ac-
ceptance letter from me."
A student hoping to catch
the eye of someone at Lenoir-
Rhyne College in North Caro-
lina wrote his own post-dated
"obituary," said Richard P.
Thompson, dean of admis-
sions and financial aid.
The obituary noted that the
young man "graduated cum

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