bsat blog

Caught an interesting article in the New York Times the other day about schools sending out fast track applications to students. First off, we're staunchly in favor of anything that allows kids to do less work, so in that sense being able to apply to a school with little more than a signature earns a huge thumbs up. And for the blowhard Andy Rooney-types who say that this somehow cheapens the process by making it not "rigorous" enough, bite me. This is from the "back in my day everything was better" school of thought, and while some stuff certainly was more badass back then, people died of tuberculosis and old men couldn't get boners but you don't see any of these old windbags knocking down Pfizer's door, now do you?

But when you really start thinking about this, it's part of the burgeoning, and relatively insidious, trend of schools working to increase the number of applicants they can reject all so they look better in the "US News and World Report" rankings. Although it does nothing to improve their institution in terms of being a better school, it does improve the way they're represented by a statistical formula that heavily factors in admission rates, and the various merits and test scores applicants--whether or not they have any hope or intention of ever attending.

In many ways it's roughly the equivalent of a baseball player sitting out against Roy Halladay (or any of the league's top pitchers) to preserve his batting average. Sure it makes his statistics look better, but it does nothing to make him a better player or help his team. So think about that the next time a free application comes in the mail. But also send it in. Because, bottom line is, it beats the shit out of writing an essay or paying for it. And if the school is willing to whore themselves out for magazine rankings there's no reason you shouldn't take advantage of it.