...The outsourcing of the authority to shape desires and instill motivation is the real issue here. Any reform of the college admissions process that does not question the power the process wields is limited from the start. While the continual evaluation of what counts for what in the admissions process is the responsibility of institutions of higher education, the continual evaluation of the extent to which our society grants the power to shape the lives of young people to an admissions process in the first place, in whatever form it takes, is a responsibility that falls to all of us. Young people are likely to become what we form them to be, according to the way we form them. What really commands the tide is the operative image of what we consider a well-educated, well-formed young person to be when they grow into mature adults.... Read more at Inside Higher Ed