For Jena Merl, a senior at Ransom Everglades School in Miami, Northwestern University was a back-up. She applied early to Columbia University in the fall after falling in love with the Manhattan campus.

UC Berkeley admitted only 21.5 percent of freshmen applicants for the 2008-09 school year, the lowest acceptance rate in campus history, officials announced Monday.

Would the burden of an additional 40 or so students spread over the twelve Houses really have been so great? If so, can we expect the administration to also do away with the infamous Z-list, a small group of admits, often legacies from privileged backgrounds, that Harvard asks to take a year off before they can matriculate?

Imagine if an I-banking firm announced in mid-March that they suddenly wouldn’t need any interns or employees, after candidates had slaved away over résumé building and interviews.

This school should do everything it can to turn away as few qualified applicants as possible. But what it shouldn’t do is impose a cap that could actually diminish the student body’s overall quality.

The University of Florida College of Medicine’s dean may have violated national accreditation standards by overruling the college’s selections committee and admitting a student from a politically connected family.