Greater Media Newspapers
concludes its series
on the difficulties faced
by college-bound
high school seniors.
Admissions process now more competitive at many schools
The results are in and the message is clear: college applicants are wrapping up the most competitive season yet, and it’s not getting any easier.
According to Patrick Smith, director of communications and customer services for Pennsylvania State University, the school’s undergraduate applicant pool increased by about 2,000 students this year, bringing the total number of applicants to just over 50,000.
The school’s goal, Smith said, was to accept about 13,000 of those applicants, the same number as last year.
With more applicants vying for the same number of spots, the process becomes more competitive with each passing month.
“Because our evaluation is very, very much academic in nature, what will happen is, the criteria will rise over the admission year,” Smith said. “If we have a greater number of applicants, and a higher level of qualification amongst those applicants, criteria might rise more dramatically or more quickly throughout the course of the year.”
Applicants can help themselves by applying earlier in the year, when the university’s standards for acceptance are least demanding.
“Essentially, what we recommend to as many of our students as possible, is that they apply before our Nov. 30 first-pool deadline, that’s when admission criteria are at their lowest,” Smith said. “So for the student who applies early, there is a distinct advantage.”
Petra Ludwig, director of public affairs for Monmouth University in West Long Branch, said that as of last month, the school had received about 250 more applications than last year, yet accepted only six more applicants.
Lisa Angeloni, admissions dean at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, said the school’s applicant pool increased by 13 percent this year, but the school plans to enroll about 1,230 new students in the fall, the same number as last year.
The acceptance rates at both Monmouth and TCNJ have actually dropped by 3 percent.
And that is a small number that makes a big difference to applicants, according to Charles Geran, director of student services and assessment for the Brick Township public school district.
At Brick Memorial High School, Geran said the number of college applications filed by members of the senior class has increased by about 10 since last year, as of May. At Brick Township High School, applications have increased by about 30.
Yet, Geran said, acceptance numbers are down.
Geran said the formula is simple: more applicants equals stiffer competition for those students, especially the applicants with weaker academic records.
“A student used to apply to maybe around five or six schools, now they’re applying to nine or 10,” Geran said. “As more students apply, colleges still accept the same number of kids, relatively. And some kids are replicating themselves at some of the better schools, and they have no intent of going there in some cases.”
At Penn State, admissions officials like to maintain a consistent acceptance rate, but the school does not always have the resources to accommodate many additional students, Smith said.
Geran said that many schools do not receive the funding necessary to expand, regardless of how many additional applications they receive.
The increased computer literacy and technological competency of the students actually works against them with regard to the application process, he said.
“Every college has their own Web site; virtually every college has an online application process, and you just fill it out and you hit the ‘send’ button, and it’s gone,” Geran said.
He said students would loath the nerve-racking chore of the atiquated application process that required applicants to fill out, by hand, each individual application.
With the advent of the “common application,” which is accepted by many schools, students can cut and paste an entire application, easily completing a dozen applications within minutes.
This is a double-edged sword for the colleges, Geran said. The online application is a convenient way for the colleges to lure applicants, while the increase in applications, and therefore application fees, provides an additional revenue source.
But the colleges have not come up with a satisfactory method of transmitting transcripts and letters of recommendation, Geran said. This forces college admissions officers to process more applications while the hard copy portions of the applications lag far behind.
“There’s still some paper that has to match up with the electronics, and that takes time and effort, and I’m sure the colleges, from what I understand, are struggling with that,” Geran said.
Sayreville War Memorial High School guidance counselor Lenore Kingsmore attributes the increase in applications partly to new programs such as New Jersey Stars. That program provides New Jersey high school students in the top 20 percent of their class with full tuition to a community college.
She said students who take advantage of this program will apply to several colleges and then choose to participate in the program once they become eligible.
“They’re going to go to school for two years for free, and then transfer to the university of their choice, having had two years paid for,” Kingsmore said.
Also, Kingsmore said, districts such as Sayreville’s are encouraging their students to apply to college, even if some of the students do not express interest in attending post-secondary institutions.
“We’re encouraging more of our students, even if they’re on the fence about college, to apply to at least a two-year school if they’re not certain about what they really want to do, so that at least, come September, they have a place that they feel as though they can go,” Kingsmore said.
Smith said Penn State does not hold interviews, and makes no use of early decision or early admissions programs.
The competition, Smith said, is almost entirely academic.
“It is the high school transcript, it is the standardized testing, in this portion of the country most typically the SAT, although we will use the ACT,” Smith said. “As we make more offers, admission to a college campus is sort of like any other resource, as there are fewer and fewer spaces available, the admission criteria necessary to receive one of those spaces go up.”
Geran said the Brick Township school district encourages its students to bolster their academic records by taking more than the required number of college preparatory classes, such as foreign language, math and advanced science classes.
“The more academics that you present to a college, the more prepared you are to attend that college,” Geran said. “They will set you apart from students from other schools that are not taking as rigorous a curriculum.”
Geran said an applicant could be penalized for not taking full advantage of all the advanced level courses offered by a school, and because of school profiles, colleges know exactly what each high school offers its students.
Angeloni said that as a small state school, TCNJ has the advantage of possessing the resources to conduct interviews.
She said the applicant pool is so strong academically that, with the drop in the acceptance rate, students must find other ways to set their applications apart from the crowd. An applicant who has exhibited extraordinary leadership qualities throughout his or her high school career will immediately catch the attention of admissions officers.
If an applicant served as a student member of the local Board of Education, for example, or held an office locally or was president of a statewide organization, Angeloni said that student has shown extraordinary leadership.
Proficiency in music or art can also strengthen an applicant’s case for acceptance, she said.
“Because they’re all so talented academically — they all have good grades, they all have good scores, they all are ranked high, they all have great recommendations, and what sets them apart is really what they have gone out on their own and done,” Angeloni said.
But Geran said despite the competitive nature of the process, students have not been intimidated by joining an expanded applicant pool.
He said guidance officers help the district’s students find the college that would be the best fit for them, regardless of name, reputation or size.
“A lot of kids only know of colleges that they’ve seen playing on Saturday afternoon football, or big-time basketball teams,” Geran said. “Well they, necessarily, would not be the best fit for some of our kids. For others it would be. It’s our job, incumbent upon us, to make sure that we get students to look across the board to broaden their horizons and look for their best fit.”
Kingsmore said students in Sayreville have been doing the same, even if that means geographically broadening their search field.
“I think there’s more of a variety of schools that they’re applying to,” Kingsmore said. “They’re not just staying in New Jersey, they are looking beyond New Jersey, and they’re trying to make a match to a school that they feel comfortable with.”
Geran said the process has not only become more competitive for the applicants, but stressful as well.
Although the situation tests their patience, students still pass that test each year, with flying colors, Geran said.
“There’s always a lot of pressure, a lot of nervousness, a lot of competition among the top kids in the school,” Geran said. “But kids are amazing, they can handle an awful lot, a lot more than we give them credit for. It’s their parents I worry about.”
— Seth Mandel