In a letter in the Oct. 10 issue, Ken Phillips ’62 wrote exhorting the University to make admission decisions based on “potential” rather than on “achievement.” I’d argue that it already does so — not only because Shirley Tilghman, Janet Rapelye, and other University officials have said as much on the record, but because without the consideration of potential, the University would never have admitted me.
On paper, I was a good-enough high school student, but I was no valedictorian, prizewinner, or artistic or athletic superstar. Instead, the admission officers who read my file must have seen a spark in my essays that would burst into flame in a challenging university setting in a way that it hadn’t in the more circumscribed environment of my high school. Indeed, it did — and I shall be forever grateful for that relatively large leap of faith, which allowed me to succeed at Princeton and to carry on to do graduate work in my field. That many such leaps of faith have turned out to be well-founded is the mark of an admission staff that knows its business very well.