The price of admission, p.36
The Price of Admission,
p.36
Technology, p. 4.
268 CAREFULLY COACHED: Interview with Caltech assistant vice president Erica O'Neal.
268 STUDENTS TRAVEL NATIONWIDE: Interview with Joanne Singh, Berea associate vice president for development.
271 COOPER RECEIVES $16.7 MILLION: Email from Jolene Resnick, April 5, 2005.
272 70 PERCENT HIGHER: Email from Resnick, April 5, 2005.
274 “THE GREAT COMMITMENTS”: There are eight commitments: the first is “to provide an educational opportunity primarily for students from Appalachia, black and white, who have great promise and limited economic resources.” 274 TO ENCOURAGE RECRUITING: Email from Joseph Bagnoli, March 23, 2005.
274 GRADUATE AT THE SAME RATE: Presentation to the Berea College Board of Trustees by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, May 2004.
275 SECOND ONLY TO DAVIDSON: Email from Joseph Bagnoli, March 23,2005.
276 WAS DISOWNED: Berea College History, video, Berea College public relations. 276 2,500 NEW DONORS: Interview with Joanne Singh.
278 six COURSES A SEMESTER: Interview with Erica O'Neal.
279 WAS AFRICAN AMERICAN: Interview with Richard Bischoff.
279 AT MIT (43 PERCENT): Student body profile (2004-5), Office of the Provost, Institutional Research, web.mit.edu.
282 ONE HUNDRED LOCAL BUSINESSMEN: Alice Stone, The Associates of the California Institute of Technology: Patrons of the Century's Science (Pasadena: California Institute of Technology, 1991), p. 5.
282 JUST six YEARS EARLIER: Judith R. Goodstein, Millikan's School (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995), p. 75.
282 1,448 MEMBERS: Communication from Gary Dicovitsky March 17, 2005.
283 TWENTY THOUSAND GRADUATES: Interview with Gary Dicovitsky.
283 GENERATED $227 MILLION: Interview with Richard Seligman, senior director, Caltech Office of Sponsored Research.
10: ENDING THE PREFERENCES OF PRIVILEGE
287 HEAR A PRESENTATION: “Admission Workshop for High School Students and Their Parents,” Converse Hall, November 13, 2004.
289 HAVE ALL EXPANDED: Marcella Bombardieri, “Elite Colleges Go After Low-Income Recruits,” Boston Globe, July 16, 2005, p. 1.
289 “LESS ETHNICALLY DIVERSE”: “Faculty/Administration Conference on NESCAC Athletic Admissions,” January 15,2005, p. 6.
290 ELIMINATING TUITION: “Harvard Announces New Initiative Aimed at Economic Barriers to College,” Harvard University Gazette, February 28, 2004.
290 “INTEGRAL TO THE KIND”: Daniel Golden. “Boss Talk: Shaking Up Harvard,”
Wall Street Journal, June 8,2004, p. Bl.
290 51 STUDENTS: Email from Joseph Wrinn, July 6, 2005.
290 STEPDAUGHTER: Her name is Yael Levine. Although her mother, Harvard English professor Elisa New, and Summers were widely known to be a couple at the time of Yael's admission, they were not married until December 2005.
292 ACTED UNDER PRESSURE: Todd Ackerman, “Legislators SlamA&M over Legacy Admissions,” Houston Chronicle, January 4, 2004, p. 1.
294 CONSIDERED CAPPING: “Faculty/Administration Conference,” p. 6.
294 MOST POPULAR SPORTS: “NFHS 2003-04 High School Athletics Participation Survey,” National Federation of State High School Associations, 2004.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of my greatest pleasures in reporting on college admissions, both for The Wall Street Journal and for this book, has been making the acquaintance of so many bright, dedicated people who share my concern about preferences for the rich.
