Vicious Spiral?

ucbalumnus
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 18:14:06 +0000

TomSrOfBoston:

Maybe the US should adopt the British system: students can only apply to 5 universities. They can apply to Oxford or Cambridge but not both.

For that to be effective, most of the US universities would have to be relatively predictable and transparent in their admission practices and thresholds.

Actually, increased transparency in admissions would be the most helpful. Universities which admit by stats formula should publish their thresholds (by major, if applicable) after every admission cycle, so that future applicants can get a good idea of which ones are realistic to apply to. Those with holistic admissions can publish an admission rate stats grid (by major, if applicable). And do something similar for transfer admissions.

If that information were made available, there would be fewer unrealistic reach applications, and less need for large numbers of “safeties” if some applicants can more easily find an assured admission one that is affordable.