What is happening in the world? Ok, that's a fair question at any point in 2020-2021, but let's focus our attention on college admissions. Nearly every highly selective school (and many others) saw a record increase in applications. UCLA had 168,000 applications come their way!! Harvard received 57,000 applications for freshman entry, a 42% increase! Tufts was up 35%, Amherst 32%, Duke 20%, Emory 19%, Northeastern 17%, and Georgia Tech 11%. Boston U was up 12% in ED apps alone! And after all that drama about politics and international students in the US, not to mention a complete shutdown of the education system for nearly a year, international student apps are up 11%. What accounts for this tremendous surge in applications? Surely there is no secret about US education. Rankings haven't changed significantly. The product remains largely unchanged over the past decade. What can be the factor attributed to this unprecedented increase? Test Optional Policies The elimination of standardized testing this year is the single most significant contributor to what we are seeing. Last year, 77% of students submitted self-reported scores to Common App. This year it was 46%. Sure, access was an issue as many students could not complete their testing. However, many already had test or could take them and still did not. For some, it makes it seem like the only thing standing between them applying to Harvard was the test score. What students (and parents?) think is that once that nasty test score that has been holding them back is removed, certainly this is their chance to be admitted. And by that rationale, shouldn't most of my students here with their 1500+ be now a lock? Of course, this is not the case, but it just goes to show how little most people understand about how this works. Below, John Katzman makes the case that although it appears that it is harder to get in to highly selective schools (admission rate), it is actually the same since there are now more highly selective schools. To understand where he is coming from, check out the supertutor video below that emphasizes just how far the acceptance rates have dropped over time. It has been hard to get in to highly selective schools. That hasn't changed. But what has is that schools that used to accept 40 or 50% of its applicants are now down to 10-20%.
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The letters are pouring in, but you get one that neither confirms nor denies your seat: The Waitlisted Letter. Technically not an acceptance; some ways to look at it is as being in limbo or as a soft denial. It sometimes means: we would like to offer you a spot in the class but we don't have one, yet. It isn't a hard denial as schools could use students from the list who help round out their class, yet many of the list will not be offered a seat. It doesn't seem fair. While other students are accepting their places and being assigned housing, some students wait until June or even July hoping that they will come off the list and into the class. Do you deposit? Should you have your hopes up? Is there anything you can do?
Some Possible Steps to Take if Waitlisted:
A number of schools, such as Scripps, Stanford, Tulane, and Notre Dame, admitted no students from the waitlist in 2014-15. And consider Carnegie Mellon, who extended a waitlist decision to over 5000 applicants. Brown has waitlisted 1000 more students than it admitted, and UPenn waitlisted 3500, about the same as its offers, yet they traditionally take 20-175 off of that list. In 2020-2021, the pandemic caused some incredible surges in applications, record lows in admissions rates, and increased waitlists. Ultimately, four students got a seat from that list. In cases like these, and many others where less than 4% of the waitlist will see a spot open for them, a waitlist letter is as good as a rejection. Which brings into question the practice - Are schools being ethically responsible in extending hundreds or even thousands of waitlist offers to anxious and hopeful students when the data indicate a minute number will ultimate obtain the coveted spot? See some updated statistics from the group of 2019-20. Hamilton's Guide on The Waitlist Georgia Tech's Look at the Waitlist |
AuthorOlder blog posts were for the UCLA Ext course "Using the Internet for College Counseling" Archives
February 2023
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