Jane S. Shaw of National Review offers a little behind the scenes info in a recent post.

College Admissions Facts

The Wall Street Journal has a personal finance section that it sells to about 70 newspapers around the country.  I don’t know how accessible it is (you may have to be a subscriber), but today’s section lists “10 Things the College Admissions Officer Won’t Tell You.”

The list by Daniel J. Goldstein summarizes many of the truths that one picks up over years of writing about higher education. Here is a sampling:

We don’t trust your essay

We’re having second thoughts about the  SAT

We’d rather admit someone who’ll pay full price

We need you more than you need us

Goldstein also reports on a retrospective study by the admissions officers’ trade association of students admitted between 2003 and 2010. About 30 percent hadn’t taken either the SAT or the ACT;  the study found no significant difference in their college performance compared with those who had taken one of the tests.