I can stop blogging about college admisions any time I want. Really.
In one of the previous posts, commenter AO noted a New York Review of Books article on class issues in college admissions. here's the article in question, a review of several recent books about how the current college admissions system favors the wealthy and privileged.
The article is long, fairly comprehensive, and densely written, but you already got that from "New York Review of Books." It's well worth a read.
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Some schools with competitive admissions maintain "waiting lists" during admissions season - a list of applicants who aren't accepted outright, but might be offered a spot if the school needs to fill out its freshman class. I went to MIT, which does this, and the alumni magazine a couple years ago included the tid-bit that people on the waiting list can improve their chances if they keep in contact with the admissions office and keep expressing interest. Which is a trick that kids and counselors at high-powered magnet schools and prep schools might know, but kids in most schools would never guess. Letters to the magazine from alumni objected to this practice that effectively favors the wealthy. It seems a case of an unintentional favoring of the wealthy.
Dirk #1: It seems to me that that practice is good for most anything involving a list (so long as you don't piss off individuals that you are keeping in touch with). A continued regular expression of maintained interest is a legitimate factor in making the decision, I think, and if some highschools or kids and their parents don't work it out, that's a failing of theirs rather than something that should be redressed by doing away with the policy, whether that policy is official or unoffocial.
I'm not picking a fight with you (as you don't express a strong opinion) but it seems to me like an example of 'going to a good school means that you have better chances', which is pretty much how a 'good school' might be recognised from a distance.
Thanks for the link. Very interesting article.