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Vol. 17 No. 8
April 2003
ADMISSIONS WATCH
Early Returns
A SLUMPING ECONOMY, HIGHER TUITION
COSTS and unsettled international affairs did not deter
college-bound students from applying to major colleges and universities
in record numbers for the fall 2003. As Colin Riley, director
of media relations at Boston University, said, "Despite
the poor economy, there's been no derailment of applications."
While the selection of applicants for admission continues
at many colleges and universities, COLLEGE BOUND has begun to
survey selected institutions around the country to develop a
picture of the application-admission ratio and to report on current
trends across the nation. Here are some early returns from this
year's admissions cycle:
Amherst College received 5,620 applications for 2003,
according to Tom Parker, dean of admission and financial aid,
up 8 percent over last year. An estimated 930 students will be
admitted. Amherst received 425 Early Decision applicants and
admitted 130, about the same as in 2002. International applications
were up slightly, to about 600. "We've had a record number
of applications," said Parker.
Boston University received 29,319 applications for
this year, a record number, according to Colin Riley. This is
a 9 percent increase over last year, and was the "largest
in our history," Riley said. It was also the "strongest
applicant pool in GPAs, rank and SATs." Roughly 500 students
applied Early Decision, a 25 percent increase over last year.
("We don't encourage early applications," he noted.)
International applications totaled 2,107, 11 percent over last
year, representing 122 countries. Applications from minority
students were up nearly 10 percent. But, it would appear "B"
students are not getting in, according to Riley. The admitted
students averag GPA: 3.66.
Carnegie Mellon University received 14,203 applications,
up about 4 percent, according to Bill Elliott, vice president
of enrollment. Roughly 6,500 students will be admitted. About
400 students applied Early Decision and 130 were admitted. "Applications
are running higher than last year," said Elliott, noting
that there was a decline after September 11, 2001, "but
applications are up again." The results: "We have tighter
selectivity and stricter admission criteria," he said.
Georgetown University received about 15,000 applications
as of March 7, according to John McGowan. While there is no final
number on admits at press time, about 21 to 22 percent of applicants
will be admitted, or roughly 3,000. This is the same number and
percentage as last year.
About 5,000 students applied Early Action, a slight increase
over last year. About 22 percent were admitted. Here, too, "B"
students are not likely to get in. "About 85 percent of
our admitted students come from the top 10 percent of their classes,"
said McGowan. As far as trends? "Applications have come
in earlier."
Grinnell College received 2,994 applications by press
time, also a record number and up somewhat from last year, according
to James Sumner, dean of admissions. Early Decision applicants
totaled 160, more than double last year, and about 55 percent
were admitted. Nine hundred international students applied, about
the same as last year. Grinnell had about 500 minority student
applicants, a dramatic increase, said Sumner, and about 40 percent
of these students were admitted.
Are "B" students getting in? "Virtually none,"
said Sumner. In fact, the screening of students has become stricter,
Sumner said.
Harvard College. According to William R. Fitzsimmons,
dean of admissions and financial aid, "Harvard continues
to attract many of the country's and world's best students in
these uncertain economic and political times." For entrance
to the Class of 2007, 20,918 students applied for admissions,
a record number.
According to The Harvard Gazette, the applicant pool
remained similar to last year with respect to gender, ethnicity
and geography. Seventy-seven percent of applicants asked to be
notified electronically.
University of Miami in Florida received about 16,700
applications "so far" and had admitted about 6,500
students at press time. Applications are up; admits are the same
as last year, according to Erick O'Donnell, senior assistant
director of admissions.
Roughly 900 students applied Early Decision and roughly 200
were admitted. Early Action applicants totaled 5,500, and about
3,500 were admitted. International Applications were up slightly.
The percentage of applications from minority students was 49
percent of the applicants, the same as last year.
Are B students getting in? "No," said O'Donnell,
adding that straight "B" students aren't getting in.
"We've become more selective over the last several years.
It's much more competitive."
New York University. More students applied to NYU than
to any other private university in the nation, according to John
Beckman. The university received 33,212 applications for freshman
admission in the fall of 2003, up 13 percent from last year.
NYU also had a record year for Early Decision applications, fielding
3,259 applications, up 11 percent from last year.
Since 1991, applications for freshman admission to NYU have
more than tripled. Over that time, NYU's acceptance rate has
declined from 65 percent to 27 percent for the freshman who entered
this fall, making it among the most selective universities in
the U.S.
