1.   A major study of the impact of race-sensitive admission policies at selective colleges and universities had just been published.

2.   For nearly a quarter-century, legions of minority students have entered selective public colleges and schools through a welcoming portal of affirmative action.

3.   If parents were operating in a vacuum of knowledge about their child, I suspect they would want selective colleges to admit students based on grades, not tests.

4.   Moreover, many white parents worry that places at selective colleges that might go to their children will go instead to minority competitors.

5.   Most intriguing, the research found that even students rejected by a highly selective college did as well as those who attended it.

6.   Most selective colleges and universities use race as a factor in admissions, a practice that has been under attack in recent years.

7.   Only about half of those applying to selective colleges take the SAT.

8.   Places in highly selective colleges are limited.

9.   Q. Does being Asian-American help or hurt your chances of getting into a selective college?

10.   Reading applications is an annual winter ritual on campuses across the country, one that has ballooned in scope at selective colleges as the number of applicants has climbed.