The first early admissions news we heard came around the beginning of December. Mod Squad Pete received news from two colleges on December 15 (email from one) and 16 (snail mail from the other). Pete has mentioned he might write about receiving college news for this blog, so I’ll leave it up to him for now.
A couple of reports came out this week on how the early admissions numbers look: tough.
The NYT‘s The Choice provides a spreadsheet, periodicially updated, here. Screenshot below; the spreadsheet is downloadable from the link.
Click to enlarge.
The Daily Beast offers a report, including a slideshow with numbers, here.
“This is one of the toughest years we’ve seen in a long time,” said Mike Muska, the dean of college relations at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep, and a former senior admissions officer at several top colleges including Brown and Oberlin. “I’ve heard from colleagues all across New York about kids with 750 SAT scores across the board who were getting deferred or denied if they were unhooked.” (“Unhooked” is admission-speak for kids without a special skill or niche.)
The report included this speculation on why there were so many more early applications:
Not surprisingly, several deans said they’ve heard consistent concern over paying for college throughout this admission season. “People wonder how they are going to manage to pay for four years,” said Jim Miller, admissions dean at Brown. “Just a few years ago they could be confident about home equity loans or an intergenerational transfer; in short, help from grandparents. That is no longer the case.”
Money, or the lack of it in some state university systems, has triggered an increase in early-decision applications from students on the west coast, particularly from California. Several private colleges noted an increase in applicants from California high school students. “These are kids who would otherwise attend the first-rate colleges in the University of California system,” noted one dean. “But with higher tuitions and reductions in services, private colleges are looking much more attractive.”
Pete’s waiting to hear from one more early admissions application; regular admissions apps still in the works. [Drumming my fingers on the desk.]
Related articles
- Waiting for Admissions News: Are we there yet? (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
- How to Apply to College… and When. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
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