The Daily Beast reports:

The person deciding collegiate futures is likely overworked and underpaid, with little relevant experience or loyalty to the job….

…Admissions officers are most often former campus tour guides who got their start as application readers at their own alma mater, then ended up staying on as admissions officers by default. And a lot of them have backgrounds that show few qualifications to evaluate prospective students. One associate director of admissions we talked to had a previous life as a knitting-pattern designer. Another counselor fought wildfires. Even Harvard’s dean of admissions admits he was forced to repeat the 9th grade after skipping more than 50 days of school.

Not sure the author helps her case by calling out Bill Fitzsimmons. But it’s easy enough to believe that, a tier or so down from Harvard, the people deciding applicants’ fates may not be people who should be deciding applicants’ fates.