This year's applicants also have the highest average SAT scores
of any group in the university's history. Next fall's freshman
class is expected to include some 3,200 young men and women.
Tulane University also received a record number of
applications, 14,000-plus, said Garreth Johnson, assistant vice
president for admissions. This is an increase of about 1,000
applications, a record number for the fourth straight year. About
53 percent will be admitted.
Tulane received 200 Early Decision applicants and admitted
roughly 60 percent. About 5,000 students applied Early Action
with a 55-to-60 percent admit rate. Tulane received about 145
international applications to date and has admitted about 64,
slightly down from last year.
While "B" students are getting in, "60 to 70
percent of our applicants have a better than 3.0," said
Johnson. We have a comprehensive review of all applicants and
some "B" students are admitted."
Any trends noted? "We've seen a significant increase
in Early Action applicants," said Johnson. "We also
had a very strong applicant pool. Also, about 75 percent of our
students come 500 miles away or further."
CB will bring you more numbers from this admissions cycle
in our May issue. (If you have a particular school you'd like
to hear about, drop us a note at s.sautter@sbcglobal.net)
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THE
FEDERAL DOLLAR
The Bush Higher Ed Budget
President Bush has submitted his 2004 education budget
to Congress, requesting $62 billion for grant, loan and work-study
assistance to aid an estimated 9.2 million postsecondary students.
About $12.7 billion of that amount is targeted toward covering
past and current costs of Pell Grants for 4.9 million students,
a $1.9 billion increase in funding. That adds up to a 12.4 percent
increase in Pell Grant funding. However, most of that increase
will be used to cover the program's current deficit, built up
over recent years.
The administration recommends that the maximum Pell Grant
remain at $4,000 for students most in need. That means the Pell
Grant will continue to lose purchasing power since it has been
stuck at that level for several years.
Funding requests for other grant and loan programs such as
Supplement Grants, Work Study, Trio and Gear Up remained level
with this year under the Bush request.
However, funding for Perkins Loans would fall by 60 percent.
The administration reasons that with loan rates at near historic
lows, families can get a better deal in the private sector and
save the government administrative costs. The Leveraging Educational
Assistance Program would be eliminated. It was created to induce
states to start their own financial aid programs for students
in need. The states have done that, and the Bush administration
figures the federal government can step back.
Federal aid to Historically Black Colleges and Universities
would increase by 8.8 percent under the Bush plan. Aid to Hispanic-serving
institutions would climb by the same 8.8 percent. And funding
for the Office of Civil Rights would increase by 14.6 percent.
Funding for Education Research and Development would climb
by about 52 percent. However, dollars for the highly successful
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education would be
cut by over 78 percent. That's a move Congress has repeatedly
rebuffed.
President Bush also requested $590.5 million for AmeriCorp,
a program for young volunteers who work in socially-valuable
situations in exchange for college tuition or repayment of college
debts. That's a 54 percent increase over 2002 funding levels.
The administration hopes to increase the number of AmeriCorp
participants from 50,000 to 75,000.
Don't hold your breath while Congress works out its own version
of next year's education budget. It is still trying to pass the
2003 education budget, which started last October. But the administration
has got the ball rolling for next year.
CB will keep you posted.
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THE COUNSELOR'S CORNER
 Predicting Student Performance in College
HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS AND SENIORS
who want an idea about how they'll do in college before they
actually enroll can take a free, online test created by Dr. Salvatore
Cullari, professor of psychology, Lebanon Valley College, Annville,
Pennsylvania. Cullari believes that his test is a better predictor
of academic college success than the SAT.
THE ACADEMIC SOCIAL EVALUATION
SCALE
Cullari's Academic Social Evaluation Scale (ASES)
test can be found at http://www.nvo.com/scullari/firstyeargpa/
and takes only minutes to complete.
The test asks students more questions about outside influences
that impact on academics than about actual knowledge. It has
been taken by approximately 2,000 Lebanon Valley students over
the past 15 years and Cullari found that the grade point average
(GPA) prediction by the test comes within an average of (plus
or minus) .25 of the actual first-year GPA of the students.
"It's a social and personality trait type of test,"
explains Cullari, a clinical psychologist and chair of the public
interest board of The Pennsylvania Psychological Association.
