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AIEA
Gold-Plated American College Admissions Report
Information, tidbits, and snippets on American
prep schools, colleges and universities
By Vincent G. Bradley,
MA, MED (April 15, 2006)
Member,
Higher Education Consultants Association
Member,
Overseas Association for College Admissions Counseling
2006 “Unusually Competitive Year” in US, writes WSJ.
Grades not only factor……
Princeton Rejects 83% of Valedictorians…..One student
quits school to work with drug addicts… and gains admission!
Who got in to the elite schools, like Stanford,
Cornell, Brown and Harvard? A boy who founded his own vegetarian club, an AIDS
activist, and a tuba player achieved acceptance. At Princeton, admissions
officers accepted only 17% of the 1,886 valedictorians who applied, according to
The Wall Street Journal.
The size of this year’s applicant pool, as well
as its high quality, made the task of admitting students more difficult than
ever for admissions officers. College officials responded by plugging talent
gaps in its student body. For instance, elite “small Ivy” Swarthmore in
Pennsylvania focused on potential majors in classics (Greek and Latin), as well
as Russian and German. University of Pennsylvania, the alma mater of Donald
Trump, sought tuba players for its marching band.
School activities, a social conscience,
and how you portray yourself in the admissions essay can make a critical
difference. How do the vast majority of students with perfect grades
and scores and a #1 ranking in their class rejected? They run up against the
Adam Hoffman’s of the world --- these students have excellent-to-near-perfect
grades, but also possess that little extra something that wows admissions
officers.
Vegetarians and Drug Addicts
St Louis native Adam Hoffman earned a perfect
800 on his critical-reading SAT, and an outstanding 780 on his math section.
Most important, Adam wrote his college essay on the intolerance he experienced
as a vegetarian at a Boy Scout Camp, the WSJ reports. He was admitted to
Brown and Stanford, among 6 other schools.
“I think we’re all looking for kids who are
committed to something, extracurricularly, intellectually, and hopefully both,”
gushed Brown University Dean of Admissions Jim Miller to the WSJ.
Small-Ivy Swarthmore admissions dean Jim Bock
told the Journal about an applicant who took a year off to work with
AIDS-infected drug addicts. “How many high-school seniors would take a year off
to do that?” Bock asked. These are things admission deans “don’t forget,”
according to Bock. “Sometimes you do question, ‘Is this for real?’”
Bock apparently believed the AIDS worker was
“for real.” He was among the 18% admitted at Swarthmore.
American Private Prep Schools Continue to Weigh Heavy on
Elite Admissions Landscape
Private American prep schools continue
to set the trend for supplying a pipe line to elite colleges. While over 90
percent of American students attend public school, Yale President Richard Levin
estimated that independent schools supplied 25% to 33% of students at highly
selective schools, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Chinese Students Make Beeline to United States For
College; VISA Requirements Shift; Students Unhappy with UK Colleges and
Universities
Four years after the September 11 attacks, the
United States government is relaxing its stringent VISA requirements, according
to Chinadaily.com. Chinese students see the United States as a better
option for college and question the value of studying in the UK.
The London-based FinancialTimes reported
a drop in the number of Chinese students, and predicts the decline is long-term.
“…A number of (Chinese students who studied in UK) feel that the expected
returns from some degrees have not kept up with the huge increase in fees (and)
will choose to ….turn to the US, which is being more active than ever in
reaching Chinese students,” Pang Shaohong, who is studying in the United States,
told Chinadaily.com.
Analysis: This flood of students will be
an enrollment and competitive admissions boon to mid-tier colleges and
universities. This will also make top tier colleges and universities even more
competitive as the Baby Boom’s “echo” enters college, and international students
already constitute up to 10% of Ivy League classes.
VISA Regulations to US Will Soon Change, according to US
Embassy Official
The United States has been aggressive in
promoting its education programs in China, and will soon revise its restrictive
VISA policies, Frank Mok, US-China Education Resource Coordinator of the US
Embassy in Beijing, told Chinadaily.com.
Chinese students will be able to apply for a US
visa 120 days before the program starts instead of the 90 days now. Students
will also be able to arrive in the United States 45 days ahead of that date.
The tightening of VISA post-911 has been cited by Chinese students as a negative
factor in pursuing study in the US. The umber of students studying in the
United States each year has been 60,000 since 2001, according to
Chinadaily.com.
Boarding Schools Teachers Perform Brilliantly as
“Substitute Parents”
Boarding schools have been in the
spotlight in the United States, in part because of the best-selling novel
Prep. But little-noted is the outstanding job teachers at boarding schools
perform in caring for students, and acting as surrogate parents.
The classic boarding school teacher is a
so-called “triple-threat”: teacher, coach, and dorm parent. Karlyn McNall of
the Middlesex School in Concord takes care of her own young two sons, but also
impacts the lives of her students. “Technically, I am responsible for the
safety and whereabouts of the girls who live in my dorm at all times. That’s the
official description,” McNall told the Boston Globe. “In fact, dorm
parenting is more complex and important than that. Part of the mission of a
residential school is to teach people to live together respectfully and
comfortably. My role is to facilitate that…..”
Cornell University Courts Top Students
Understanding that acceptance does not
necessarily mean students will enroll, Cornell University hosts “Cornell Days
through April 17 for accepted students, according to the Cornell Sun.
“The mission is the ease the stress and
pressure on students and families while making the very important decision of
choosing which college to attend,” Cornell Days Chair Erica Hartwell ’06 told
the Sun.
Small-Ivy Swarthmore Sees Applications Surge Nearly 20%
The total applications to Swarthmore increased
19 percent his year at Swarthmore due to publicity surrounding campus world
activism, according ThePhoenix, Swarthmore’s student newspaper.
Applications surged to 4,850 and only 897
students were admitted – less than 18 percent accepted.
Ithaca College Breaks Ground on Business School
Ithaca College will soon break ground on a new
building for business students, representing a significant investment on the
college’s part in the future of its business program.
“We hope to have students in the building by
the fall of 2007,” Fred Vanderburgh, senior assistant director of construction,
planning and design at Ithaca College told the ithacajournal.com. The new
building will be 38,000 square-feet, four stories, and will be a leader in
“green design.” The 3,780 square-foot green roof are also part of the plans.
The green roof’s intent will be to catch storm water, and then recycle it
through the building.
Engineering Elite Schools Pull Pranks by Stealing
Cannons
Two dozen Caltech students recovered a 111 year
old cannon that the merry pranksters from MIT had stolen from the California
Institute of Technology last month. The Caltech students rolled the Fleming
Cannon off the cobbled MIT courtyard, where the cannon had rested as a trophy
symbolizing the lively rivalry between America’s elite engineering and technical
schools, according the Boston Globe.
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