Admissions Archives - Page 2 of 9

Helping Your Student Accept Rejection

The Washington Post: “It’s a scene that will play out in countless homes across the country from now through the spring, as high school seniors learn that, despite their best efforts, they did not get into their dream college. Often, it’s equally dumbfounding to their parents … Indeed, the process has become much more fraught than it was when parents of current high school students went through it … Case in point: In 2016, UCLA hit a record number of applications: 102,177 for a freshman class of about 6,500 students, meaning an acceptance rate around 6 percent.”

“Well before applicants hear from colleges, parents can take proactive steps to head off their children’s discouragement should they get rejected. For starters, many experts suggest de-emphasizing the ‘first-choice’ idea and focusing instead on building an application containing multiple schools, all of which a student would be happy to attend. This advice applies even to students with a strong shot at gaining admittance to highly selective colleges … It’s important for families to recognize that there are many factors in the college-admissions process over which they have no say. For instance, you can’t control how many qualified applicants will apply to any particular school, or know what a school is looking for in a given applicant pool.”

“There’s no controlling how a student will respond to a college rejection notice. But parents can, and should, control theirs, advise experts … Most kids recover from the disappointment of rejection fairly quickly … Fortunately, experts say, 17- and 18-year-olds tend to bounce back from rejection quickly.”

Forbes Ranks Schools For International Students

Forbes: “Though America still hosts over a million foreign learners, first-time international undergraduates in the U.S. sank 6.6% in 2017 according to the IIE, a nonprofit that tracks international exchange in education. Even the schools that prioritize international students have been hit by the trend. At Forbes’ 50 Top Schools for International Students of 2019 (full list below), the percentage of undergraduates who were international surged from 7.6% in 2009 to 11.3% in 2016. In 2017, it nudged to 11.5%, a mere 0.2% increase.”

“To put together our best schools for international student ranking, we used experts’ insights and our philosophy of ‘outputs over inputs.’ We weight school quality at 60%, based on our Top Colleges rankings’ methodology. Drawing from the federal government’s IPEDS database, we weigh international student six-year graduation rate at 15% of our ranking. We reward schools with full-need aid or need-blind admission policies for international students, data we draw from schools’ websites, with 5% of our ranking each.”

“Schools with high enrollment figures in international students’ most popular majors like engineering, business and math are rewarded up to 5% (per the IIE and the government’s College Scorecard database). The size of schools’ international student body (measured as a percentage of undergrads and calculated by IPEDS) accounts for 5% of our score. The remaining 5% of the score is based on the number of foreign-born workers in the college’s combined statistical area, from the U.S. Census.”

Here is the full list of the 2019 Top Schools for International Students:

Princeton University
Yale University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvard University
Columbia University
California Institute of Technology
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Amherst College
Stanford University
Babson College
University of Pennsylvania
Claremont McKenna College
Georgetown University
Brown University
New York University
Pomona College
Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
Lafayette College
University of Chicago
Dartmouth College
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Notre Dame
Harvey Mudd College
Barnard College
Northwestern University
Carnegie Mellon University
Rice University
Swarthmore College
Tufts University
Williams College
Vassar College
University of Southern California
Vanderbilt University
Bowdoin College
Haverford College
Pitzer College
Washington University in St Louis
Bates College
Wesleyan University
Wellesley College
University of California-Berkeley
Boston College
Middlebury College
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Carleton College
University of Maryland-College Park
Grinnell College
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
Colgate University

Student View: How To Get Into UT Austin

The Daily Texan: “Current and former students who offer insight into UT admissions and campus life have become popular, unofficial faces of the University to prospective students on YouTube … Before her freshman year, marketing sophomore Julia Wezio made a YouTube video titled “How I got Into UT Austin Tips + Advice,” and today, Wezio’s video has over 33,000 views — more than any single video UT’s YouTube channel has made in about two years. Marketing junior Lynette Adkins also reached thousands of views on videos covering topics such as the cost of attending UT and study abroad.”

“Miguel Wasielewski, executive director of UT Admissions, said in an email the advice of current students is best when coupled with information provided by college representatives. Wezio, who watched YouTube videos from other UT students before applying, said she also thinks her success was partially driven by the authenticity of her content.”

