For the first time in more than twenty years, The Phillipian will not print the complete college statistics for the graduating class – including the number of students admitted, denied and wait-listed at this year’s set of universities. Instead, John Anderson and the College Counseling Office have provided us only with the number of students who applied and the number who will matriculate at each school. This information is incomplete and inconclusive. There is no way to determine whether students faced difficult decisions or sweeping acceptances; all we know is that (almost) everyone is going to college (and how many are going where). The implied rationale for withholding the information is that the numbers withheld are not relevant to the general student body, which is patently false. In fact, students learn a great deal from college statistics – about the overall probability of acceptance to various schools and the general success of the college application process at Andover. The College Counseling Office is advised not to disclose the statistics because of membership in the EISSCAP organization (you can read more about it on page A7), but this has not stopped them in previous years. Students deserve to see this information, and there are few legitimate reasons not to share it. After all, the CCO may have to deal with students’ and parents’ responses to the college results, but we’re the ones who will have to live with them.
