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To The Media: End the College Application Nightmare Stories

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Patrick O'Connor

It figures that August 1 landed on a Sunday this year.  What used to be just another beach day took on special significance a few years ago, when Common Application chose August 1 to launch its updates for the coming school year.  It’s exciting to be sure, but with a hint of melancholy, as a few overly enthusiastic parents use the occasion to tell their high school seniors “Summer’s over”, while the seniors meekly head towards the nearest computer, even on a weekend, muttering “But what if I don’t want it to be?”

Happily, more than a few colleges agree with the seniors.  While there was a stream—OK, a torrent—of colleges Twittering students on Sunday to hurry up and apply, more than a few colleges said “Start today if you want to, but our deadline isn’t until January.  Take your time.”  I had planned on thanking each of those colleges for posting such a message in the face of application mania.  I’m pleased to say there were too many to do so.

But this is just the start, and here’s hoping more colleges get on board.  The last two years of schooling have left this year’s seniors in pretty bad shape.  Day after day of waking up to find out if school is in person, online, both, or neither may have left them flexible, but it has also left them exhausted.  Students who fit every element of one (and certainly not the only) likely college-bound profile—from the suburbs, in a college prep curriculum, with two well-off parents who went to college—are saying out loud they just don’t think applying to college is worth the hassle.  That’s not because of the Delta rebound; it’s because their last couple of years of school have left them unsure of themselves and their ability to control their destiny.  Since any college admissions rep will tell you the key to a successful application is to let the student drive the bus, this is a huge problem.

Part of the solution lies with us.  August is peach and melon season in Michigan, a time when very rational people who never eat fruit feel a swelling in their taste buds that can only be satiated by interaction with produce that is truly a little slice of heaven.

This same thirst wells up in the media every August, but it isn’t for fruit—it’s for stories about the confusing, terrifying, uncertain world of college admissions.  With a new crop of high school seniors every year, journalists eagerly seize on their newness to college admissions, highlighting profiles of bright young people who find themselves flummoxed over how to apply to college, and when to apply to college.  Curiously, these stories rarely display a student’s confusion over where to apply to college, since the media only covers students who are considering the same 25 colleges ever year that admit about 5 percent of their applicant pool.  “She’s a National Honor Society president, but she can’t get her arms around Yale’s application.” Of course, these same students would be equally baffled by using a plumber’s wrench for the first time, and they easily get the hang of this college thing two weeks into the process.  But apparently, that’s not the point. The very first time they do something new, they don’t completely understand it.  My goodness.

The impact of this approach to college application coverage can’t be understated.  Thousands of students have already had to give up most of their summers at the insistence of parents who have caught the angst early, eager to make sure that college essay sparkles, unaware that the number one cause of weak essays isn’t underwriting, but overwriting.

Parents who haven’t been on their seniors about college since Father’s Day read these August articles and panic, fearing their child is now “behind”.  They plop their senior in front of a computer screen and tell them they can’t come out until an application is finished—for a college that doesn’t even start reading applications until January 10.

Parents whose children really understand themselves, and had no intention of applying to these schools, now feel their child is “losing out” on something, and suddenly insist that an application or two to the Big 25 is a good idea, “just to see what happens”, even though their student is well aware of what will happen.

This brand of media attention has never served high school seniors well, and it’s likely to make matters even worse for this year’s seniors, who are looking to gain their footing after two years of scholastic uncertainty.  In the interest of their well being—or, to use a phrase that is on the verge of becoming unimportant due to its overuse, their mental health—how about a few less media stories on the impossibility of getting into college and its excessive expense, and a few more stories about the 75% or so of colleges who admit more than 50% of their applicants, and the many colleges who are forgiving institutionally-based student loans?  Could the media finally discover the urban and rural colleges whose buildings have not a hint of ivy that are turning around the lives of students who didn’t have the opportunity to take 7 AP classes in high school, students who are shining academically?  How about the students who are making community college work, earning a degree that costs less from start to finish than one year of Harvard, all while the students typically work about 30 hours a week?

