Admissions: Hard on College Staffers, Too

Posted on April 7, 2009
Filed Under Media, Reading List | By Jessica Gross

High school seniors aren’t the only ones who suffer through college rejections. Admissions officers, too, have a hard time turning down applicants. It’s apparently an emotional, involved procedure — not the heartless one we imagine from the other side.

In Friday’s Los Angeles Times, Angel B. Pérez, the director of admission at Pitzer College, describes the decision-making process in an eloquent piece.

For a particularly heartfelt quote (which, if you’ve just been rejected from a school, should make you feel at least an iota better), see after the jump.

It’s hard to justify to someone who has just been “denied” the college of their dreams that although they’ve done everything right, we just did not have enough seats in the class….These students don’t know that behind closed doors, we argue about these difficult decisions. Each of us fights for the kids in admissions committee meetings, and we’re truly sad when we turn away applicants who we know have worked hard but, because of circumstances beyond our immediate control, we cannot admit….No matter how many years you work in college admissions, it never gets any easier to say no.

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