Online Extra: Amherst's "A" List: Affluence, Achievement, Athletics

If you think this is a level playing field, forget it, says the admissions chief. Talent with a hockey stick helps, too

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February 27, 2006 at 5:00 AM UTC

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Few people know more about what it takes to get into one of America's top colleges than Tom Parker, Amherst's dean of admissions and financial aid. Parker, who came to Amherst after many years in the admissions office at Williams College (he's a 1969 graduate), has now spent a quarter of a century working in the rarefied environs of elite college admissions, where even outstanding applicants are routinely rejected.

Last year, for example, his office received applications from a record 6,284 students. Of these, a stunning 76% ranked in the top 10% of their high school classes, and more than half scored better than 700 on either the verbal or the math portions of the SAT. Even so, Amherst rejected 81% of those who applied.