Admission

A revised plan to change college admissions

A revised plan to change college admissions

Two years ago I explained how I would re-shape the college admissions process if I had some sort of magical power to decide how everything would run. You can read that original post here. I still strongly believe in the basic parameters of what I wrote: a two-cycle system, where everyone is encouraged to apply early to up to—but no more than—three colleges, and then a much later round to fill in the spots that weren’t taken in the earlier round. It would push students and schools to act earlier, but the limit of three would also allow both students and schools to work more efficiently.

Two years of working with student clients has me thinking that maybe I wasn’t being realistic in my timing. Maybe an October 1st deadline, even if you’re only applying to three, is a little too aggressive.

But on top of that, colleges this year did actually make some big changes to the system, and I want to revise my plan taking those into account also.

The State of College Admissions

The State of College Admissions

The National Association for College Admissions Counseling, or NACAC, released its annual “State of College Admissions” report. The report is based on a survey of over 2,200 high school counselors and almost 500 college admissions officers. You can read the full report here. It’s worth at least browsing and checking out the charts. Here are my top take-aways for smart, ambitious college-bound high school students.

What's wrong with an admissions lottery?

What's wrong with an admissions lottery?

In the past few weeks I've written about Affirmative Action (I'm not at all against it) and Legacy Admission (I'm not at all against it, either). There's one more admissions policy I'd like to consider, and it's mostly just a hypothetical one: using a lottery to admit qualified students to elite universities.

How would I change admissions?

How would I change admissions?

I spend my time reading and thinking about college admissions from a certain viewpoint--high school students. I rarely think about parents' perspectives or colleges' perspectives. I help out with the demand part of the equation. But what about the supply side? If I could advise colleges to make their search for top-notch students more efficient and effective, what would I tell them? How would I design the college admissions game?

If I could magically change the whole system, I would basically make it a two-cycle year.

What's wrong with Legacy admissions?

What's wrong with Legacy admissions?

Last month I wrote about affirmative action, and now I want to talk about Legacy. Legacy is the practice of a university giving an admissions advantage to children of alumni.

I've seen increased calls to end Legacy lately, and one of the clearest and strongest just appeared. In "Higher Education's Biggest Scam Is Legacy Admissions Policies," Richard D. Kahlenberg looks at three reasons that many colleges cite for their legacy policies and refutes them. Kahlenberg edited a book about Legacy, so he knows what he's talking about.