Focus on the next fours years, not the last.

Focus on the next fours years, not the last.

The class of 2022 is resilient. They’ve weathered a pandemic, the confusion of test-optional, okay at best online schooling—the list goes on. 

Great read in Charter by S. Mitra Kalita. “Bottom line: You’re going to be fine. Let’s focus on the next fours years, not the last!”

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Looking Beyond “Highly Rejective Colleges”

Looking Beyond “Highly Rejective Colleges”

Linking to a post by Lynn O’Shaughnessy on The College Solution blog that introduced us to the spectacular term highly rejective college. 

The term highly rejective college was coined by Akil Bello, who is an expert on standardized testing and senior director at FairTest, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing standardized testing.

Highly rejective schools focus on turning away nearly all applicants. Rather than use their considerable financial might and prestige to expand the number of students they educate on their own campuses or through satellite campuses, they cling to the status quo.

More higher-ed observers, including Jeff Selingo, the former top editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, are using the term highly rejective colleges because that accurately defines what these institutions are all about. 

Lynn’s article also features some insights from Tuition Fit’s Mark Salisbury. Here is what Salisbury said about this 2021 phenomenon is impacting popular universities and colleges:

  1. Students who normally would apply to second-tier selectives “shot their shot” with the uber selectives.
  2. As a result, those students didn’t apply to those second tiers at quite the same rate.
  3. Those students got rejected at the uber selectives like they always do.
  4. The second tiers are in the midst of a scramble to get more applications because their admission modeling depends on it. [this is where better deals might emerge!]

Read the whole article here—it’s a must-read!!!

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Class of 2023 Admission Results

Decisions are out, and many colleges and universities have released admit rates and final numbers for the class of 2023. Head to College Kickstart for a breakdown and comparison to last year’s numbers at some of the top tier schools in the US. As in years past, schools have seen record application numbers and admit rates are going down.

In our work with applicants, we focus on creating a list that makes sense and doesn’t leave students with an insane amount of apps to complete, or an insane amount of rejections. However, some students do not take our advice. During the last four admissions seasons, we have had multiple students apply to 15+ colleges, most in RD. We did not advise this, but my guess is against the advice of many counselors, students and parents are pressing submit on as many schools as they can. Why? Partly because of how competitive the RD round can be, and they took some risks early, and it did not work out; partly because they can afford it; partly because for some strange reason they think Hail Mary’ing it might just work out. There are probably other reasons, but these are the three we most frequently encounter.

We say this every year, but we hope families begin to realize that this approach does not work. It is a waste of time and money. What’s worse, it creates an insane amount of stress on the student and most often results in more rejections than acceptances, which make students feel terrible because it is very hard, at age 17, to comprehend that a college rejection is really not personal.

In addition to surging application numbers (thank you, Common Application!), the competition is fierce. There’s a chance the profile that might’ve gotten you into your dream school a few years ago won’t hold up in the current admissions landscape…but have hope. There are more colleges and universities in the US and abroad than the top 20-30 schools! And guess what? These schools accept a lot of students, and you might even get money from them, and you will likely be just as happy there as a top ~20 school.

It is time to think outside of the box. The landscape now requires it—even for students with perfect grades and test scores. Those things are commonplace; you need far more than numbers to get into a top tier school. And what you need is what our work with students focuses on. Students have control over a lot in this process but only if they start early to develop what will help them stand out while at the same time broadening their college-knowledge and looking carefully at schools that might not have been on their radar initially.

Another reason to have hope is there are ways to differentiate your profile that actually work. Our students engage in extended research and outreach. Beyond getting close with reps, current students, faculty, and young alumni, our students connect with schools where they are already spending time: online. Connecting with schools via social media, as well as having a strong online presence via LinkedIn, can be beneficial. We believe your digital footprint and the presence of a digital portfolio can help not hurt you in the college application process. The students who take our advice become savvy networkers with the colleges on their list, and it pays off big time.

Anyway, back to the news. Thanks always to College Kickstart for providing all of our admissions-related data needs.

