Admissions Game is Becoming a Headache

Attention Students and Parents!!!

Has any of these scenarios ever happened to you?

• Deerfield High School's Ben Lantow, 18, "dragged'' through three years teaching little kids to swim just to impress schools. "You can't just do one or two things, you need more,'' he said. "I felt like I had to do it because everyone else was.''

• A parent of a student at Lake Forest Academy, clutching a college guidebook, asked a counselor, "Can he get in here? How about here? Can he get in anywhere but College of Lake County?''

• Arizona State University, among schools vigorously courting top kids, offered a full ride to Deerfield High School student Greg Katz -- even though he hadn't applied. A National Merit finalist, Katz has received daily recruitment letters, e-mails and calls. The constant marketing was "overwhelming.'' One caller claiming to be doing a college survey tried to steer his applications. "They were trying to trick me,'' he said.

• A Lincolnshire's Stevenson High student spent 3-1/2 years on the debate team and in another club solely to pad his resume. "Stevenson pressured me into it,'' the student claimed.

If your answer is "yes," then you are either currently suffering through the college admission season or have faced the hectic season in the past.

An article in the Chicago Sun-Times takes a serious look at one of the most painful challenges in a student's life-searching for the perfect college and doing whatever it takes to get in. With parents making back-door deals with recruiters, students absorbing as many extracurricular activities as possible, and an increase unethical admissions practices within several schools (according to a 2003 report made by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors), the admission game has become vicious.