Collegezoid: Meeting your admissions angst needs

"Americans are the only people in the world known to me whose status anxiety prompts them to advertise their college and university affiliations in the rear windows of their automobiles."
- Paul Fussell (professor, cultural and literary historian)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Aug. 27, 2007
Confused by college admissions? They're here to help -- for a fee
By Jackie Crosby

Kristin Riegel started researching colleges and universities when she was in the ninth grade.

But despite that running start, it was a consultant she and her family hired for $1,700 during her senior year who ultimately helped seal her decision to go to Macalester College in St. Paul.

Boston Globe Aug. 23, 2007
A cruel time for college applicants

By Webster T. Trenchard

ON THE surface, the college admissions process seems like a meritocracy. Students are evaluated on a set of objective components (i.e. grades and test scores) that are interspersed with some subjective ones (i.e. essays, interviews, and letters of recommendation). Those who make the cut are accepted; those who do not are rejected; those who fall somewhere in between are offered the purgatory-like status of wait-list. There is no way to predict, with certainty, how a given applicant will fare at a particular college in a given year.

Voice of America Aug. 14, 2007
Some American Universities Adopt New Admissions Test Policies
By Elizabeth Giergerich

As the new school year approaches in the United States, millions of American students will prepare for and fret over the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the SAT, which has long been a key requirement for college admission. There has been a contentious debate over the SAT and other standardized tests, but now more than 700 colleges and universities in the United States no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores. From VOA's New York Bureau, Elizabeth Giegerich has the details.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest)