Article first appeared in the Ithaca Journal January 16, 2007

The College Admissions Process has Changed Dramatically for the Current Generation

by Lucia Tyler

The doorbell rang.  The postman handed me a huge bin of mail for my son that wouldn’t fit in the mailbox.  Glossy brochures had been mailed to my son describing colleges from coast to coast.  That day was my first cluethat college admissions had changed drastically from the college admissions process that I remembered. “What caused this change?”, I wondered.

Universities and colleges first jumped into intense marketing mode when the relatively small Generation X was applying to college in the 1980s.  A smaller applicant pool caused colleges to compete aggressively to fill their freshman classes.  Around this time colleges began to purchase lists of student names who had taken the PSAT or the ACT Plan test from either the College Board or the ACT.  Students began to receive letters from colleges encouraging them to apply.  In some cases, these letters were very ambiguous causing prospective students and their families to confuse them with personalized recruiting letters.  This practice continues today, sometimes resulting in disappointed applicants who counted on admission because of their “recruiting” letter.
U. S. News and World Report has been ranking colleges since 1983.  As these rankings gained increasing public attention, college administrators became interested in increasing their rankings relative to other institutions.  One way to achieve a higher ranking was to increase the number of applications for the same number of openings.  Thus, as the college applicant pool grew in the mid 1990’s colleges continued the recruiting practices developed for leaner times in the hope that more applications would lead to a higher selectivity rating.

Today there is a record applicant pool which is projected to rise for several years yet.  Thus, some colleges have become significantly more selective.  A few institutions have taken a different approach by growing appreciably in size with modest growth in selectivity.

DePaul University in Chicago, IL has used this approach. However, the ultra- selective colleges including the Ivy League have not grown in size and are significantly more difficult to get into than they were 5 years ago.  Unfortunately, these 150+ schools receive most of the media attention, creating the impression that college admission is incredibly difficult, if not impossible.  Clearly, this impression is false when over 1900 four year colleges accept over half of their applicants.

The increased complexity and competition in admissions has also resulted in a 100% increase in the number of private educational consultants nationwide over the last three years to over 3000. The IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association) requires its members to meet standards of competency and sign an ethical pledge.  The purpose of IECA-member consultants is not to push students into an environment that is unsuitably difficult but to help them develop a list of colleges where they can be successful.  A few educational consultants “guarantee” admission to the Ivy League but most consultants find this a ridiculous promise when there are over 27,000 high schools nationwide and only 8 Ivy League schools. Most consultants seek to match students with several schools where they are likely to grow socially, develop intellectually, and graduate.

The adoption of the common application by 299 schools has also changed the admissions landscape by making it easier to apply to multiple schools online. Students also feel comfortable applying to distant schools they have never visited because they can take virtual online college tours, participate in “chats” with selected students and even see the campus in real time using web-cam features.  (Cornell University is among the colleges that offer you a birds-eye view of campus with their web-cam.) The average number of applications that students are submitting has steadily risen to a range of 6-8.  This of course creates problems for colleges who are also rated by U.S. News on their yield or the percentage of students that actually enter the college.  It is difficult in this climate of multiple applications to determine which students are likely to come.  This is where binding early decision and early decision 2 come in.  Universities and colleges welcome early commitments from prospective students so that they can plan ahead and increase their yield. Some selective colleges admit a significant proportion of their freshman class through early decision. This practice is unfavorable for those who need a good financial aid package because they can not compare financial aid offers from different institution.

As if things were not already complicated enough, high schools try to give their students an edge in the admissions process by adding AP courses, the IB (international baccalaureate) program, and joint courses with community colleges. Newsweek even rated high schools across the US in 2004 according to the number of AP courses offered.

The cost of a college education has skyrocketed over the past 20 years. Four years at a public university now costs on average over $60,000 while four years at a private college or university cost on average over $120,000.  However, colleges and universities are offering more types of financial aid packages.  Private colleges are in some cases cheaper than public institutions because of the amount of financial aid they offer.  There are also more competitive scholarships available than ever before in a variety of areas including writing talent, leadership, musical talent, and even chess playing.

What can students and their families do to make sense of this process?  The sheer volume of college information is overwhelming.  Students can inform themselves about colleges with less stress by starting their research no later than mid-junior year.   If the student lives in a college town like Ithaca NY, they can take a few local college tours to get some idea of their preferences. They can also start getting the flavor of campuses by using a descriptive guide such as The Fiske Guide to Colleges.  Comprehensive guides such as Barron’s or the College Board Guide to Colleges and Universities should be used to look at a broader academic range of colleges.  Of course, all printed material is two years out of date at least, so students should update their information on colleges of interest through their websites. After a list of interesting colleges is developed, students and families should try to schedule visits to those colleges when school is in session. The glossy brochures and attractive websites only tell part of the educational story.  Students need to experience the college campuses first hand to find a good match.