COLLEGE ADMISSIONS UPDATE MAY 2024 |
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Monthly Newsletter for Clients and Friends of VP College Consulting |
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Paying for College The topic of transparency in paying for college is forefront on the minds of families with college-bound children, as well as anyone involved in the college admissions arena. Most compelling is the undisclosed discrepency between sticker price and net cost of attendance. Add to that the delayed rollout of the revamped FAFSA this year, which even in May, has left some families without financial aid award letters to review. One of the best articles to date to add transparency is Brookings Institute’s “Ignore the Sticker Price, How Have College Prices Really Changed?” Among other clarifications, the article provides an interactive chart showing the disparity between sticker price and net cost, by income, and for public vs. private. I also like to use Jeff Selingo’s Buyers and Sellers List, outlining need- and merit-based aid typically offered by individual colleges. |
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Testing News While the majority of colleges are remaining test-optional for the Class of 2025, Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, MIT, UT-Austin and Cal Tech have announced that they will revert to requiring test score submissions with this class. |
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How should students approach admissions testing? If a student has a strong ACT or SAT score it is still to their advantage to submit it. While test-optional colleges say they will not discriminate against those who do not send, it certainly won’t hurt the chances of those who do send scores that are comfortably within the range of what the school looks for. All colleges accept both tests equally. Students can focus on just one test and disregard the other, or take both (or supplant the SAT with a Jr-year PSAT) and compare the tests with a concordance chart to decide which is the student's stronger test and the best test to take going forward. |
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AI in College Admissions For 2024, 80% of admissions officials have said they would integrate AI into their review process. Those currently using AI report using it for reviewing transcripts and recommendation letters, and reviewing personal statements, weeding out student essays written by AI, and communicating with applicants. Source:www.intelligent.com/8-in-10-colleges-will-use-ai-in-admissions-by-2024/ |
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College Admissions Hooks and Institutional Priorities Inside the admissions office of nearly every college, conversations around who will be admitted take place that have nothing to do with the applicant’s potential for academic success, but instead fill an internal need. When you hear of a student with ostensibly “lesser qualifications” than another being admitted somewhere, it is possible that they had what is called a “hook” or met an institutional priority for the college. While these terms are ofen used interchangeably, I like to separate them by two categories. Hooks are what give a student priority standing due to being a legacy, the child of an employee, or child of a VIP (large amount donors, public figures). Institutional priorities meet internal needs, such as athletic, performing arts, diversity (racial, socioeconomic, geographic, gender), competitive campus clubs (ie. Debate) or popularity of major (i.e. Georgia Tech’s Public Policy major is a lot easier to get into than Computer Science). Two of these hooks are in the news with the Supreme Court ruling banning race-conscious admissions and the push toward eliminating legacy admissions. Colleges scrambled this year to find a workaround for identifying race and will continue to attempt to maintain a diverse campus despite the ruling. As for legacy admissions, a few schools have announced they have done away with it, but old habits die hard, and this will be a long road. So how to approach admissions when so much is out of our hands? The same way we always do. Do our best to submit an application that highlights who we are and what we have to offer, apply to a balanced list of schools, and know that ultimately, we’ll land at the school that wants and values us, and if we make the most of our opportunities there, our future is limitless. |
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AUGUST 5 - 8, 2024 LEAWOOD | 10-AM - 12PM OLATHE | 2PM - 4PM |
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LIST OF THE MONTH FISKE GUIDE: BEST PUBLIC BUYS Where Students Enjoy a Quality Academic Experience at a Relatively Low Cost (Price | Ave Debt) Arizona State University Georgia Institute of Technology Purdue University Stony Brook University Truman State University University of Florida University of Maryland University of New Mexico University of North Carolina University of Washington |
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VP College Consulting Client Referral Program Refer a new client who signs on with VP College Consulting and receive $50 off services. |
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VP College Consulting, LLC |
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vicki@vpcollegeconsulting.com 913-228-2807 |
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