Question: Is it a positive development that elite universities are seeing more applications for fewer spots?

Gaston Caperton: Well, I think first of all that if we didn’t have electronic applications that you wouldn’t see quite that same kind of growth. I think, second of all, is that, I see that as a good sign because those institutions are recognized as being institutions of great excellence, worldwide excellence. So if more and more students think of themselves as world class scholars, it’s great that there’s that many kids that want to go to the very best schools.

When I talked to parents and students, what I emphasize is there are so many great schools in America. And as a minister told me once when I was quite young, and he was talking about the people that came to him for advice, he said, I told him that there’s not this college or university you’d go to that you can learn all they have to teach you. So, I believe that we have a great number of great institutions in this country and your future then depend upon going to the very best, that people can get a great education. And if you look at people that are successful in this country, not all of them have gone, certainly many of them haven’t gone to what we would consider the most elite schools in this country.