Most high school seniors are now entering the last leg of their college search and selecting the colleges to which they plan to apply.  Many are already beginning the college application process, especially if they plan to meet rapidly approaching early decision or early action deadlines at their top choice colleges.  For students looking for a last bit of data with which to game the college admissions system, the National Association for College Admission Counseling has just released their annual State of College Admission report.  Included below are some highlights.

Competition

The report shows that, on the whole, while most colleges and universities aren’t terribly selective, they appear to be becoming slightly more selective on average as they deal with larger numbers of students applying for admission.  Between 2001 and 2007, the average acceptance rate at colleges and universities surveyed declined from 71.3 percent to 66.8 percent.  Colleges largely seem to be expanding enrollment to meet increasing applications, though, with the growth in applications (24 percent) only slightly outpacing the growth in enrollment (20 percent) between 2002 and 2006.

The number of applications colleges received continued to grow in 2008, with approximately three out of four colleges reporting an increase in applications over the previous year.  Students also appear to be applying to more colleges on the whole, with the number of students submitting 7 or more applications growing from 19 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2008.  This growth in applications, especially multiple applications, has resulted in a decrease in yield (the percentage of admitted students who ultimately enroll) by about 4 percentage points.  However, a student’s odds of getting admitted off the wait list remain largely unchanged, hovering around 1 in 3 for 2008.

Selection Process

Also included in the survey were questions about the criteria college admission counselors considered most important when reviewing college applications.  The following criteria were given “considerable importance” (the highest level of importance in the survey) by college counselors:

• Grades in college prep classes (75% of counselors gave it considerable importance)
• Strength of high school curriculum (62%)
• Admission test scores, such as SAT and ACT (54%)
• Class rank (19%)

Criteria that received less importance in consideration were race, first-generation college student status, gender, alumni ties, high school attended, state or county of residence, and ability to pay.  Inside Higher Ed has an article with some nice charts comparing the level of importance given to all of the above criteria.

The Take Away

While there’s a lot of attention given to schools that are more selective, the majority of colleges admit most students who apply.  While more students are kicking the college application process into overdrive and applying to seven or more schools, these students still make up a minority of the college-going crowd.  Additionally, while applications are increasing everywhere, the pace at which early applications are increasing at early-action and early-decision schools seems to be slowing.

Overall, the admission process is only as frantic as you make it.  However, if you are applying to a lot of highly selective schools and the 1-in-3 chance of getting off the wait list if you wind up on it scares you, make sure you’re putting your all into your applications.  Get going on those application essays early and make sure to leave time for feedback and revision.  Also, you’ll want to approach your counselor for any letters of recommendation early–another item noted in the NACAC report was an increased workload for college counselors nationwide.

Posted: under College Applications, College Search.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, college prep, High School, Standardized Testing

Comments (0) Oct 20 2009

For high school seniors entering the last leg of the college search this fall, questions and frustrations are bound to arise, and the early source of confusion this year appears to stem from standardized testing.  The final SAT and ACT test dates before college applications are due take place this month, meaning more students will soon have their first encounter the College Board’s SAT Score Choice program, which allows students to choose which SAT Scores they want to report to colleges.

On the surface, Score Choice seems like a great innovation and a source of stress relief for students, and it might prove to be such if it were accepted by all colleges.  However, a number of colleges and universities require applicants to report all scores from all standardized tests taken, and this is where students are running into problems.

Specifically, not all schools that require the Common Application, an application shared by many private colleges and intended to simplify the application process, share policies on reporting SAT scores, yet the Common App currently doesn’t allow students to self-report different SAT scores to different schools.  This has left students unsure of how to address what should be one of the easiest sections of their college application (after all, it’s just transcribing numbers).

New York Times writer Jacques Steinberg took up this question for the paper’s blog The Choice, and his answer should help students get over this bump and onto the more difficult parts of the Common Application, like the application essays.  The advice he received when posing this question to the executive director of the Common Application was to simply leave the section blank. The College Board echoed this in a written statement.

Basically, since colleges will receive the official SAT scores (or ACT scores) you report to them when you take the test, they don’t need you to also self-report on the Common Application.  The question is asked only because some colleges take self-reported scores into account to get the ball rolling on the admissions process while waiting for your official scores.  So if you’re completing the Common Application and have multiple test scores that you don’t plan to report to every college on your list, you can safely abstain from self-reporting your SAT scores.

However, the jury’s still out on whether Score Choice will ultimately be worth the hassle it’s begun to present to schools and students this year. Opting to withhold your lowest test scores may not make that big a difference in your admissions prospects, anyway, since taking the SAT multiple times was popular before withholding scores was even an option.  In fact, some schools use your highest scores from all test dates, even dates with lower composites, when considering your application for admission or university scholarships, so withholding the test score where you finally nailed the verbal but completely tanked on the math section could conceivably hurt your prospects slightly in some cases.

Posted: under College Applications, Standardized Testing.
Tags: college admissions, College Applications, SAT, Standardized Testing

Comments (0) Oct 06 2009

The National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC) plans to address questions of early decision admission and the role of standardized testing in the admission process in panels during their annual conference this week.  In preparation, they have released the results of a survey showing that early decision admissions had begun to fall, as well as commentary on the state of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test (ACT) in college admissions.

A special panel convened by NACAC released a statement suggesting that standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT may play too prominent a role in college admissions.  While the report emphasizes that standardized tests can play an important role in the admissions process, especially in helping students choose which schools may be a good fit for them, it also declared the importance of avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to testing.  This position represents a shift from previous NACAC commissions’ stances on standardized testing.

Another survey released this week by NACAC highlighted other shifts in college admissions, namely a slowing of the increase in early decision admissions as compared to previous years.  Many schools are giving students going through the college application process the option to make a binding committment to attend that college if accepted in a process known as early decision.  Critics argue that this puts poorer students who are unwilling to commit to attending a college without receiving their financial aid package at a distinct disadvantage in being considered for admission.  While many colleges still are embracing the idea, this shift in figures could show some hesitation on the part of admission offices or students regarding the still-controversial issue.

Additionally, the survey illustrated some doubt regarding a new practice of priority applications, which are sent to students based on a variety of criteria and are already partially completed.  Priority admission applications are sent by the school, rather than requested by the student, and are typically sent out based on prior contact with the admissions office, test scores, or geographic location.  Only 4% of these forms, which occasionally come with an application fee waiver, are sent to students based on economic status.

Other survey results showed that more students seem concerned with ensuring they make the right college choice, and that most students who apply to schools are given the opportunity to go to college.  An increasing number of students are applying to more than seven colleges, and that about the same number of students as the previous year applied to more than three schools.  Nationally, 68 percent of students who apply to colleges are admitted.  Online applications also continue to gain popularity.

Posted: under Back to School, College News, High School, Standardized Testing.
Tags: ACT, SAT, Standardized Testing

Comments (0) Sep 24 2008