It’s certainly true many people turn to the media to read stories that will fuel their dreams—that’s why so many people follow the Olympics, and replay the video of the woman who was reunited with her dog after two years.  But stories about the uncertainty of the college selection process don’t feed students’ sense of the possible; they nourish their nightmares.  They’ve had enough of that these past two years, and may be headed for more.  The best thing the press can do for them, and for our society, is to admit there are more than 25 good colleges in this country, and wake the students to a better vision of how to apply to college, other than run a gauntlet that, at the end of the day, is largely of the media’s own making.

Common App Goes Live, Adds Clemson, Auburn, and 40 Others

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Craig

Clemson University

The Common Application, colloquially referred to as the Common App, goes live for the 2020-2021 application cycle on August 1, 2020, and in the process is adding forty-two new members, including big name southern public universities such as Clemson, Auburn, and Virginia Tech.

The Amazon of the American undergraduate admissions process, the Common App is user-friendly and entirely uninspiring. Yet, it keeps growing because colleges yearn for more applications year after year in a manner similar to a drug addict yearning for a greater hit high after high. The Common App’s ease of use is very good at delivering the application numbers colleges crave, which in turn helps colleges appear far more selective than they otherwise would appear if students had to actually take the time and energy to apply to each college one at a time using college-specific applications.

In any case, there are still some big-name holdouts that refuse to go Common App. These include University of Maryland (one of only two remaining colleges that accept first-year applications exclusively through to the failed and ever-ghoulish Coalition for College app), MIT, Georgetown, the UCs, and University of Texas among others.

Here are the colleges that couldn’t hold out any longer and were seduced by the Common App for the application season ahead:

Mid-Atlantic

Bryn Athyn College (PA)

Carlow University (PA)

Holy Family University (PA)

Medaille College (NY)

Mid-West

Baker College (MI)

Buena Vista University (IA)

Bethel University (MN)

Cornerstone University (MI)

Lake Superior State University (MI)

Indiana Wesleyan University (IN)

Loyola University Chicago (IL)

Northern Illinois University (IL)

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (WI)

Wilmington College (OH)

South

Arkansas Baptist College (AR)

Auburn University (AL)

Augusta University (GA)

Clemson University (SC)

Coastal Carolina University (SC)

Lees-McRae College (NC)

Milligan University (TN)

Norfolk State University (VA)

Palm Beach Atlantic University (FL)

Richard Bland College of William and Mary (VA)

Spalding University (KY)

Texas Tech University (TX)

Trevecca Nazarene University (TN)

Tuskegee University (AL)

University of Georgia (GA)

University of Louisville (KY)

University of Texas at Dallas (TX)

University of Texas at San Antonio (TX)

University of South Florida (FL)

Virginia Tech (VA)

Winthrop University (SC)

West

Fresno Pacific University (CA)

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (CO)

International

New College of the Humanities, London

With plague sure to shutter a growing number of colleges over the coming years, expect more – particularly small – colleges to join the Common App sooner rather than later.

August 12, 2020 Update: University of Maryland College Park, the land grant university of the northern-most southern state, Maryland, also joined the Common App for the 2020-2021 admissions cycle just twelve days into the official application season.

Georgetown’s 2020 School-Specific Acceptance Rates

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Craig

Georgetown University has released its school-by-school acceptance rates for students applying during the 2019-2020 admissions cycle for the D.C. university’s Class of 2024.

Georgetown continues to be one of the most proactively transparent universities when it comes to sharing both its overall acceptance rate and its acceptance rates broken down at the school level (Business, Foreign Service, Arts and Sciences, and Nursing). We wish more selective universities would follow Georgetown’s lead. Georgetown, of course, always has a lot of impressive statistics to share.

“This year, the Admissions Committee reviewed more than 21,300 applications and offered admission to 15% of these candidates. Because of the precautions against COVID-19 that we have been asked by the University to take, for the first time we are not sending decision letters in the mail. Admissions decisions were posted in the applicant portal on March 20. Students can view and print their decision letters from their applicant portals.” shared Charles A. Deacon, Georgetown University’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions.

