All Duke's admissions dean needed to know about rejection, he learned in kindergarten

How does a college reject applicants? The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) counts the ways: Harvard is compassionate, Boston University discouraging. Mount Allision University offers a personal touch, and Duke is wonderfully kind: "I know you will find an institution at which you will be happy; I know, too, that the school you choose will benefit from your presence."

Duke admissions dean Christoph Guttentag knows what it's like to receive the dreaded thin envelope. "Mr. Guttentag says he's had particular empathy for rejected applicants," the Journal reports, "since his own daughter was rejected by several kindergartens four years ago."

Hold on. Did he just say kindergarten?