COLLEGE MATCH’S LATEST COLLEGE ADMISSION TRENDS

Challenges and opportunities abound this year for college applicants…here are just a few of the trends that College Match spotted this year:

1. Rise of SAT Subject Tests: among students applying to selective colleges this year there has been increased number taking the SAT Subject Tests; on average students take 2-3 Subject Tests.

2. De-emphasis on college board testing at some top colleges. A small but growing number of top liberal arts colleges have made the SAT 1 optional. While this list increases each year, we found a couple more that were of interest to our clients including, Knox, Lewis and Clark and Mt. Holyoke colleges, among longstanding holdouts, Bowdoin and Bates in Maine.

3. Merit scholarships become standard feature of some liberal arts colleges. High quality, yet slightly less selective colleges such as, Allegheny and Lewis and Clark, routinely offer top students modest scholarships to help offset the cost of attendance (versus other State or less expensive regional, private colleges).

4. Party schools take on a serious tone. Colleges like USC and NYU once known more for their partying ways than “nerdy” academics now boast students with top grades and SAT’s and extracurricular accomplishments. Instead of accepting lower academic achievers with high social ability, these places have become so sought after that the average grades and test scores to gain entrance are now more likely to favor the honor student who’s spent significant time in the library and laboratory.

5. “Information Age” makes applying easier but also more competitive. The rise of Common Application use and Internet research in general has created a huge increase in college application numbers; some colleges, like Occidental, have seen applications increase by as much as 185% over the past nine years (www.oxy.edu). Similarly, the average number of colleges applied to has increased according to the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), to an average of 12 colleges.

6. West Coast colleges bask in the spotlight. The rise of West Coast colleges can now be measured in terms of both the quality and quantity of applicants. West Coast universities and liberal arts colleges now feature more prominently in the admission picture and often overlap increasingly with Ivy League and Little Ivy (Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams) applications. (“West Coast Ivies” include: Caltech, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Occidental, Pomona, Reed, Scripps, Stanford, USC, and Whitman (schools in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (and drawn from US News “Best Colleges”)

7. New, “holistic” approach to admission for top research universities. University of Washington recently announced it would employ 20 more Admission officers to consider an applicant’s essay and extracurricular involvements and special circumstances and talents. This approach has been practiced successfully in the past by mainly private colleges.

8. Extracurricular involvement comprises nearly 50% of the admission decision at selective colleges: once the initial hurdles have been cleared–SAT and GPA–then extracurricular activities matter most including but not limited to, depth of involvement, leadership and national-level competition. Superior extracurricular accomplishment has become one of the main hallmarks of admission to a selective college.

Dave Montesano is director of college planning at College Match US and can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 1-877-658-4400.

Applying to college is a two way street…students have needs and so do colleges.

More often than not college applicants are not aware about what colleges really want in an applicant until it’s too late and their application has been denied. One way to find out what a college is looking for is to interview current students. While on a college visit, a student can basically conduct his or her own survey by asking a minimum of 10 students what they like, and more importantly, what they dislike, about a particular college. Similarities among the dislike(s) may be important. For example, if everyone is saying that a college is too career oriented, a student who is less interested in a career may have an edge. This “qualitative interview” approach can yield interesting results for students looking to find out more about the unmet needs at colleges. Based on these weaknesses, students can figure out how to best position their applications to meet these unearthed needs.

Planning early for college can save you money and help ensure your student’s success.

As the parent of a high school student, college is one of the most significant decisions that you and your child will make. Paying for college is the second largest investment for families behind home buying. After all, you want to feel comfortable with your family’s choices about college as you settle into the empty nest and begin enjoying the next chapter of your lives.

Your experience making strategic business decisions has yielded positive financial results for your company. Don’t leave those skills at work.

College planning can help your student find the best college.

Competition for college is at an all time high with 100,000 new students applying each year for college until 2014. The average high school counselor serves 300 students, but your student deserves more attention. By starting to plan now, you can improve your student’s chances of finding and getting in to the right school for them.

Here are things that you can do:

Start early– Begin planning sophomore and junior year with your student to develop their talents and interests. Colleges want to see leadership and depth in a student’s out-of-class involvement. This doesn’t mean that they have to do a lot of different activities. The best is to focus and start at the beginning of high school. By starting early your student can develop leadership and depth, rather than breadth. Colleges form a well-rounded class by choosing individuals with depth in their activities and interests.

Identify key strengths—is your student a community-builder? An inventor? An entertainer? Nuturing and developing special talents takes insight and understanding about what colleges are looking for. Some want poets, others want dancers or musicians. Working with your student to develop their unique talents should be an organic and natural process. By reviewing the credentials of accepted students you can gain insights into what different colleges are looking for. USA Today sponsors a yearly high school competition that shows the backgrounds of those students who are accepted to top colleges. Keep in mind that for some competitive colleges this may include national and state competitions and prizes, such as the Intel Science Competition or playing an instrument in the local junior symphony.

Become knowledgeable about college admissions trends—dance for example. Among the usual performing arts that students take part in outside of class, dance is now one of the most sought after with college admission offices around the country. For the first time, a number of colleges are reporting dance statistics among accepted students. Pomona and Occidental Colleges in Los Angeles now record the number of accepted students involved in dance among their freshman class profiles (5 % to 8% of freshman classes). Echoing this trend, construction is underway on new dance studios at Vassar College –one that seats 244 people and new facilities have been built at Emory University in Atlanta, Hamilton College in NY, University of New Mexico and Tufts University in Boston this year.

Seek advice from an expert—By working with a qualified college consultant to plan ahead, you can not only improve your student’s chances of getting into the college of their dreams, but of paying for it as well. Families who start sophomore or junior year and work with a college consultant, improve their chances of finding merit money. Getting a merit award may come down to something as simple as the fact that a college needs a cellist or soccer player.

For Empty Nesters-to-be, important decisions about college admission loom on the horizon. The good news is that you can relax because there are steps you can take to eliminate stress, save money and protect your nest egg.

David Montesano is an admission strategist with College Match US. For a free copy of “Ten Strategic College Admission Steps” go to www.collegematchus.com or send an email to [email protected]