Hope those who celebrate had a happy Easter this past weekend!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

UPDATED ADMISSION RESULTS NOW AVAILABLE

The results are in! All applicants have now heard back from their regular decision schools, and a list of reported acceptance rates for the Class of 2028 is now available here. This list will be frequently updated as more institutions report their results, so if you don’t see your college on the list, check back again in a few days.

Remember - these statistics often involve rates that are combined between multiple rounds of admission. In other words, they are not necessarily representative of what occurs in any given round.

Schools that offer binding early decision plans will typically have a higher acceptance rate ED and a lower acceptance rate RD, so the “average” rate ends up somewhere in the middle, but applicants are not actually accepted at that rate.

ACT OFFERS SHORTER (EXPERIMENTAL) TEST 

Students taking the June ACT will have the option to participate in a pilot offering, with fewer questions and more time per question. This is part of a study, and we do NOT recommend this to our students because their test prep has been geared towards the traditional version of the test. That said, we are curious to learn what the results of the experiment will show us!

PRINCETON SETS NEW ENROLLMENT GOALS FOR SOCIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY

Princeton’s Board of Trustees announced a new enrollment goal: The university will aim for an undergraduate student body that is at least 70% eligible for need-based financial aid and at least 22% Pell Grant eligible.  

In response to the Supreme Court affirmative action ruling last June, Princeton established an ad hoc committee tasked with examining its admissions policies and procedures. This new enrollment goal comes as a result of the committee’s recommendations. Currently, 67% of Princeton’s undergrads are eligible for aid, and 20% are Pell Grant eligible.

Princeton also examined its policy on legacy preference, which they explained operates as a “tie-breaker” between equally qualified applicants. About 10% of undergrads are legacies. Princeton asserted that "the legacy preference benefits so few applicants, its impact on socioeconomic and racial diversity of the student body is small.” Considering the special bond between the school and its alumni base, the committee recommended that the legacy preference be carefully monitored and not expanded.

When it comes to athletic recruitment, Princeton will continue its current enrollment practices, so long as the athlete population is “representative of the broader student body in terms of academic and other criteria.”

BIRMINGTON-SOUTHERN COLLEGE TO CLOSE IN MAY

Birmingham-Southern College, a private liberal arts college in Alabama, will close after 168 years at the end of May. The college faced years of financial difficulties after the financial crash of 2009 caused a $25 million loss to the value of the college’s endowment. A 2010 audit also uncovered significant accounting errors in budgeting federal student financial aid. Finally, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded their bonds after revenue declines caused the college to draw heavily on its already-decreased endowment.  

Last year, the Alabama Legislature created a loan program to provide financial help to struggling colleges. The college applied for a loan through this program, but their application was denied.  New legislation that would have provided financial assistance was introduced this year, but it failed to pass. As a result, the College Board of Trustees unanimously voted to close.   

ELEVEN STATES FILE LAWSUIT TO BLOCK BIDEN’S STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS 

Last Thursday, Kansas was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah in filing a lawsuit against the Biden Administration, seeking a temporary injunction to block the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program. Missouri will be filing a related lawsuit.  

These Republican states argue that the President has overstepped his authority by enacting a sweeping policy without congressional input, implementing another version of the program that was struck down by the Supreme Court last year. They also argue that it’s unfair to force American taxpayers, who did not go to college or saved to pay for it, to pay the loans “of those who ran up exorbitant debt.”

The Biden Administration asserts that SAVE is markedly different from the program rejected by the Supreme Court, arguing that SAVE is authorized under the Higher Education Act, whereas the failed plan was created under a different law. The administration stated that “it has been fighting to fix a broken student loan system, and part of that is creating the most affordable student loan repayment plan ever.” 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Over the last few weeks, we’ve already discussed that certain schools are beginning to reinstitute their requirement for applicants to submit ACT and SAT scores. However, we wanted to share a unique take on the issue from The New York Times, from author Emi Nietfeld: How the SAT Changed My Life.

Nietfeld wrote that many colleges embraced the test-optional policy because they assumed it would increase equity and diversity. However, a Dartmouth study revealed just the opposite: test-optional policies actually harm low-income and minority applicants. Many such applicants had strong scores that would have helped them from an admissions standpoint; but they mistakenly assumed their scores were not competitive enough, and unfortunately chose not to report them.  

As one of these disadvantaged students, the author described the SAT as their “one shot to prove our potential, despite the obstacles in our lives or the untidy pasts we’ve had.” Nietfeld wrote about her journey through the college application process while she was in foster care and homeless, transferring to four different high schools and having no opportunity to take AP classes. She pointed out that the SAT is objective, and that objectivity helped her to be judged on her merits. The exam is “the one door [she] could unlock that opened into a new future.” Nietfeld penned a compelling narrative with a happy ending – thanks to the SAT! I recommend taking a look.

I really enjoyed another New York Times piece, as well - an Op/Ed about personal branding in the admissions process: Elite College Admissions Have Turned Students Into Brands. The author, Sarah Bernstein, finds it frustrating that many college consultants stress the importance of personal branding to help students show a consistent narrative throughout the application process. “Instead of finding their passion and values through experience,” she writes, “students are encouraged to select a passion as early as possible and then rack up the experience to substantiate it.”

She points out that this not only puts under-resourced students at a disadvantage, but also puts an unnecessary amount of pressure on resourced students to make impactful and significant decisions before they are ready. While I agree that this does put under-resourced students at a disadvantage, I don’t think the concept of personal branding is otherwise necessarily a negative.

I would actually argue that it’s significantly more enjoyable for students to develop a narrative and brand around their actual interests at the moment (even if those interests may change down the line) than to try to maintain involvement in activities they hate just to check the box. How many parents my age grew up believing they had to play a sport, had to play an instrument, etc? It’s incredibly freeing for today’s teenagers to learn that they can stop playing piano and throw the lacrosse stick back in the garage in order to take a deep dive into what appeals to them most. The key is just maintaining involvement in that area until they’ve been admitted - but then they are almost always free to change their mind in college and explore different types of passions.

On a completely different note, I wanted to share a TikTok video from a Duke student that I saw this past weekend. I am sharing this for a few reasons: First, it provides valuable insight on the social scene at Duke in a way that could be useful for students who hope to become involved in Greek life and/or attend these kinds of parties.

Next, it demonstrates the importance of having relevant and up-to-date information about schools, instead of relying on a school’s long-standing reputation without research to back it up. The social scene that Sarah describes in the video is a result of a post-Covid shift from 2021-2023, when nearly all IFC and NPC fraternities and sororities chose to disaffiliate from the university. The organizations are now operating independently and without much oversight. But if a prospective student was relying on experiences from older friends or siblings to determine if Duke would be a good fit, they would never know about any of this.

Lastly, I felt like the video was a good example of a relatively fair and balanced approach. TikTok has come up so much this year with our students - on one hand, these videos can offer applicants a great way to feel like they are getting an inside view on life at a given school. On the other hand, they can also be a little misleading, because they are so dependent on the individual perspectives of the creators - not to mention the fact that they are made for entertainment purposes. When watching, try to take “extreme” creators with a grain of salt - those who say their school is terrible or amazing with nothing in between.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

FCPS is wrapping up their 11-day spring break today - that has to be some kind of record, right? We’re continuing to help our juniors make significant progress on their college essays with all of this time off!

But the real exciting news of the past week is that “Ivy Day” is now behind us and most of our seniors know where they’re headed next year! I know I am biased, but this group is going to some pretty amazing schools.

Congratulations, seniors! We can’t wait to follow your paths in the years to come - and hopefully work with you again down the line when it comes time to apply for graduate school!