College admissions has become an arms race, and this bothers me. The parental-made-or-heavily-assisted portfolio being discussed here is just another example of a new weapon in the arsenal. I agree with people who've argued that talented low SES students may be at a big disadvantage because they and their parents don't know how to game the system.
Universities in most other developed nations rely heavily on test scores for admissions (A-levels, the Leaving Certificate, etc.). These tests aren't like the SAT; they involve long-answer questions (no multiple choice) and are require students to have knowledge and synthesize it. An exam typically has a number of questions, and students are told to answer "3 of 5" or "5 of 8" or whatever. So students have some choice.
A-levels, etc. are based on a standard curriculum that's often nationalized. This way, everyone is studying the same stuff. And these tests can't be gamed the way that our admissions process can be gamed. In the UK and Ireland, each program at each university has its own requirements. If you get the points, you get in. If you don't, you don't (you can take the exams again next year). Even Prince William had to get the requisite number of points on his A-levels to get into the program he studied.
I suppose that people in the US might chafe at nationalized (or even state-level) curricula or having so much ride on one set of exams. However, having been through systems here and in Europe, I think that theirs is much fairer than ours, which is exploited left, right, and center. Our system was probably pretty reasonable until about 20 or 25 years ago, when the current craziness started. Today, college admissions and tuition have spiraled out of control, and our kids have to have umpteen activities, perfect grades, a work history, a history of athletics, volunteerism, and whatever else just to make it through application triage. And every year, some parents find new ways to help their kids get an "edge," thereby raising the stakes for all and contributing to more insanity.
We need meaningful reform that can't be gamed. This would mean that portfolios, unpaid internships, fancy extracurricular activities, and so on wouldn't count anymore. Everyone would be measured against exactly the same standard.
