What should colleges do to manage the increase in apps?

Data10
Sun, 25 Apr 2021 17:29:29 +0000

Mwfan1921:

Did Selingo/his guest actually say that?..if they did, I missed it (which is entirely possible😉)

He certainly didn’t say it in the blog post in which an admissions officer at an unnamed college seemed to mention struggling this year, in which there was likely:

A larger increase in applications than expected resulting in fewer readers/staff than desired

Challenges related to being newly test optional including using a new and different procedure for reviewing applications that may place greater emphasis on non-stat criteria

Challenges related to COVID-19 including working remotely, evaluating students with pass/fail grades this year, and reading essay after essay talking about negative effects of COVID on students’ lives

The blog post also doesn’t imply quote is in any way representative. For example, he may have had 100 other quotes from admissions officers that all made it sound like they were overjoyed to have a big increase in applications this year and were handling it well, but those quotes did not make as interesting a blog post.

The quote doesn’t appear to be an official one and does not come up in a Google search. The only things that do come up are this thread and the Dean of Admissions at WPI disagreeing with the quote and saying,

Correction: “The application pools are overrunning the resources we are willing to provide to review the applications which we charge a ~$75 application fee for.”

Many universities with far fewer financial resources - especially large public universities - could figure it out…