It is a question on the minds of so many high school seniors at this time of year: How can you raise your chances of getting into your No. 1 college choice?
A report released Wednesday by an association of guidance counselors and admissions officers could be worth a look. It provides new evidence for those who believe that applying to college early in the academic year — or, more specifically, submitting applications under binding early-decision programs — increases the likelihood of acceptance.
Nearly three of every four students who applied last year under such programs, which are offered by many of the nation’s most selective colleges, were accepted, compared with just over half who applied to the same colleges in the main application round, according to the annual report, “The State of College Admission,” by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
All told, the percentage accepted last year in the early-decision round, in which those accepted are compelled to withdraw all other applications and enroll, was 15 points higher than in the main phase. And that gap is rising, the authors said. In fall 2006, 61 percent, on average, were accepted early, compared with 53 percent in the regular pool.
Critics of early-admission programs argue that they represent a way for well-off and connected high school students to game the system. But colleges that offer them counter that the acceptance rates are often so high because the quality of students is particularly strong.
The report suggests that these figures “may rekindle debates about the effects of early-decision admission, particularly as it relates to access for underrepresented populations.”
To that end, the report provided new measurements of how the nation’s poorest high school graduates, as well as those who are black and Hispanic, continue to lag behind their peers in going to college. Only 58 percent of high school graduates from the bottom quarter nationally, as ranked by family income, went to college in 2008, compared with 87 percent from the highest-earning bracket, according to the report.
And while black and Hispanic students represented 33 percent of “the traditional college-aged population” in 2008, the report noted, only 25 percent of the students enrolled in colleges and universities that year were black or Hispanic.
If one figure in the report might give anxious applicants, and their parents, some solace, it is this: nearly one of every three colleges reported a decrease in applications in 2009, compared with the year before. That is the largest proportion of four-year colleges reporting such a drop in nearly 15 years. The authors said the sluggish economy could be a factor. More students may be applying to fewer colleges, as well as to community colleges and other two-year institutions.
Written by Jacques Steinberg for The New York Times
Posted by Lindy Kahn, M.A., CEP for Kahn Educational Group, LLC
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