Admission

In this section of Admission I very interested in Portia's reaction to seeing students in person. While reading the book, I felt as if Portia feels uncomfortable being around students. Maybe she has grown so accustomed to being introduced to students through paperwork that she now feels uncomfortable meeting students in person. When Portia met Simone, a prospective college student, I also found that whole interaction to be so forced and awkward. First of all, Simone went to go and visit Bryn Mawr earlier in the day, and she would not even get out of the car and explore the University. She judged the school purely based upon initial reaction and how it looked. How come someone who probably writes about how deserving she is to go to a University would write off an entire school based upon initial reaction. It was so strange in my mind. I felt as if Simone was someone who was not ready for middle school, let alone college. Another student that Portia met was Nelson, someone who was so infatuated with his video game that he would barely even acknowledge people who are in his vicinity. I was hoping to see more of a reaction from Portia to this interaction. I am very interested in seeing the Admission's officers faces when they admit purely brilliant and technologically advanced students in their schools but these same students are so ill prepared for life as they are missing any semblance of “people skills” or any type of decent human interaction.

I guess I wouldn't blame Portia for her poor interactions with college age student's, as questions about her career as an Admission's officer will almost undoubtedly come up, and it must be kind of repetitive. Also, when she meets someone who is about to apply to college, (like John's niece) she must feel used when she gives free college counseling. Portia's job really defines her whole life, almost everything she says, or does is somewhat involved with her job as an Admission's officer. She gets this overly judgmental personality that comes with the job, and in my opinion makes her resent the students aged 17-19. Whether the resentment comes from her paradox of being in power over the student and yet feel inferior to the same student's achievements, or maybe in the simple fact that she doesn't like to judge students, Portia lets her career define her entire character. For most, the college application process is a painful, one time occurrence. For Portia, it seems like the college application business is a painful career long process. I have always felt that the whole college experience is overrated, and that the way Portia described the application was the perfect analogy. She described the application as an iceberg, where only the best, most interesting facts are visible, however, there still is a lot of stuff that never comes up from under the water in an application. I feel the same way as how the system has been studied, and people who do well with this process are either very persuasive, or would do very well as con-artists.