Hopeful applicants labor over every word, straining to set themselves apart through carefully crafted anecdotes that demonstrate why they merit a place at the most selective universities. But for students aspiring to a spot at the University of Cambridge, their time is apparently wasted.
Cambridge's director of admissions has caused an uproar by implying that his institution does not give any weight to personal essays in applications.
"With the profusion of companies and Web sites offering to help draft applicants' personal statements for a fee, no admissions tutor believes them to be the sole work of the applicant anymore," said Geoff Parks, according to both The Times and The Guardian. "We certainly don't assign any marks to personal statements," Mr. Parks added in The Times.
Mr. Parks's comments have fueled controversy and prompted Cambridge to post a statement on its Web site to deal with what it calls "a number of misleading impressions" caused by "recent media reports about the use of personal statements and their value in the admissions process."
The statement says that personal essays, as well as teacher recommendations, are indeed evaluated as part of the application process. "We would like to assure all applicants and their advisers that, when making our admissions decisions, we do take into account all the information available to us, including that contained in personal statements and references," the statement says.
In his comments, Mr. Parks also suggested that "now that students can ask to see their references, teachers have stopped saying anything interesting or controversial," The Times reported, and those recommendations are therefore also given little weight.
The comments from Cambridge have sparked heated exchanges among admissions officials, The Guardian reported. In comments posted on a Guardian discussion board, someone describing himself as a former admissions official at another top British university said that he too had "ignored personal statements," as did many of his colleagues. "It's time the message got out to applicants, parents, teachers that we really don't care about personal statements, and they can stop worrying about them," he wrote.
—Aisha Labi
Web Site Tracks Flu's Impact on Universities
With the H1N1 flu epidemic wreaking havoc on exchange programs throughout the Americas, the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration has started a new Web site to track the virus's impact on universities.
Since the epidemic broke out in Mexico, in late April, the organization, known as Conahec and based at the University of Arizona, has been flooded with calls and e-mail from university administrators, students, and parents. Many have asked whether to halt or delay international programs in Mexico and whether students already there should be sent home, said Francisco Marmolejo, Conahec's executive director.
The new site, accessible through an icon on Conahec's main Web page, includes flu-related statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from the Mexican. —Marion Lloyd
Canadian Professors Are Well Paid
Full-time Canadian professors earn, on average, $86,000 to $132,000 in U.S. dollars, according to a preliminary report on faculty salaries issued by Statistics Canada.
The data in the report represent a snapshot of salaries on October 1, 2008. The report says: "It should be noted that many factors can influence salaries, including qualifications and number of years teaching. As well, some universities impose a maximum to the salary range for each rank while others have an open-ended scale."
The highest-paid professors, according to the report, are at the University of British Columbia, and the lowest are at Cape Breton University. The report contains data from only 27 of the 116 institutions that were included in the 2006-7 salary survey, the most recent with final results compiled by the statistics agency.
The Canadian university system is mostly publicly financed and has a reputation for paying full-time faculty members well, partly because most of them are unionized. Starting salaries in Canadian higher education are the highest in the world, according to a report comparing 15 countries that was issued last year by Boston College's Center for International Higher Education. —Karen Birchard