"Even though it's a short test, it has actually been found
to be a better predictor on how a student will do in college
than the SAT (Scholastic Achievement Test). The correlation between
SAT scores and first-year GPA is usually around .4. My test is
actually above a .5 correlation. The best predictor of college
first-year GPA is still high school rank and high school grades,
particularly rank since some grading isn't uniform across all
schools."
The ASES test provides an idea of how prospective students
might do," Cullari adds, "but not how they will ultimately
do. That's because students can change some things that will
improve their grades. It's like predicting the future. People
can do things to change that outcome. There's always that 20-percent
of students who either do much better or more poorly than the
test predicts. "
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BROADER CRITERIA THAN SAT
Cullari designed the ASES test in the 1980s for incoming
Lebanon Valley students so the school could predict students
who might have academic problems and possibly provide some intervention.
While the school discontinued that practice several years ago,
Cullari is going public with his test so students everywhere
can get an advance read on how they might do in college.
"When I started this, we knew that the SAT was not really
a good predictor of GPA, and that someone's personal characteristics
are better predictors. The SAT measured your scholastic aptitude
or your academic potential but it's all based on
academics. There are so many other things involved in how well
a student does in college other than just academics, such as
how emotionally stable students are, how their study habits are,
and so forth," he says.
"What I've found is that my test is actually a better
predictor of the student's graduation GPA than the first-year
GPA. Usually, you think that predictions are better for more
current events, like the first-year in college, rather than four
years in the future. Since most of the major predicting instruments,
like the SAT, use first-year GPA as a criterion, I decided to
do so as well. It's a good time frame, because students who don't
do well in the first year may decide to drop out, or perhaps
may be asked to leave by the academic institution. That's why
the first year is so important."
WHO SHOULD TAKE TEST?
Students who use this test should be current high
school juniors, seniors or recent high school graduates, and
should have already taken the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT).
This questionnaire was not validated with adults over the age
of 18, and therefore may be inaccurate with this age group. Students
who are already attending college should not complete this assessment.
Cullari also requires students to provide the following information:
- Their current or graduation high school rank. If they
do not know their rank, they should ask their high school guidance
counselor;
- Their latest SAT verbal and math scores. "If
students do not have one or either of these, they can still complete
the ASES questionnaire and get a prediction, but it may not be
as accurate," he says.
Cullari also requests that students not take this assessment
more than once, unless they've made an error on a previous administration.
In order to come up with the most accurate prediction, they also
must answer every question, and answer them as honestly as possible.
Cullari emphasizes that all test results will be held strictly
confidential and will not be shared with any other person, agency
or educational institution.
Mike Ferlazzo is with Dick Jones Communications in State
College, Penn.
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BOOKSHELF
Here are some recent publications on a variety of topics.
Food for thought. Start with a great sourcebook, Rugg's
Recommendations On The Colleges, by Frederick E. Rugg, 20th
Edition, ISBN 1-883062-48-9, $22.95. How to Transfer to the
College of Your Choice, by Eric Freedman, Ten Speed Press
(Berkley, CA), 265 pages, $12.95; The American Community College,
fourth edition, by Arthur M. Cohen and Florence B. Brawer, Jossey
Bass, 536 pages, ISBN 0-7879-6011-X, $48; Educating Citizens,
Preparing America's Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic
Responsibility, Jossey Bass, 352 pages, ISBN 0-7879-6515-4,
$28; The Higher Education Directory, Higher Education
Publications, Inc, ISBN 0-914927-36-1, $70.
Summer Internships. It's
not too late for students to get involved in a summer internship.
To get started, take a look at The Best 106 Internships or
The Internship Bible, both by Mark Oldman and Samer Hamadeh,
published by Random House/Princeton Review Books.
Top 10 Business Schools.
According to recent Business Week magazine, the top graduate
business schools, in order, are: Northwestern U. Kellogg School
of Management, U. of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Harvard
U. Business School, Stanford U. Graduate School of Business,
U. of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Columbia U. Business
School, U. of Michigan Business School, Duke U. Fuqua School
of Business, and Dartmouth C. Tuck School of Business.
Skipping the College Student
Exemption. The Kiplinger Letter, which hands out monthly
financial advice to its subscribers, suggests that high-income
families will need to skip the exemption for college students,
since it is being phased out for wealthy families. They will
"do better" by refraining from claiming the students.
"Kids can take tuition credits instead, even if parents
paid the tuition, as long as students owe income tax."
