The “Good” Old Days

While doing some archival research, I once ran across a former college professor’s faculty application from sometime in the late mid-20th century. I laughed out loud when I examined it: Of the first 10 questions, about seven were now illegal to include. My favorites were items like “Describe any physical deformities you might have” and “Height/Weight.” Even crazier: “List your graduate academic degrees” was the 25th prompt on the application!

Certainly we may complain about how higher education has gotten carried away with the various regulations we have concerning what’s proper and what’s legal in the application process, but that application was a stark reminder to me about just how much better the process truly is.

What parts of the application process do we still have that might one day be laughable?