Trend Watch: The Newest (Non-Data Science!) Undergrad Programs to Keep on Your Radar

AMERICA LOVES Data SCIENCE THIS YEAR

Have you noticed that practically every college in the country either just introduced, is in the middle of introducing, or is planning to introduce a new academic program in data science? Okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but there’s no question that new programs in data science are practically EVERYWHERE these days! And we think it’s a great field, so we are in full support of that.

However, if data isn’t your thing, don’t worry! We have a variety of other new programs to share that are not related to data science in the least. Whether you’re hoping to turn your passion for gaming into a career or become a famous music producer, keep reading for some exciting new options to keep on your radar:

UNC Chapel Hill’s B.S. DEGREE in Applied Sciences

If you’ve always wanted to be an engineer in theory but are worried about studying the hard sciences at such a high level, this brand-new program is for you! It “connects engineering to the liberal arts” and “train[s] students to be problem-solvers with the skills and mindset to address complex, interdisciplinary problems.” This expands on the popular minor program in the same field that UNC introduced in 2020.

Students can choose from two tracks, materials engineering and environmental engineering, and the environmental engineering track will actually be in partnership with the Gillings School of Global Public Health. The environmental engineering choice in particular could be a great option for those interested in environmental science and health — even from a policy standpoint.

UCLA’S B.A. DEGREE IN MUSIC INDUSTRY

Ready for a career in the music industry but also want to make sure that you’re employed at graduation? You have to check out this new degree program at UCLA, which also builds upon a popular existing minor. It combines the liberal arts, business, and music, and offers a “leadership-focused professional degree which prepares students to transform the creative, entrepreneurial, and executive structures of the music industry.”

How cool — and you’d be in such an amazing location! Not surprisingly, the program even incorporates an internship requirement, so that all students are able to gain real-world experience before they graduate.

OREGON’S B.A./B.S. DEGREE IN CHILD BEHAVIOR HEALTH

If you already know that you want to work with children in a therapeutic or wellness setting, you don’t have to go through a traditional four-year program before heading to graduate school to specialize. The University of Oregon recently introduced a pioneering 2+2 undergraduate program in conjunction with the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health — the first of its kind in the entire country!

Students will gain the “knowledge and skills to improve the behavioral health and wellness of youth … [while learning] to equitably deliver evidence-based interventions to promote wellness and prevent mental health problems from developing or worsening in children and adolescents.”

The first two years of the program will take place at the University of Oregon, where students will pursue core requirements and pre-major coursework. The last two years will take place at the Ballmer Institute, and will involve experiential education and a deep level of specialization closer to what one would expect from a graduate program. By the time students graduate, they will already have achieved over 700 hours of field work in Oregon public schools!

SYRACUSE’s B.S. DEGREE IN ESPORTS COMMUNICATION & MANAGEMENT

I need to write this one down for my 7-year-old son, whose career aspirations involve playing video games on YouTube and getting people to pay to watch him (I wish I was kidding!). In all seriousness, though, gaming is a billion-dollar industry and there are many legitimate career opportunities out there. Two of the most renowned undergraduate schools at Syracuse, the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, have now joined forces to create an interdisciplinary program that “connects innovative gaming environments and technology with the sports media industry” and prepares students for careers in the field.

For the parents out there who might be unfamiliar with the terminology, esports does not necessarily mean electronic versions of athletic sports, like playing tennis on the Nintendo Wii. Esports is simply competitive gaming, in all forms.

Students will develop “industry-specific competencies in event management and marketing, broadcasting/production, communications, content creation, entrepreneurship, strategic communications and esports experience and design.” There are three tracks: Esports Business and Management, Esports Communications, and Esports Media and Design, so students can focus their course of study on their individual interests and career goals. We always say to follow your passions, right?!

WEST VIRGINIA’S B.A. DEGREE IN PROFESSIONAL WRITING AND EDITING

Many students assume that English majors primarily focus on writing, but that’s typically not the case at all: almost all traditional undergraduate programs in English revolve around literature. This can be a disappointment for potential English majors — it’s sort of like thinking you’re taking AP Lang and realizing you signed up for AP Lit instead, for context! And the writing-centric programs that do exist are often geared towards technical writers.

This new program at West Virginia University, on the other hand, provides students with the opportunity to spend their undergraduate years focusing on the art of writing itself. Graduates will be prepared to analyze, problem-solve, and write in nearly any industry, with optional specializations in Editing and Publishing, Creative Writing and Narrative Strategies, and Theories of Literacy and Language. No matter which profession they pursue, this type of degree will be an enormous asset! It also involves a required capstone internship, giving students the chance to use their writing skills in the workplace before graduation.

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You might wonder: what’s the benefit of pursuing a brand-new program when others are more established? Well, from a selectivity standpoint, this can be a slightly easier way to get an applicant’s foot in the door, because seats need to be filled and there may be less competition, as the general population may not be aware of the program yet.