Unfortunately, those who risked their jobs to help me must remain anonymous. Others I am delighted to thank by name: Keith Brodie, Juliet Chung, Michael Dannenberg, Al Gordon, Jennifer Hahn, Peter Hawkins, Alec Klein, David Leebron, Bruce Poch, Jonathan Reider, Mary Anne Schwalbe, Philip Tinari, Rachel Toor, and Juliette Wallack.
My colleagues in the Boston bureau of The Wall Street Journal have provided invaluable support. I would like to thank bureau chief Gary Putka for recognizing the importance of this topic and prodding me to investigate it and John Hechinger, Charles Forelle, David Armstrong, and Barbara Glickler for scrutinizing—and greatly improving—all or part of the manuscript. I am indebted as well to colleagues elsewhere in the WSJ empire, including John Lippman, Bryan Gruley, James Bandler, Elizabeth Bernstein, David Wessel, and Jessica Vascellaro.
I also thank Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger, senior deputy managing editor Dan Hertzberg, page one editor Mike Miller, and assistant news editor Carrie Dolan for their thoughtful handling of my articles, and Stuart Karle, Jonathan Albano, Alison Gooding, and Mia Israeli for their sage legal counsel. Ken Wells and Rose Ellen D'Angelo of the Journal's book department were helpful and encouraging far beyond the call of duty, as were former Journal editors Steve Adler, Joanne Lipman, and Amy Stevens, and national news editor Laurie Hays.
My longtime friend and former Boston Globe colleague Charles Stein read the manuscript and offered typically sagacious suggestions. Other Globe friends—Brian Mooney, Gerard O'Neill, and Alex Beam—shared the wisdom of their publishing experience. I am indebted to left-coast journalists Steve Proctor, Steve Fainaru, and Mark Fainaru-Wada for their assistance, to David Groff for his thoughtful guidance on my book proposal, and to Garen Hartunian for Internet advice.
Some college and prep-school officials were more accommodating than others to my inquiries. Daniel Saracino and Matthew Storin of Notre Dame, Coach Kevin Sauer of Virginia women's crew, spokesmen Eric Qui-nones of Princeton and Mark Nickel of Brown, and David Baker, formerly of St. Albans, were particularly patient and helpful.
I'm grateful to my indefatigable agent, Lynn Johnston, who came up with the title and shepherded this project from start to finish, my insightful editor, Rachel Klayman, her able assistant, Lucinda Bartley, and the rest of the impressive Crown team, including Steve Ross, Kristin Kiser, Matthew Martin, John Mahaney, Donna Passannante, Tammy Blake, and Melanie DeNardo.
Special thanks go to my wife, Kathy, my son, Steven, and my stepchildren, Sean and Caroline, for their love, friendship, and understanding. I would also like to express my love and gratitude to my mother, Hilda Golden, my sister, Olivia, and my late father, Morris Golden. A Russian Jewish immigrant who went to City College on the GI Bill and became a professor of English literature, he taught me the importance of the written word and the meaning of the American dream.
About the Author
DANIEL GOLDEN is deputy bureau chief at the Boston bureau of The Wall Street Journal, where he has covered education since 1999. Previously, he was a reporter at the Boston Globe. His journalistic career has taken him to remote locations around the world: a leper colony in Nigeria; an apartment complex for the poor in Medellin, Colombia, built by a billionaire drug lord; a funeral on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota for a teenager born with fetal alcohol syndrome and killed in a drunk-driving accident. The recipient of numerous journalistic honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the George Polk Award, he holds a B.A. from Harvard College. He lives with his wife and children in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Copyright © 2006,2007 by Daniel Golden
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Golden, Daniel, 1957–
The price of admission: how America's ruling class
buys its way into elite colleges—and who gets left
outside the gates / Daniel Golden.—1st ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Universities and colleges—United States—Admission.
2. Education, Higher—United States—Costs.
3. College choice—United States. I. Title.
LB2351.2.G65 2006
378.1’610973—dc22 2006012059
eISBN: 978-0-307-49737-6
v3.0
Daniel Golden, The Price of Admission
