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How COVID-19 Will Affect The 2020 College Admissions Cycle
Dave_Berry
CC Admissions Expert 511 replies3000 threads CC Admissions Expert
"For students who have already applied to university and are eagerly awaiting their admissions responses, there is a growing worry that the coronavirus will affect admissions decisions. Princeton attempted to reassure students that this would not be the case last Tuesday, tweeting: “Please note: The coronavirus outbreak and its effects have no impact on how we evaluate applicants to the University. Every application will receive our full consideration.”
But the worry remains that universities will see a decrease in international student enrollment as a result of the coronavirus. For the large number of universities who depend on their high number of international students to pay full tuition, this could have serious economic ramifications in the coming semesters. One third of all international students studying in the U.S. are from China, and the school and test cancellations as a result of the virus will no doubt disrupt the admissions cycle." ...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2020/03/13/how-covid-19-will-affect-the-2020-college-admissions-cycle/#3378bf6515ce
164 repliesBut the worry remains that universities will see a decrease in international student enrollment as a result of the coronavirus. For the large number of universities who depend on their high number of international students to pay full tuition, this could have serious economic ramifications in the coming semesters. One third of all international students studying in the U.S. are from China, and the school and test cancellations as a result of the virus will no doubt disrupt the admissions cycle." ...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherrim/2020/03/13/how-covid-19-will-affect-the-2020-college-admissions-cycle/#3378bf6515ce
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Replies to: How COVID-19 Will Affect The 2020 College Admissions Cycle
1. Many students and parents are rethinking how much they want to spend for a college. Some families, such as restaurant owners, will have devastating impacts to family income. Others will be impacted by the decrease in their investment accounts. Spending plans that were made in December 2019 may no longer be valid now.
2. Families will rethink how far away they are willing to send their students. If a campus gets shut down, far easier to pickup students that are a few hours drive away, rather than several hours away by flights that might also get canceled.
3. International applicants face the additional burden of wondering whether travel to the USA will be allowed, whether they will face the additional burden of quarantine, and whether students will be allowed to come, and more importantly return to the USA after visiting home.
4. The elimination of admitted student campus visits eliminates the bonding experience that happens between a student and college after admission. Instead of treating May 1st as a final commit date after falling in love with the college after a visit, it becomes more of a "best thing right now, subject to a better offer" mentality.
I think the result of all this will be lower initial yield. Either colleges proactively increase the admit rate ahead of time, or they should expect to be much busier on the back end in terms of waitlist.
Obviously this will affect each college in its own way. Globally renowned universities (the IvyPlus colleges, Berkeley, Michigan) may face the travel issues, but benefit from being people's top choice in terms of waitlists. A mid-tier LAC may suffer a great deal with the lack of a bonding experience.
I sure would hate to be on a college admissions committee right now.
My family is self employed and we are going to get hit hard.
Personally, I think there was little point in most colleges offering tours any time in the last two weeks. I wouldn't judge any college negatively based on a campus lately, unless it was an outright bad experience.
Lower yield for some, higher yield for others. Public universities may get higher yield from in-state students and lower yield from out-of-state students, for both financial reasons (job and savings/investment loss that families encounter) and concern about travel difficulties to distant colleges. Obviously, this can adversely affect tuition yield -- which will be a financial problem when the economic downturn reduces state tax revenues and therefore the amount of money that states can subsidize their public universities.
More students may start at the local community college, which will become more crowded as job losers go back to school to try to qualify for other jobs.
Not-highly-ranked private colleges that are expensive and sell themselves on a unique college experience may be hurt particularly badly, especially if they need to do distance education next fall due to continued virus issues.
Overall yield may drop as some at the margin of being able to afford college may no longer be able to afford any college.
There is a thread for deadline changes...maybe we can all post there?
https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2178210-colleges-extending-5-1-deposit-date.html#latest
colleges with smaller endowments will be hurt and probably move to need aware or cut merit.
also, will this eventually bring down the price of tuition with less people being able to full pay?
Shorter term, during 2020 admission cycle - yes yield may be slightly lower with a few more students taken off of wait lists - but imo most other things remain same. The real changes could be for 2021 cycle, if this thing continues into the fall (hopefully that is not the case). The economic impacts on the univ and to even individuals may not be apparent until after all the univ decisions/commitments are made.
Public universities will raise tuition, as they generally do during economic downturns when state subsidies fall due to state tax revenues falling.
What might be affected are subject tests, with spring being the big time to take those. I suspect that the numbers of colleges still recommending subject tests, which have already dwindled, might drop off precipitously over this summer.