Deacon went on to add that financial aid decisions will be sent by the Office of Student Financial Services early this week and that candidates accepting a place on Georgetown’s Waiting List will be informed of their status by May 15. “As the Waiting List is not ranked in advance, it is not possible to offer an estimate of chances of admission.”


If you got into Georgetown this year, or any year for that matter, congratulations! Have you bought some Georgetown gear yet?

Of note, in just the past two years, the number of students who have applied to Georgetown College has dropped by 1,126 students, which represents the bulk in Georgetown’s overall drop in applicants over the past two years (which totals 1,579). While total applications are not where they were at their peak, Georgetown is still accepting students at roughly the same rate as it has in recent years. When reviewing the table below, do note that rows with an asterisk (*) are filled with statistics reflecting numbers applicable to admitted students only.

 Admitted Students 2019-2020 Cycle (Class of 2024)
Georgetown
College
Walsh School
of Foreign Service
McDonough School of Business School of
Nursing & Health
Studies
Total
Applied
12,683 4,027 3,219 1,389 21,318
Admitted
1,950 590 543 226 3,309
Admission Rate 15% 15% 17% 16% 15%
*Mean Class Rank Percentile 94.5% 95.4% 93.3% 95.0% 94.5%
*Middle 50%
SAT EBRW
710-770 730-770 690-760 700-770 710-770
*Middle 50%
SAT Math
710-790 730-790 730-800 710-790 720-790
*Middle 50%
ACT Composite
32-35 33-35 32-35 32-35 32-35

Recent Acceptance Rates of Candidates From the Waiting List

2019  2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Georgetown College 6% None 14% 7% 14% 12% 10% 7%
McDonough School of Business 3% None 3% 1% 4% None 6% 10%
School of Nursing & Health Studies 11% 14% 9% 28% 4% 22% None 10%
Walsh School of Foreign Service 3% None None None 17% 13% 8% 6%

Again, thanks for the transparency Georgetown. Hopefully the Class of 2024 will be able to start on campus safe and well in a few months.

The neighborhood around the university is usually bustling, but currently is boarding up because of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Georgetown’s School-By-School Acceptance Rates for Class of 2022

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Craig

Georgetown University has announced its school-by-school acceptance rates for students applying during the 2017-2108 admissions cycle, and while another cycle is just about at a close, Georgetown hasn’t made much news with this year’s admissions stats, as they are quite consistent with last year’s numbers. See below for the full stats.

According to The Hoya, the Georgetown student newspaper, last year (the 2016-2017 admissions cycle) Georgetown reported acceptance rates by school that were pretty similar to this year’s acceptance rates.

Bottom line: Georgetown is tough to get into statistically. But is this really news? No, but we hope you appreciate the up to date intel.

Also fun to note, Georgetown shared that nobody should be making predictions about whether or not they will be taken off this year’s Georgetown University “Waiting List.” That’s because recent years’ waitlist stats indicate that anything is possible.

 Admitted Students 2018
Georgetown
College
Walsh School
of Foreign Service
McDonough School of Business School of
Nursing & Health
Studies
Total
Applied
13,809 4,166 3,422 1,500 22,897
Admitted
1,932 630 540 225 3,327
Admission Rate 14% 15% 16% 15% 15%
Mean Class Rank Percentile 94.4% 96.0% 94.4% 94.3% 94.8%
Middle 50%
SAT Verbal
700-760 720-770 690-750 690-750 700-760
Middle 50%
SAT Math
710-790 710-790 720-790 700-780 710-790
Middle 50%
ACT Composite
31-35 32-35 32-35 31-34 32-35
Recent Acceptance Rates of Candidates From the Waiting List
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Georgetown College 4% 7% 14% 11% 10% 7%
McDonough School of Business 3% 1% 4% None 6% 10%
School of Nursing & Health Studies 9% 28% 4% 22% None 10%
Walsh School of Foreign Service None None 17% 13% 8% 6%

Thanks for the transparency Georgetown!

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