college admissions

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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...

Rich Kids Get Leg Up at Cash- Strapped Schools

Admissions staff skirts need-blind rules

(Newser) - Endowments are shrinking, and kids are needing more aid—so many colleges are reluctantly giving an admissions boost to students who can pay in full, the New York Times reports. Schools are finding ways to let in more wealthy students without sacrificing "need-blind" labels: by admitting more foreign students,...

Sorry, Recession Won't Get You Into Harvard

Top schools see no application shortage despite economy

(Newser) - Sure, a lot of people are cash-strapped, but don’t get your hopes up that the recession will boost your shot at an Ivy League school. Harvard got a record number of applications this year—29,112, a 6% jump from last year. And pricey universities like Yale, Dartmouth, Brown,...

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...

Bargain-Hunting Students Swarm State Universities

Officials walk line between shoring up budgets, maintaining reputations

(Newser) - The unraveling economy is spurring a boom in applications to public universities as students pursue higher education at lower prices, the New York Times reports. But while increased enrollment may help offset the budget cuts that many public institutions expect as states trim budgets, it can also diminish the student...

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...

User-Generated College Review Site Gets It Right
User-Generated College Review Site Gets It Right
tech review
Feb 19, 2009 11:45 AM CST

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,...

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...

Gap Year Gains Favor Among High School Graduates

Industry grows to help them put off college

(Newser) - As more high school graduates decide to take a so-called “gap-year” before college, a veritable industry has sprung up to offer these seekers advice on how to go about it, the Wall Street Journal reports. Given the increased popularity of a year off, which some educators advocate because “...

Colleges Drop SAT Bar for Jocks

Athletes score 220 points lower on SAT than average classmate

(Newser) - Though athletes have long enjoyed a break on college admissions, new numbers on how far they lag behind other students on SAT scores have raised concerns of fairness. Nationwide, football jocks average 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates at 54 universities studied by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Basketball...

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,...

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....

Colleges Seek Kids' Opinions on Grapefruit, Perfect Crime

Quirky questions catch students off-guard

(Newser) - Bored with prospective students regurgitating textbook knowledge, Cambridge and Oxford have revamped their interview questions to include the abstract (Would you rather be a novel or a poem?), the existential (What does it mean to be happy?), and the downright crazy (How would you poison someone and get away with...

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
...

At More and More Colleges, SAT Is Now MIA

Standardized test seen as poorly calibrated measure of students' abilities

(Newser) - Colleges are fleeing the SAT, saying the standardized test is not a reliable predictor of academic success, the Boston Globe reports. But though a coalition is forming against the requirement, even doubtful admission officials see the need for a field-leveler for disparate applicants. “The SAT only measures how good...

GPA, Personal Essay, SATs ... and Sabotage?

Anonymous smear letters on the rise, say admissions officers

(Newser) - With competition for college admissions ever rising, some students are aiming to get ahead by trashing their rivals. Admission officials around the US have reported receiving newspaper clippings, references to Facebook pages, and, in one case, a letter written in crayon pointing out other applicants' false claims or unseemly behavior....

Throw Out SAT, Say College Deans

Panel recommends move away from standardized testing

(Newser) - Colleges should make admissions decisions without requiring the SAT or ACT, says a group of deans led by Harvard's admissions chief in a yearlong study that concluded standardized tests distort students' high school experiences, exacerbate class disparities, and enrich only the billion-dollar test prep industry. Instead, say the admissions officers,...

Prof Rips UCLA for 'Illegal' Race Admissions

School denies 'coverup' over rising number of black students

(Newser) - A UCLA professor is accusing the school of admitting students based on race even though the practice remains illegal in California, the Los Angeles Times reports. Tim Groseclose resigned this week from an admissions committee and posted an 89-page report online accusing the university of a "coverup." "...

PSAT Will Expand College Testing Stress to Jr. High

Earlier exam will help students prep, College Board says

(Newser) - The College Board will start offering the PSAT to eighth-graders in 2010, the LA Times reports. Students normally take the exam, a precursor of the SAT, in 10th or 11th grade, but kids have been signing up earlier in recent years. Critics charge that the College Board is pushing the...

SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy
 SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy 
Jul 15, 2008 10:44 AM CDT

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...

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