 

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Top Undergraduate Business School Admit Rates

Rank School Admissions Score Acceptance Rate Average SAT Percentage of Top 10%
1 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 100.00 6.49% 1486 97.00%
2 Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) 98.37 9.70% 1510 91.00%
3 University of California-Berkeley (Haas) 94.09 4.30% 1490 80.85%
4 Cornell University (Dyson) 92.14 2.90% 1453 83.33%
5 University of Michigan (Ross) 89.58 12.00% 1470 82.22%
6 New York University (Stern) 88.73 8.00% 1468 77.08%
7 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) 88.00 12.00% 1473 78.00%
8 Georgetown University (McDonough) 87.64 15.84% 1431 90.00%
9 University of Virginia (McIntire) 86.79 12.15% 1407 90.00%
10 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) 83.74 19.00% 1429 84.60%
11 University of California-Irvine (Merage) 81.60 22.00% 1359 98.00%
12 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) 79.60 12.17% 1367 82.70%
13 Southern Methodist University (Cox) 77.50 11.12% 1494 49.00%
14 Emory University (Goizueta) 76.65 17.21% 1470 58.00%
15 Boston College (Carroll) 75.98 25.00% 1402 78.65%
16 University of Texas-Austin (McCombs) 75.71 22.80% 1384 80.00%
17 Villanova University 75.40 22.07% 1408 73.33%
18 Wake Forest University 72.52 24.80% 1378 76.00%
19 Georgia Institute of Technology (Scheller) 70.99 23.70% 1376 72.00%
20 Boston University (Questrom) 69.55 17.76% 1422 53.16%
21 Northeastern University (D’amore-McKim) 68.68 18.68% 1463 43.00%
22 Indiana University (Kelley) 68.35 40.38% 1437 67.97%
23 University of Wisconsin-Madison 65.64 35.00% 1405 64.00%
24 Tulane University (Freeman) 65.46 22.00% 1420 48.33%
25 The College of William & Mary (Mason) 63.67 22.40% 1346 61.00%
26 University of Richmond (Robins) 62.99 30.31% 1363 63.00%
27 Lehigh University 62.71 22.39% 1376.39 52.13%
28 University of Washington (Foster) 62.48 20.95% 1310 64.94%
29 University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (Geis) 60.15 48.98% 1365 73.37%
30 University of Minnesota (Carlson) 60.00 28.44% 1371 52.80%
31 Babson College 59.21 24.00% 1353 50.91%
32 Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Foisie) 58.01 36.00% 1395 50.00%
33 Fordham University (Gabelli) 55.16 44.90% 1361 59.30%
34 University of Pittsburgh 55.05 44.00% 1345 61.76%
35 University of Miami 52.71 30.44% 1327 48.00%
36 University of Georgia (Terry) 50.90 47.44% 1300 65.52%
37 University of Houston (Bauer) 49.92 25.18% 1309 40.87%
38 Rutgers Business School (New Brunswick) 47.47 46.00% 1349 45.70%
39 Texas A&M University (Mays) 47.13 34.07% 1281.72 48.80%
40 Syracuse University (Whitman) 46.42 38.10% 1304 46.00%
41 University of Massachusetts-Amherst (Isenberg) 45.56 30.60% 1336 30.10%
42 University of Utah (Eccles) 44.75 40.80% 1270 52.24%
43 American University (Kogod) 44.43 31.60% 1256 46.15%
44 Ohio State University (Fisher) 44.41 38.60% 1340 34.00%
45 Brigham Young University (Marriott) 43.12 63.16% 1325 57.01%
46 Pennsylvania State University (Freeman) 42.55 37.00% 1319 33.00%
47 University of Denver (Daniels) 42.15 46.30% 1299.3 45.00%
48 Texas Christian University (Neeley) 40.43 46.56% 1265 48.94%
49 University of Kentucky (Gatton) 39.70 69.79% 1395 40.00%
50 Hult International Business School 39.39 50.00% 1264 50.00%
51 Purdue University (Krannert) 39.32 62.00% 1268 60.00%
52 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Lally) 38.20 42.00% 1291 34.00%
53 Michigan State University (Broad) 34.82 32.19% 1241.77 28.27%
54 The College of New Jersey 34.52 41.00% 1254 33.00%
55 University of San Diego 33.89 53.00% 1275 38.00%
56 Santa Clara University (Leavey) 32.48 43.50% 1366 6.00%
57 Miami University (Farmer) 31.38 62.60% 1323 30.60%
58 St. John’s University (Tobin) 31.09 59.00% 1208 52.00%
59 Christopher Newport University 28.58 74.60% 1270 47.06%
60 University of South Carolina (Darla Moore) 27.02 65.10% 1299 28.41%
61 University of Delaware (Lerner) 26.53 46.40% 1285 13.20%
62 Seton Hall University (Stillman) 26.45 57.60% 1257 29.50%
63 University of Texas-Dallas (Jindal) 24.66 60.00% 1242 31.00%
64 Providence College 24.65 51.00% 1247 21.60%
65 Rutgers Business School (Newark) 22.92 55.00% 1157 41.25%
66 University of Tennessee-Knoxville (Haslam) 22.86 85.00% 1212.6 56.44%
67 St. Thomas University (Opus) 21.04 83.00% 1215 50.00%
68 James Madison University 20.13 68.31% 1217 34.00%
69 Drexel University (LeBow) 19.55 74.00% 1262 28.00%
70 University of Akron 19.19 73.99% 1154 51.02%
71 Elon University (Love) 17.71 72.10% 1249 25.00%
72 University of Missouri-Columbia (Trulaske) 15.62 69.17% 1220 24.00%
73 Florida Southern College 15.57 50.00% 1203 10.00%
74 Lipscomb University 15.35 61.00% 1156 30.00%
75 University of Oklahoma (Price) 14.39 61.77% 1212 16.20%
76 Rochester Institute of Technology (Saunders) 13.29 72.10% 1204 25.00%
77 University of Arizona (Eller) 13.13 79.00% 1110 51.72%
78 University of North Carolina-Wilmington 9.39 61.00% 1177 12.00%
79 University of New Hampshire (Paul) 8.02 64.10% 1171 13.10%
80 Ithaca College 7.82 80.18% 1221 16.40%
81 St. Louis University (Chaifetz) 7.28 83.03% 1241 13.40%
82 Sacred Heart University (Jack Welch) 6.39 60.80% 1156 9.70%
83 Northern Illinois University 6.01 53.84% 1110 12.60%
84 University of Michigan-Dearborn 5.13 62.00% 1147.8 9.80%
85 Duquesne University (Palumbo Donahue) 5.12 76.00% 1197 11.80%
86 Texas Tech University (Rawls) 4.53 76.40% 1093 33.78%
87 Bowling Green State University 1.09 70.00% 1128 12.46%
88 Evansville University (Schroeder) 0.00 88.60% 1171 17.64%

