Flag is raised on admissions
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

Shortly after Harvard announced last month that it was ending its early-admission policy, admissions dean William Fitzsimmons got a thank-you e-mail from a woman with a story to tell.

She and her best friend had applied to the same school. The friend got in, she didn't. And that was the end of the friendship.

Now, as Fitzsimmons prepares to conduct Harvard's last review of early-admission applicants (the deadline is Nov. 1), he worries that the admissions "rat race" is destroying "the quality of the social fabric" in high schools. the rest