Wezio comments: “It’s not so much that UT is trying to hide something from you, but it’s more so that they have to use that official language. They have to keep a certain image. When you’re talking to a student who can share their unfiltered voice and be honest with you, I think they’re going to be more honest, obviously about the negative things, but a lot more honest with the positive things too.”

How to Measure ‘Performance’ for Admissions?

Education Week: “Imagine a high school where students skip standardized end-of-course tests. Instead, to pass a class or graduate, they show off the results of big projects they’ve done, such as analyzing why the United States lost the Vietnam War or how geometric patterns can be used to produce solar energy … The trouble is that most college admissions officers already must review tall stacks of applications quickly. Few can carve out more time to read long descriptions of students’ work or watch videos of their presentations … how can college admissions officers get a quick and accurate sense of what students from performance-based schools have accomplished? A few projects around the country are trying to answer that question.”

“One of those initiatives, Reimagining College Access, wants to lower a key barrier to considering performance assessments in students’ admission applications: colleges’ software systems … most colleges use software systems designed to process students’ grades and test scores, but they can’t accept videos, research papers, and other projects. Reimagining College Access … works to create or find online platforms that can accept those kinds of student work. With the resources to spend more time on each student’s application, the most selective private colleges are the ones most likely to be able to examine more complex forms of student work … The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for instance, allows students to upload ‘creative portfolios’ that capture research, visual and performing arts, and maker projects.”

“A project based in New England has designed model profiles to help schools that use performance assessments convey their work clearly to colleges. They’ve also designed model transcripts to reflect the nature of students’ work in performance-based schools … The new model transcript provides more detailed information than ordinary transcripts. It uses a 1-4 grading scale for students’ courses. But it also provides grades for crosscutting skills, like problem-solving, and for mastery of specific standards within each subject. In English, for instance, students’ proficiency is graded separately in reading comprehension, reading interpretation, writing range, writing research, discussion, and presentation.”

Plus Factors: Yale Students Weigh In

Yale Daily News: “As the use of affirmative action as a factor in undergraduate admissions comes under fire, Yale students appear split on several other admissions criteria in a January survey administered by the News. Students were mixed on using a ‘recruited athlete’ status as a ‘plus factor,’ but the majority of students did not support using the metric of being the child of an alumnus or donor — either current or prospective — as ‘plus factors’.”

“According to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan,’plus factors’ are ‘certain aspects of a student’s application’ that enable the admissions committee ‘to build a class that both individually and collectively benefit the most from and give the most back to Yale.’ The University uses a variety of such factors, including being a recruited intercollegiate athlete, identifying as a first-generation college student, coming from a low-income background, being a member of an underrepresented racial or ethnic group or having ‘extraordinary creative ability,’ as evaluated by Yale faculty members.”

“In November, the News revealed that the Office of Development gives special treatment in the admissions process to ‘VIP candidates,’ who Adam Cohen, program coordinator for Yale’s Office of Development, characterized as ‘donors,’ before correcting himself to say ‘guests’ in November. VIPs in the admissions process are given the opportunity to tour Yale’s campus and speak to FroCos — first-year counselors — before they apply to Yale. No such program exists for non-VIP applicants, until they have been accepted to the college.”

Vanderbilt: Where Disabilities Are Not Disadvantages

Forbes: “According to Think College, a national organization dedicated to developing college opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, more than 260 colleges across the nation now offer on-campus transition programs for this population. transition programs immerse the students, many of whom have Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, or cerebral palsy, in campus life. They live in the residence halls, eat in campus dining facilities and navigate the typical demands of college students.”

“Their curriculum mixes courses on socialization, self-help, and independence skills with individualized training in employment competencies. In most programs, the students also audit one or more regular college courses each semester, selected and sometimes modified with their needs in mind. Another standard component is a practicum, job shadowing, or internship in the community or on campus where students hone practical work skills.”

“Typically, the programs are four to five semesters in length, although more mature programs, like Vanderbilt’s Next Steps and George Mason University’s LIFE have expanded to four years. After completing the program, students are awarded a graduation certificate that officially recognizes their achievement. Some may transfer to a traditional baccalaureate program.”

