Radio Workshop

Interview with Jacques Steinberg (Transcript)

by Ethan Lindsey

STEINBERG:

The expecation I think is that this is a conservative court and they may well rein in the ability of public, and private colleges to practice affirmative action. Every college in the country -- public and private -- would have to adapt, since race is a big part of the conversation. And a perfect example of this is Rice University in Houston, which is subject to a federal ruling that prohibits the use of affirmative action, and at Rice they will say things around the admissions table, and I've sat in on the admissions table, where they will say, 'This is somebody who could really share their cultural traditions with us' and so there is a euphemism that is used. They also ask kids about their cultural traditions in their essays. So there are ways around it, but everyone will have to adapt if indeed they rein this is.

LINDSEY:

How about legacy admissions? How much of an affect do they have on the admissions process?

STEINBERG:

I just did a piece on Middlebury in Vermont, where you are twice as likely to get in the class if you are a legacy. That's also the case at Stanford, where one out of every ten kids in the class is a legacy. The colleges defend this practice in part by saying there is a reality to it -- often alumni are big donors and make it possible for the university to offer free or reduced tuition to kids that they might not otherwise be able to do so.

LINDSEY:

How about early admissions programs, how much of an affect do they have on the process?

STEINBERG:

Just as you are more likely to get into these highly selective colleges if you are a legacy, often the rate of early admissions is much, much higher of the class as a whole. At a class like Dartmouth or Wesleyan, forty percent of the class is taken before January first. That strikes me as an extraordinary number. This of course is a process that favors, by intent, or by effect, but certainly in the end, favors kids who can get their act together early -- who can take all their tests, to know that they are going to apply. This again seems to favor the haves over the have-nots.

Also, early decision is a terrible idea for people with strong financial needs, because you lose all your bargaining power if you say to Columbia, 'If you take me I'll go', before you even know what the package is -- but there is the main round for those people.

LINDSEY:

What do you say to the people who claim that affirmative action is just pushing the admissions process up?

There are a lot of stresses in this process. I think for somebody like me, who really understood the process as an applicant -- who knew that Dartmouth was my first choice -- I was really grateful that that option was available, because as soon as I got in that stress was released. I had a terrific second-half of my senior year. I think it is a stressful process in general, and I think that for kids who just can't get their act together by November, then you can apply regular decision. Life is full of stresses and I don't necessarily think that this one is such an onerous stress. I know that some students are picking a school to apply to binding, just because they think it improves their chances. And I worry that kids are, when they wake up in the morning, feeling like 'I can't believe what I did, I can't believe this is the school I got to', and so there is something to be said for doing your research.