PREACH IT, BROTHER. At Caltech, there are no dumb jocks, dumb legacies, or dumb affirmative action students.

Caltech's single-minded focus on academic excellence in its admission's policies is no doubt partially due to the fact that its faculty, rather than its professional administrators, determines its admissions standards. Its uncompromising pursuit of talent and of those with a passion for scientific discovery is surely the main reason why such a small institution -- only one fifth the size of institutions like MIT and Princeton in term of its student body and faculty -- manages to produce world-class scientists and researchers in quality and number sufficient to gain for the university world-class standing.

That model cannot be applied everywhere. Time-serving, page-counting professors who never had an original thought, even in a dissertation; conscience-cowboys who substitute self-congratulation for serious policy; aspiring serial administrators all can poison the atmosphere of a faculty admissions or curriculum committee.