Alt-SAT/ACT: The CLT (Classic Learning Test)

Real Clear Education: “Starting a company from scratch that’s able to compete with the long-entrenched SAT and ACT in the college-entrance testing business sounds like an impossible dream. However, a pair of Annapolis-based entrepreneurs, philosopher Jeremy Tate and businessman David Wagner, have proven with the Classic Learning Test (CLT) that a market does exist for an SAT/ACT alternative that is based on the works of the greatest minds of Western civilization … the CLT had won approval from 145 colleges and universities as a legitimate indicator of an applicant’s readiness for college-level studies.”

“The test calls on aspiring collegians to show they recognize ideas advanced by such thinkers as C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Martin Luther King Jr., Plato, and Socrates, as well as that they understand the applicability of timeless lessons concerning truth, ethics, and morality. The CLT tests knowledge coupled with an unabashed devotion to values that have shaped culture and individual lives.”

Successful Applications Are Matter of Fact

Daily Pennsylvanian: “Like most universities, Penn does not have a standard system for fact-checking applications. Admissions officers perform initial reviews in as little as four minutes, and a call to a high school guidance counselor or an email to an applicant is as thorough as checks get … Given the massive volume of applications the University receives — 44,957 applicants for the Class of 2023 — current and former admissions officers agree that fact-checking applications is not feasible and instances of outright fabrication seem to be rare … Despite the lack of a formal fact-checking system, former admissions officers say they have still caught applicants lying.”

Elizabeth Heaton, a former regional director of admissions for Penn,”recalled an instance when a regular decision applicant plagiarized their essay based on an essay written by another student who had already been admitted early decision. The former Penn regional admissions director said when she noticed the stark similarities between the two essays, she decided to make a call to the student’s high school.” She comments: “We denied the student who had plagiarized and the other kid was able to keep his acceptance.”

Kathryn Bezella, Vice Dean and director of marketing and communications for Penn Admissions, “confirmed that following up with a guidance counselor or applicant is rare.” However: “Bezella said because of the high number of applications she reads and familiarity with her region, she can typically identify false transcripts and essays.” She comments: “After you’ve read several thousand essays by 17-year-olds, you do have some sense of ‘this is not how a 17-year-old writes’.”

Night of the Living Deadlines

The Wall Street Journal: “The deadline to apply for admission to Oberlin College was Jan. 15. Until it wasn’t. The Ohio liberal-arts college sent an email blast last Tuesday alerting high-school seniors that the deadline had been extended to Feb. 1. Other elite colleges, including the University of Chicago, George Washington University, Washington University in St. Louis and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have also extended their application deadlines this winter.”

“Delayed deadlines are a sign of the growing pressure many schools face to fill their incoming classes. They are receiving more applications than ever in part because stressed high-school seniors see record-low admit rates from some top schools, fret about their own chances and expand their list of targets. The Common Application makes it easy to apply to more schools without much additional work.”

“That all makes it challenging for colleges to predict who wants to actually enroll. Thirty-five percent of seniors applied to at least seven schools in 2016, up from 18% a decade earlier. In that same time span, the yield, or share of admitted students who enrolled at a given four-year college, fell to 34% from 45%.”

Boston College Adds ‘Early Decision’

BC News: “Boston College will introduce an Early Decision program for undergraduate admission this year, in an effort to meet the growing preference of today’s high school students and enroll more ‘best fit’ applicants for whom Boston College is a first choice, the University announced today. The decision will result in a shift from BC’s non-binding Early Action policy to a binding Early Decision program that will include two opportunities for students to apply early to Boston College.”

“For high-achieving high school students who view Boston College as their top choice, Early Decision I will offer a November 1 application deadline with a decision notification by December 15. Early Decision II will feature a January 1 application deadline with a decision notification by February 15. Students who prefer to apply Regular Decision will continue to have a January 1 deadline with a notification of April 1.”

“In moving to Early Decision, Boston College joins a growing number of peer institutions, including Wake Forest, Tufts, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Emory universities, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. Overall, 21 of the top 40-ranked national universities in U.S. News have Early Decision I and II programs.”