It's a cruel irony that the more people buy into the notion that there's a "right" college or university out there for them (a myth that's perpetuated by the schools themselves), the harder it is for students to get in. Kids and their parents see how hard it is to get into "good" schools so they apply to more colleges, which in turn lowers the chances of acceptance for everybody.
This makes the admissions process far more random than colleges would like us to believe. And it makes the myth of a meritocracy, on which the selective admissions system is built, substantially a lie.
Selective colleges did not mean for this to happen; rather, they are victims of their own success, along with the emergence of a truly national higher education market and the rise of a rankings-driven consumer culture. But, there is no going back now, so colleges should embrace the unavoidable randomness and go from a lottery-like system to a true lottery. For more on why and how this might work, read my piece in today's InsideHigherEd.
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