An anonymous newsletter at Stanford University called the Fountain Hopper recently uncovered a process through which college students can gain access to the comments written on their applications. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a 1974 federal law, requires schools to show enrolled students their educational records. Under FERPA, the Fountain Hopper has encouraged Stanford students to request their admission records by sending the school a legalese-filled FERPA request. Schools have within 45 days to respond to students’ requests, or face legal consequences — including, according to the Fountain Hopper, a loss in federal funding.
The anonymous students behind this movement at Stanford have pioneered a process that college students everywhere should undertake. The limit of this option is that rejected applications will not be accessible. But, by compiling, analyzing and publishing the records students send them, the Fountain Hopper will make more transparent a process that for far too long has been relatively opaque on an individual level. Uncovering admitted students’ files, including comments from admissions officers — should comments prove substantive — could potentially shed light on the selection criteria of schools, demonstrating to what degree these processes may be superficial, and to what degree factors such as legacy status or affirmative action policies impact admissions decisions.
More transparency in the college admissions process could reveal inherent problems, such as too high an emphasis on criteria such as SAT or ACT scores, which have proven to be skewed toward high-income applicants. And if selection criteria turn out to be problematic, colleges will be motivated to alter their processes given new national attention. But transparency may also benefit students who are typically disadvantaged in the college application process — meaning low-income students or those whose schools do not provide adequate college counseling.
Information about the college application process is ubiquitous, and access to admissions officers’ comments will not alleviate the myriad obstacles facing low-income students. But seeing these comments may help otherwise disadvantaged students understand the intricacies of the process, possibly encouraging them to apply to schools where they have a better chance of gaining admission, or demonstrating the best way to organize their applications so they can better compete with well-connected applicants.
While students who are already at a distinct advantage in this process may gain a further advantage by having this information, so long as groups like the Fountain Hopper compile and analyze these files, disadvantaged students will have electronic access to the same information. This information will by no means bridge the gap between privileged and non-privileged applicants, but it certainly may help.
Of course, a key reason admissions files stay confidential is so admissions officers have the freedom to be candid in their assessments of students. Should a significant portion of the student body at a given school request these files, officers may be inclined to be less candid when commenting on future applications. But even if officers become less candid on paper, this will not inhibit them from being candid about applicants with their fellow officers. Typically, admissions officers overseeing particular regions will automatically reject students who do not meet particular criteria, and those who are not rejected will make it to the admissions committee. Once in committee, admissions officers openly discuss applicants, and when deliberating in person these officers will have no reason to fear candor.
There is a possibility that upon reading these files students will be encouraged to write applications that mirror accepted students, rather than applications that reflect their true high school experiences. But this kind of artificiality is already rampant in the college admissions process. Students across the board seek to fulfill the archetype colleges look for, whether they have knowledge of the accepted students’ application details. There is no reason to believe releasing these comments would necessarily amplify this issue.
While uncovering files via FERPA may not solve all the problems with college admissions, added transparency has, at the very least, the potential to improve them. Though this should not preclude us from seeking other, more pragmatic solutions, the Fountain Hopper’s discovery is a good start to a much-needed discussion about the overall need for transparency to ensure fairness and equal opportunity.
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