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FINANCIAL AID FLASH
Don't Forget the New College Tax Break. It's tax
season again. This year, taxpayers who are attending college
or who are paying for their children's education can take a new
college tuition deduction of up to $3,000 off the top of their
adjusted gross income, on a new line on the 1040 Form, if as
a single taxpayer they earned less than $65,000 or as a married
couple they earned $130,000 or less. In 2004 and 2005, the deduction
will increase to $4,000.
Florida's 529 Plan. Last
month, Florida joined the bandwagon of states creating their
own 529 college savings plans, an industry worth about $15 billion.
Prior to the new legislation, Floridians could have invested
in plans sponsored by other states and take the tax advantages.
The new option is called the Florida College Investment Plan,
and allows contributions of up to $283,000 to cover tuition,
books, room and board and is subject to market fluctuations.
For the past 15 years, Florida has also sponsored the Florida
Prepaid College Plan, which sells college-tuition units and is
essentially risk-free.
Aid Crunch Grows. College
financial aid offices are being swamp with requests for assistance,
not just from newly admitted students, but from students already
on campus. A March 10 New York Times article cited a 50
percent increase in aid requests among current students at Skidmore
College, a 39 percent increase at the U. of Michigan, a 30 percent
jump at Bowdoin College, a 30 percent rise at Willamette U.,
a 20 percent increase at Occidental College, a 15 percent increase
at the State University of New York at Albany and a 14 percent
increase at Barnard.
"It's stunning," Suzanne Guard, Barnard's financial
aid director, told the Times. Many aid officers said it
is impossible to honor all the requests. At Michigan, for example,
11,000 students have sought help this year, but the university
only has the resources to aid about 6,000. Smith C., on the other
hand, is laying off staff to fund student need. Making matters
worse is the continued increase in tuition, which at some state
universities may reach 20 percent this year.
Job losses by parents and the collapse of stock portfolios
seem to be the leading causes of these emergency requests. For
many families, this is the second or third year of economic hardship.
Many students may be forced to dropout or transfer to less expensive
schools.
New Partners. The University
of Chicago has created five annual merit scholarships, each worth
$27,324, to attract more graduates from the Chicago Public Schools.
Another 50 ninth-graders will participate in UC summer programs
and actual college courses during the school year. Eventually,
200 CPS students will be taking courses while still in high school.
The program is "the first of its kind in the country and
will quickly become a national model," Chicago Public Schools
CEO Arne Duncan, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
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NEWS YOU
CAN USE
State Funding Squeeze.
Recession and war have taken their toll on state budgets. At
least 33 states are facing deep deficits totaling more than $26
billion. That translates into budget cuts at the nation's state
universities.
Even before recent problems, state support was receding. In
1980, 9.8 percent of state revenues went to higher education.
But by 2000, that aid had shrunk to 6.9 percent of state revenues.
That translated into tuition paying a higher percent of total
costs. In 1980, students paid 12.9 percent of the cost of their
educations. By 2000, their share had risen to 18.5 percent.
Now the load could grow. In Illinois, for example, the newly
elected reform governor, Rod Blagojevich has called for state
universities to make significant cuts immediately. Tuition and
surcharges at the flagship University of Illinois have soared
by 42 percent over the past two years. The governor gave the
Illinois Board of Higher Education a month to come up with recommendations.
He stopped short of ordering a tuition freeze, although some
members of the General Assembly are backing that approach.
Kentucky, which has made big strides in upgrading its postsecondary
programs in the past half-decade, is struggling to keep funding
even with inflation. The Kentucky state General Assembly reorganized
the entire system in 1997. Now enrollments are at historic highs,
and the state boosted funding by 48 percent since 1997. The challenge
is to keep moving forward despite a state shortfall of almost
half a billion dollars.
In Michigan, new Governor Jennifer Granholm has proposed slashing
Michigan Merit Award scholarships from $2,500 to $500 per student.
The grants go to students who meet or exceed standards on the
Michigan Education Assessment Program tests. This year, 3,602
public school seniors qualify for $9 million in aid for the next
two years.
Critics complained the cuts will reduce student incentives
to do well on standardized tests. Defenders said those reductions
were preferable to cuts in funds that help low-income students.
New York Governor George E. Pataki wants public universities
to increase tuition by as much as $1,200 per year. Tuition hasn't
risen there since 1995.
