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Harvard Swamped by Early Applications

Early admissions program reinstated for first time since 2007

(Newser) - The Occupy movement has reached some college campuses , including Harvard, with some demonstrators protesting high tuition. But apparently current high school students have not been swayed, because Harvard has been absolutely flooded with early applications: 4,245 as of yesterday, to be exact, a number that is more than twice... More »

Harvard Applications Up 50% in 4 Years

School sees 50% jump in applications over 4 years

(Newser) - Harvard has drawn 35,000 applications this year—a 15% increase over last year and a whopping 50% increase in four years. That means about 6% of Class of 2014 applicants will be admitted, compared to about 9% of Class of 2010 applicants. About one in 50 high school seniors... More »

College Waiting Lists Bigger Than Ever

Uncertain economy has schools, students hedging bets

(Newser) - The odds aren't looking good for the 3,382 high school seniors currently wait-listed by Duke—the college thinks it will probably end up taking only about 60 of them. Duke is far from the only college to dump record numbers of applicants into admissions purgatory this year, as economic... More »

U. Penn Adds 'Gay' Box on Application, But ...

... there are better ways to serve LGBT students

(Newser) - That the University of Pennsylvania is adding a box on its application form students can use to indicate sexual orientation—and has asked the makers of the widely used “common application” to do the same—is nice, Gabriel Arana writes, but perhaps misguided. Schools and students alike would be... More »

High Schools to Graduate Sophomores

It's part of a European-style experiment to improve education

(Newser) - About 100 high schools in 8 states will soon embark on a European experiment that could have students going off to community college after 10th grade. Sophomores who pass a battery of board examinations would be free to graduate early, or stay to prepare for application for more selective universities.... More »

High School Seniors: Skip College

Taking a year off makes sense for most

(Newser) - A private consultant who makes a living helping high school seniors get into college has some unexpected advice for them: Don't do it. Take at least a year off instead, writes Gwyeth T. Smith. Yes, the idea of the "gap year" has been around a while, but the lousy... More »

Colleges Use Student Blogs as Free PR

Warts-and-all posts by undergrads can lure savvy prospects

(Newser) - Colleges are loosening the reins on student bloggers in hopes that a dose of candid commentary will lure prospective applicants. At MIT, for instance, bloggers paid by the admissions office go about their work with no fear of censorship. That policy has caused some friction—including a spat between the... More »

SAT Prep Classes Exaggerate Improvement, Study Finds

Use of own diagnostic tests clouds real results

(Newser) - Many test-prep companies make impressive-sounding guarantees about students’ SAT performance, but an independent study finds that the courses offer little real improvement. Part of the problem may be tutors’ use of too-hard mock tests to judge students’ baseline performance, producing a false inflation that’s used to justify thousands of... More »

Now NYU Goofs on Acceptance Notices

Congrats, you've been accepted —not!

(Newser) - Just to make college admission a tad more excruciating, New York University has become the latest school to screw up on college acceptance notices, reports the Los Angeles Times. Some 500 rejected applicants were erroneously emailed last week that they had been accepted into an NYU graduate program. Officials blamed... More »

Colleges Admit More Students Just in Case

(Newser) - Private colleges across the nation are boosting the number of students they're accepting and the length of their waiting lists in case applicants can't write the tuition check when the time comes, reports the Washington Post. Applications are at a record high 3 million, but universities fear students planning on... More »

Colleges Are as Nervous as High School Seniors

Schools scramble to lock in as many students amidst faltering economy

(Newser) - College admissions season is here, and for the first time in recent memory, it’s a students’ market, reports the New York Times. Amidst economic turmoil, nervous colleges are uncertain how many students will apply—so they plan to admit more applicants and offer greater financial aid. “It’s... More »

Students Hurt By Colleges' Digital Verdicts

Schools fawn over acceptees, but can be curt with e-rejections

(Newser) - College admissions offices are jazzing up acceptance packages—adding confetti, T-shirts, internet videos—to lure students, and are also trying to keep up with the times in their rejections, US News and World Report writes. But some efforts have backfired, with students hurt by brutally short, electronic turndowns—including text... More »

User-Generated College Review Site Gets It Right

Unigo allows students to post multimedia reviews of universities

(Newser) - A new online college guide “built for the age of YouTube and Facebook” employs user-generated content to give applicants a student's-eye-view of hundreds of schools, and Walter S. Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal likes what he sees. Unigo.com is free and ad-supported; professional editors help present reviews,... More »

Harvard Applications Hit Record High

School's tuition policy helps draw 29,000 hopeful students

(Newser) - It's getting even harder to get into Harvard. A record 29,000 high school students have applied to be freshmen, an increase of 5.6% from the previous record set last year, the Boston Globe reports. School officials attribute the increase to a combination of the slow economy and its... More »

Last-Minute Flood Jams College Application Site

Students received timeout errors as server overloaded

(Newser) - Some high school seniors submitting college applications hours before the Dec. 31 deadline encountered timeout errors and slowdowns that gave them quite a scare, the New York Times reports. The Common Application site—used by a million students to apply for 350 colleges—buckled twice under the volume of last-minute... More »

US Students Flock North for Cheap Tuition

Canadian universities appeal to Americans in tough economy

(Newser) - Cash-strapped Americans with their sights set on college see Canada as an affordable alternative to domestic institutions, the Boston Globe reports. Low tuition fees and a stronger US dollar—it’s worth $1.21 in Canada right now—are luring more high school students in the northeast across the border,... More »

Applicant Pool Down, Private Colleges Begin to Panic

Fears of high costs may be driving drop

(Newser) - Private colleges are receiving notably fewer regular applications this year, sparking widespread concern among the schools that enrollment will plunge, the New York Times reports. Reasons for the drop may include families’ worries about soaring tuition and a general decline in the number of schools to which each student applies.... More »

Want to Get Into College? Try These Student Tips

College freshmen share their lessons about admissions success

(Newser) - Applications continue to flood into top US colleges despite the economic slowdown. With admissions as competitive as ever, the Wall Street Journal talks to six people who know—college freshmen—and asks for their advice:
  • Don't let naysayers deter you from your dream school: "It pays off to keep
... More »

SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy

Agencies under fire for canceling scores without exposing, punishing students

(Newser) - College hopefuls caught cheating on their ACT or SAT exams are likely to face few consequences, the Los Angeles Times reports, due to policies under which the administering agencies simply cancel suspicious scores on the college-admission exams. High schools and colleges are kept in the dark about potential wrongdoing, and... More »

Top Colleges Report Record Low Rates of Admission

Harvard accepts just 7% of applicants

(Newser) - Acceptance letters from the nation's top colleges will begin to arrive on prospective students' doorsteps today, but far more rejection letters are in the mail than ever before, reports the New York Times. Harvard and Yale accepted only 7.1% and 8.3% of applicants, respectively, both record lows as... More »

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