What makes a college admissions officer say yes to one applicant and no to the next? To answer that question, New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg spent a year observing the selection process at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. The result is his new book, The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College (Viking). Steinberg talks with TIME about the dos and don'ts of getting kids into the school of their choice.
WHAT WAS THE MOST SURPRISING FACT YOU LEARNED ABOUT HOW THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE WORKED? How human the process was. I'm sure I got taken in...