<p>For those who can’t get enough of college admissions stories, here are links to three New York Times articles about the fate of eight applicants from the New York City suburb of Westchester County. (You may need a–free–subscription in order to read the articles.) Although Westchester is known for rich communities with high-powered public schools such as Scarsdale and Chappaqua, its school districts are decentralized and vary greatly. Two of the high schools mentioned in the article (Scarsdale and, to a lesser extent, Byram Hills) are wealthy and privileged, the others far from it.</p>
<p>“Last year, more seniors than ever before applied to college, said David Hawkins, a spokesman for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a nonprofit group in Alexandria, Va. That number is expected to continue to increase until at least 2015, he added.”</p>
<p>That is the type of plain talk I can understand. That beats the mumbo jumbo of “the rate of increase is lsowing down” they use in their Annual State of colleges. You got to love the spinmasters at NACAC!</p>
<p>This should go a long way to close the debate of more applications versus fewer applicants. :)</p>
<p>Wow. The second article re: Early Action really did open my eyes as to the competitiveness of the whole thing, esp. Georgetown. Really shocked at the CAP cadet being w/led from Rochester and Brandeis.</p>
<p>Re: Frank Ordonez – If he qualified for fee waivers – why didn’t he want to take the Fed. Sub. Stafford Loan? (I would assume he would receive a Subsidized one, assuming low income) Interest is subsidized by the gov’t, no?</p>
<p>Kids that would’ve gotten into schools two years ago were flat out rejected this year. No deferrals or WLs. It was a bloodbath this year for normally qualified kids, especially BWRKs at the elites. URMs ruled the day and will probably continue to do so for the next 5-10 years. What Hawkins at NACAC said is true about the increased applications until 2015. Some estimates say until 2020, especially with the expected influx of Hispanic students wanting their share of the elite educational pie, which should start in the next six or seven years in the next round of social engineering by adcoms. Of course, just pushing a button on the Common App to apply to a school helps in the confusion and increases not only rejections, but WLs. Application numbers will continue to snowball and the adcoms will be inundated with more than they can handle - and then question if their acceptances were worth it when they’re forced to go deeper and deeper into their WLs to fill their quotas when most of their acceptances in turn reject them. It’s the price they pay for having rejected students they’d normally would’ve accepted because they knew the students would’ve enrolled gladly and blessed the campus with their energy and passion to be there. It’s a crazy game and this year saw fewer winners and more students having to settle, not making for many happy kids elated to be going to college. You don’t win the silver, you lose the gold. It’s true for the schools & applicants alike. As a result of this year’s decisions, it’ll be interesting to see how many kids transfer as soon as possible – or drop out because of poor grades, alcohol and/or drug abuse, depression or all of the above and then some. Ever wonder if the adcoms ever lose sleep over having rejected someone? I think they rejoice in who accepts them – and bemoan the ones who got away. But I’d guess they all sleep very soundly, once the process is over for the year.</p>
<p>“URMs ruled the day and will probably continue to do so for the next 5-10 years.” (Collegeparent) Yup, it seems like that, at least at Yale. </p>
<p>I was quite surprised to read the following in the Yale newspaper, when I was checking for info for a friend’s S who was WL by Yale:</p>
<p>“Admitted students to the Class of 2009 represent all 50 states and 51 countries around the world. The gender breakdown slightly favors men, with 973 men and 907 women gaining admission, Shaw said. About 42 percent of admitted students are minorities or international students, he said.”</p>