In thinking about the admissions process, how should “merit” be defined?
In deciding which students “merit” admission to selective colleges, “merit” must be defined, the authors argue, in terms of the purposes of the institution. “The job of the admissions staff is not, in any case, to decide who has a ‘right’ to a place in the class, since we do not think that admission to a selective university is a right possessed by anyone. What admissions officers must decide is which set of applicants, considered individually and together, will take fullest advantage of what the college has to offer, contribute most to the educational process in college, and be most successful in using what they have learned for the benefit of the larger society. (pp.