And Ohio Governor Bob Taft has called for reinstituting a
cap on tuition after several schools raised rates by 18 percent.
The governor wants to hold the line at 6 percent at most schools.
Ohio State would be capped at 9 percent, since it wasn't one
of the schools to boost tuition by 18 percent.
Conservative Catholics?
About 38 percent of students who enter Catholic colleges and
universities believe abortion should be legal. But by the time
they graduate, almost 52 percent favor giving women the right
to chose. Similar changes in attitudes occur for other social
issues such as premarital sex and church attendance, according
to a survey in the March issue of The Catholic World Report.
HBCU Crisis. The nation's
103 Historically Black Colleges and Universities may be facing
the worst crisis in their existence, according to a recent Knight
Ridder News Service report. About 15 percent are on warning or
probation lists with accreditation agencies. Others are financially
strapped and cutting programs. They fear that the financial problems
will drive away prospective students and undermine quality academic
offerings.
Some 30 percent of all black Ph.D.s earned their degrees at
HBCUs, as did 35 percent of African-American lawyers, 50 percent
of black engineers and 65 percent of African-American physicians.
President Bush's proposed education budget for 2004 requests
a nearly 9 percent funding increase for HBCUs, up to $224 million.
That will help. So will the fact that HBCUs have survived many
hardships ever since their creation shortly after the Civil War.
Affirmative Action for Rich
Kids. According to a February 20 Wall Street Journal
article, many students with low SATs and wealthy parents are
getting admitted to selective colleges across the nation because
of their ability to pay full tuition and costs. Duke, Stanford
and Emory were schools cited by the Journal as schools
that "occasionally consider parental wealth in admission
decisions." These students are sometimes called "development
admits."
The Journal noted that while Duke has high standards
for most candidates, its endowment lags behind other great universities.
About 23 percent of Duke applicants are accepted. And 75 percent
of those accepted score above 1320 on the SAT. But more than
600 high school valedictorians are turned down each year. However,
each year between 100 and 125 students of wealth who would not
normally qualify are admitted at Duke. These students are not
among the legacies who receive preferential treatment because
their parents attended Duke.
The result? For the past six years, Duke has led the nation in
unrestricted gifts from non-alumni parents, to the tune of over
$3 billion in 2001-2002.
Swing Your Partner. Ending
a 143-year prohibition, Wheaton College in Illinois has declared
that its students may now take the dance floor. The evangelical
Christian college, alma mater of the Reverend Billy Graham, still
bans students from smoking, drinking or premarital sex, even
off campus. All students sign a "Statement of Responsibility"
known as "the Pledge" that they will follow the college's
moral code.
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TUITION TABS
A 7 Percent Solution. Case Western Reserve University
will increase tuition next year by 7.1 percent, increasing the
sticker price for undergraduates from $21,000 to $22,500. Room
and board rates will increase between 7.8 to 8.6 percent, depending
upon the kind of room and its location. However, CWRU claims
it is still "one of the best values in the country"
and its value is rated 21st among national research universities
by U.S. World & News Report. CWRU students received
$58 million in scholarships, grants, loans and employment assistance
in 2003. That amounts to $19,393 per student receiving aid.
The Pace Guarantee. Pace
University in New York is making a bargain with its students.
The school promises to freeze tuition at whatever level a student
pays during the first year of attendance, for the next five years.
That is, it will remain stable after one more increase of 15
percent next academic year.
The rate for the school's 9,000 undergrads will increase from
$17,800 to $20,540. Current students will face smaller increases,
which will also be frozen for them.
England Too. Tuition increases
aren't restricted to the U.S.A. In fact, in England where most
folks feel college should be free, tuitions could triple. One
proposal in Parliament would boost tuition from its current maximum
of $1,780 to $4,850 by 2006. How could students afford it? New
grants for low-income students are being planned. And, for the
first time, other students will be allowed to go into debt and
pay back after graduation.
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COLLEGE BOUND's Publisher/Editor: R. Craig
Sautter, DePaul University; Chief Operating Officer: Sally
Reed; Contributor: Marc Davis; Circulation: Irma
Gonzalez-Hider; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board
of Advisors: Rosita Fernandez-Rojo, Choate-Rosemary Hall;
Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (N.Y.) Central School District;
Howard Greene, author, The Greenes' Guides to Educational
Planning Series; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational
counselor; Virginia Vogel, Educational Guidance Services;
M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis,
Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.).
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