Interview Requests, Fall Reading List, the News

Many of you have probably read about it already, but Harvard announced today that they are doing away with an early admissions cycle. Here's their statement. The New York Times also reports.

We all took off last Thursday and Friday for our annual staff retreat. We stayed at a resort on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. During our two days away from Chicago we discussed, among other things, the latter third of Jerome Karabel's book The Chosen (which just came out in paperback). We spent a lot of time discussing the flexibility of the definition of merit, the Bakke decision, and all of that in context of what we do here.

One book we've talked about a bit recently is an upcoming work by Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Golden, called The Price of Admission. It discusses the ways that different colleges recruit legacies and wealthy applicants. It takes Brown and Duke, in particular, to task. Anyway, the book came out last Tuesday, and you can buy it online here. Jerome Karabel reviewed in in Sunday's Washington Post.

Finally, starting tomorrow, applicants can begin requesting interviews with alumni on the application website. Chairs should begin to receive requests as soon as they are made. The next cycle is about to begin!