Colleges with Notable Admission Rate Changes for the Class of 2022

A few days ago, this post went out from a beta site by mistake! We apologize, and you can find the “real” post below.

My favorite data site (heck, one of my favorite college admissions sites generally!), College Kickstart, has compiled a list of colleges with the most notable admit rate changes. There are lots of falling admits to report, and many are at some of the most popular schools (at least among the students I work with). Many of the UC’s are represented, as well as some smaller schools like Scripps, Colgate, and Hamilton.

Review the list here!

 

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Updated SAT Subject Test Policies

From Compass, updated SAT Subject test (SAT II) requirements and recommendations for the Class of 2018. Not many changes here, but worth reviewing now as it is time to sign up for May and June exams, and think ahead as you create your testing plan. Thanks, Compass!

What’s Worse Than Waiting to Hear From Colleges?

….getting asked about it!

Later this month and throughout April, colleges and universities will notify students about their regular decision applications. Students will either be admitted, denied, or placed on the dreaded waitlist (although we have helped quite a few student get off the WL and into their dream school, ask us how!). Needless to say, it is a stressful time for all seniors who did not commit to a school after the release of early round results.

As we approach decision dates, consider giving this post (with video) from the Wall Street Journal a read!

University of California Seeks Cap on Out-of-State Students

 

From Inside Higher Ed: The University of California System on Monday announced a proposal to limit undergraduate enrollment from out of state, systemwide, to 20 percent, The Los Angeles Times reported. The proposal would allow the three campuses already over 20 percent—Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego—to keep their out-of-state levels. The remaining campuses would be allowed to grow to 20 percent but not exceed it, but only if the proposed systemwide cap is not hit. The university system has significantly increased out-of-state enrollment in the last decade, to 16.5 percent across the system, citing state appropriations cuts that have increased the need for other sources of revenue, such as the higher tuition rates paid by non-Californians.

The Times reported that faculty leaders oppose the university plan and fear that such limits could result in the system losing both top students and revenue that it needs.

The UC Board of Regents will take up the proposal next week.

Why I’ve Stopped Doing Interviews for Yale: Because the Admissions Situation is Crazypants.

Ben Orlin is right, college admissions is crazypants. The Business Insider article that stemmed from his Twitter post is worth a read.

Rejection by a university ought to feel like getting swiped left on Tinder,” he wrote. “There’s nothing terribly personal about it. The admissions office doesn’t really know you. The university is just looking out for its own interests, and you don’t happen to fit into the picture.

Orlin’s hesitation to be a part of a process that results in near total disappointment for applicants is even more understandable when looking at Ivy League acceptance rates.

For the class of 2020 the admission rate is below 10% for almost all Ivy League schools.

He flips that number around to talk about how many rejection letters Yale doles out.

No matter how sincere their intentions, the Yale admissions team is beholden to grim statistical reality: 94% of students are getting rejection letters,” he wrote.

Orlin suggests that Ivy League admission decisions should be chosen by lottery, and have base requirements that students must meet before applying in the first place. Will it happen? No. But something needs to be done.