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'How competitive were college admissions this year?'
| pale beady-eyed hominid milk | 06/16/10 |
| Lemon Orchestra Pit Dingle Berry | 06/16/10 |
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Date: June 16th, 2010 4:20 PM Author: pale beady-eyed hominid milk Subject: Connecticut perspective by the Danbury News-Times How competitive were colleges this year? Eileen FitzGerald, Staff Writer Published: 02:18 p.m., Monday, May 24, 2010
How competitive were colleges this year?
It depends on who you talk to.
High school guidance counselors in the area are trying to understand the decisions of normally predictable colleges, which have left some students buoyed and others flatfooted this spring.
What's clear is it's harder to be accepted at state schools as good students choose lower-priced schools against the backdrop of an uncertain economy.
And then throw these facts into the mix, that students apply to eight to 15 colleges, instead of two to four as in years past. Also, nationally, the number of students attending two or four-year colleges continues to grow despite the overall number of students is declining slightly. In 2007, of the 2.9 million graduates in the country, about 67 percent attended college. In Connecticut the percentage is higher.
In 2008, there were 38,332 Connecticut high school graduates, 29,217 enrolled in a two-or four-year college, which means more than 76 percent enrolled.
Those factors make college admissions a naturally competitive environment.
"We are at the peak of the highest number of students graduating from high school, and we have more kids who are qualified across the country," said Brian Usher, the University of Connecticut's interim admissions director.
Brookfield High School senior Michael DiScala gives a nod to luck, too. The 17-year-old will attend Yale.
He was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania but not Princeton, the other Ivy League college he applied to. He was wait-listed at highly competitive Northwestern University and Carnegie Mellon University.
"Part of it is luck -- if you're what they need at that particular time they are reviewing your application," DiScala said. "Yale and Princeton were my top two schools. I could see myself at both schools."
Some of his friends didn't get into the colleges they expected to.
"I saw kids not get accepted to schools they had a good chance to get into, and I saw kids get into a school that I didn't think they would. It was very interesting," said New Fairfield High guidance director Don Przytula.
"I think college admissions (staff) plan a strategy over many years, and they know how many students they want to accept. I think the economy has thrown a monkey wrench into the mix. People are looking for bargain-priced schools and (the old) formula is not working."
Cathy Neill, who runs the career center at New Milford High School, also found this year unpredictable.
"We always had kids who went to Cornell, but none got in this year," she said. "The kids who applied for early decision got accepted by the more elite schools. I wonder if the schools took so many early that there isn't room for the regular-acceptance kids."
Danbury High School senior Katherine Araujo was surprised by events this year.
"I applied to Pace and WestConn, and I got into Pace but not WestConn," the 17-year-old said. Both are ranked competitive, according to a college ranking guide. "I started to think about going to Naugatuck, with a plan to transfer to WestConn."
She's an example of what Danbury High School guidance counselor Valerie DeRubertis has seen this year.
"In general, more private schools are accepting more students and state schools are becoming more selective," DeRubertis said. "I've seen some private schools offering more financial aid, making packages so the costs can look more appealing to students.
Bethel High School counselors also found acceptances unpredictable, too, but Bethel's college and career center associate Danielle Conley said competitiveness must be viewed within the context of the programs.
"If a school is trying to fill a certain program, that's a factor. Even women going into engineering makes a difference,'' she said. "The admissions counselors look at so many things."
Newtown High senior Brady Eggleston applied to 14 schools and was accepted at most.
She'll attend Oberlin College in Ohio.
"From hearsay among my friends, it was a competitive year,'' she said. "We were denied from some of our top choices."
She was accepted at a New York state and a Virginia state school, but learned it was an especially competitive year for out-of-state students. That's because so many in-state students applied because of the value of in-state tuition.
Ridgefield High guidance director Juanita Hill found the landscape "wildly" unpredictable in some cases this year.
For instance, Boston University received so many applicants that it was able to chose students way above the bar that is normally its cutoff.
She also sees the problem of students sending out as many as 20 applications, at a cost ranging from $35 to $100 apiece. They are accepted to schools they don't plan to attend, which holds up acceptance for those on the wait list who are eager to attend, she said.
Generally, the most competitive schools accept less than 20 percent of their applicants. Williams College in Massachusetts, which had 6,600 applications, accepted 1,200 students. It wants 550 in the freshman class.
"It's as competitive as it's ever been. We accepted 18 percent of our application pool, which is a little lower than last year when we accepted 20 percent of the pool,'' said Richard Nesbitt, Williams director of admissions.
"The academic qualifications are as high as ever. The quality is excellent. We were very pleased."
Nesbitt heard that some Ivy League colleges had more students decide to attend than they anticipated.
"There's hardly a rhyme or reason," he said. "There doesn't seem to be a pattern this year."
There's no way to take all the most qualified applicants, he said, but generally students will be happy at their second or third choice.
Newtown High guidance counselors see a lot of students will attend the University of Connecticut this year.
"We have a lot of kids coming off the UConn wait lists, so that means other students have chosen to go to private schools,'' Newtown High head of guidance Cathy Ostar said. "And we have some very, very impressive students attending UConn for some great programs up there. It's a great option for a lot of students." |
Date: June 16th, 2010 4:35 PM Author: Lemon Orchestra Pit Dingle Berry Hey, thanks, fan!
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