Commentary
The following is our most recent Press Release:
WEGOTIN.NET FAILS TO REACH THE STUDENTS FOR WHOM IT WAS FOUNDED
WeGotIn.Net was founded to shed light on the college application process and, in doing so, help students from less privileged backgrounds – specifically those without a network of friends, family and advisors who are familiar with selective college admissions. By revealing, for the first time ever, a large number of complete copies of actual, accepted applications to several Ivy League colleges, WeGotIn.Net hoped to help those high school students and level the playing field for admissions. WeGotIn.Net regrets that it is likely to have failed to achieve that goal.
This conclusion was reached after two years of operations, during which paying users exceeded requests for free access by over 100 to 1. Access to the database has always been free for students from families with limited incomes.
WeGotIn.Net is unique in that it offers students a look at what in fact has worked for admission to selective colleges, in contrast to the myriad other services offering what they think will work. The database has copies of over one hundred complete accepted applications to Harvard, Yale, Penn, Brown, Columbia and Cornell. A recent survey found that 94% of users viewed the database at least “useful” and 37% of users viewed it “extremely useful.”
The feedback from the survey also confirmed that seeing complete copies of actual, accepted applications can help students get a sense of how much to write for each question, what tone to use, and how much personal information to provide. The applications also sparked ideas for responses the students would not have come up with on their own. These are things many privileged students can rely upon parents or private counselors for. Less privileged students often can’t and WeGotIn.Net hoped to fill that void.
Paradoxically, we fear that our service is offering significant help to those students who need such help the least, thereby furthering the advantages they already have in admission to selective colleges.
We remain committed to the goal of assisting less privileged students with the admissions process and any suggestions as to how we can be more successful in reaching such students are welcome.
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The following are excerpts from two recent Press Releases:
WEGOTIN.NET ANNOUNCES ALL PROFITS WILL BE DONATED TO COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS
WeGotIn.Net is pleased to announce a policy that will further the mission for which it was founded – to help level the playing field for admission to selective colleges. Under the new policy, 100% of WeGotIn.Net’s profits will be donated to scholarship funds at the colleges for which it sells applications.
The primary motivation for starting WeGotIn.Net was to shed light on the college application process and, in doing so, help students from less privileged backgrounds – specifically the ones without a network of friends, family and advisors who are familiar with selective college admissions. This new policy will promote that goal. The company will also be looking at other steps it can take to help level the playing field for admissions.
SERVICE PROMOTING FAIRNESS IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SUCCEEDS DESPITE BAN
Despite advertising bans from such major sources of information for college applicants as College Confidential (which is under common ownership with the Common Application) and the Princeton Review, WeGotIn.Net has been successfully launched.
This unprecedented attempt to shed light on the one significant component of the college application process that remains shrouded in secrecy has been met with advertising bans and significant hostility from those with a vested interest in the status quo – such as the college advisors who charge thousands of dollars for their advice, the admissions officers who want to avoid public scrutiny and the privileged who see this as an attempt to level the playing field. In the case of College Confidential, the ban extended to the censorship of a mere discussion of whether providing copies of accepted applications will help less advantaged students.
Nevertheless, the strong positive response to WeGotIn.Net from high school students has far exceeded our expectations. Recent press and the resulting controversy have undermined the efforts to suppress this service. We look forward to next year when we will be able to offer copies of applications from more schools and help more aspiring high school students.