For example, our (admittedly non-scientific) anecdotal evidence has shown that business majors at Rice and engineering majors at Wake Forest have had an easier time in the application process in recent years than other candidates. So if you have a profile that otherwise fits the bill, this could be a great path!

But don’t apply for specialized programs like these without some demonstrated interest in the field — admissions committees aren’t stupid, and the president of the high school pre-med club who volunteers at the local hospital every weekend is going to have an uphill battle trying to prove their commitment to the music industry!

Weekly Update: January 18

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

CYBER ATTACK SHUTS DOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT

Students in Des Moines, Iowa, received two unexpected days off of school last week. The Des Moines school district canceled classes following a cyber attack. Specific details about the attack have not been released, but the district has been working hard to restore the network. On Thursday, students returned to school, although families were warned that wi-fi would not be available yet.

SEVEN FCPS HIGH SCHOOLS NOW UNDER FIRE IN NATIONAL MERIT CONTROVERSY

The situation has continued to unfold over the past few weeks, and seven different high schools in Fairfax County have now admitted that they did not provide timely notification of National Merit Commendations. I want to share what we do with our own students as a matter of course each year, in case this helps anyone. Instead of waiting for official notification, we just compare the student’s selection index on their 11th grade PSAT with the score cutoffs online. I would never have a student submit an application with this award until they receive official notification, but the selection index should provide an indication as to whether official notification should be imminent. And if it doesn’t come automatically, the student knows to ask! [Note: I find that Compass Prep typically has the best information on cutoffs, but their site appears to be down on the date this post was written!].

VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SUBMITS NEW PLAN FOR HISTORY AND SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS

Two months after its revised proposal was rejected, the Virginia Department of Education submitted yet another draft of its K-12 history and social studies standards. Although the practice of updating standards is usually smooth, Virginia’s history and social studies draft came under attack in the fall of 2022. Many believed the standards “diluted” topics related to cultural diversity and racism. The Board of Education is now tasked with reviewing the new 68-page proposal.

LANGUAGE CONTROVERSY AT USC

Last week, USC made headlines when its School of Social Work announced that it will be replacing the term ‘field work’ with ‘practicum’ in its curriculum. The change, which was explained in a letter to the Suzanne Dworak-Peck Practicum Education community, is part of an effort to promote more inclusive language. As the memo noted, “Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers.” The announcement has caused some confusion and outrage for some. In response,  Elizabeth A. Graddy, interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, clarified, “The university does not maintain a list of banned or discouraged words. We will continue to use words – including ‘field’ – that accurately encompass and describe our work and research.” 

IDAHO MURDER SUSPECT APPEARS IN COURT

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, made a brief court appearance last Thursday. He waived his right to a speedy trial and will now await his next court date, scheduled for late June. To date, Kohberger has not spoken publicly about the tragedy or entered a plea. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Before heading off to college, most teenagers are warned about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and partying. But there’s another risky behavior that could leave undergrads in jeopardy: gambling. Thirty-six states have legalized sports betting in recent years, according to the American Gaming Commission, and gambling companies often seek out college students as their target customers. Several universities have even made deals with sports gambling companies, leaving young adults vulnerable to addiction and financial ruin. To help students avoid the alluring trap of sports betting, experts insist that parents look out for certain markers of behavior and encourage universities to do their part in providing education and support for this lesser-known danger. 

We’ve got bad news for students who plan to study psychology or marketing in college. Last week Business Insider revealed a list of 12 most useless college majors, according to career experts. With the cost of higher education continuing to rise, the list considers subject areas that won’t have the best return on investment. Perhaps not surprising, the arts- theater, acting, and film- all made the list. Some may be shocked, though, by other subjects in the top ten. Psychology was listed because students often require a graduate degree to forge a career in the field. And English took the number eight spot. Career experts argue that it’s probably more practical to major in business over English, unless you want to be a teacher or writer. What does our office of English majors think about this? A bachelor’s in English might not pave the way for one specific job, but that’s what we love about our degrees–you can do just about anything with it!

For the majority of Americans, the University of Idaho murders are a tragedy. For some however, the night of November 13 is pure entertainment. The increasing popularity of true crime shows and podcasts has led to a surge in amateur investigations of this horrific incident, especially on platforms like TikTok. Thousands of videos have been posted, including some from psychic mediums, who revealed their theories on the mystery murders. Seems harmless, right? Wrong! Many of these videos shared misinformation and accused innocent individuals of involvement in the murders. As a result, members of the University of Idaho community- a professor, victims’ friends and a surviving roommate- have all come under attack. And it’s not just online fury. Some have received real-life death threats. These safety concerns call into question the “wild west”-like nature of social media platforms and ethical concerns over exploitations of true crime and tragedy.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We’ve been carefully following the issue of compensatory education for FCPS students during the pandemic period, and I attended the first school board session on the subject last week on January 10. I actually asked a question at the end of the meeting - I wanted to know whether or not private school tuition reimbursement would be allowed, but didn’t get a clear answer. The lack of clear answers seemed to be a pattern…

Interestingly, I found out later that the FY 2024 budget only allocates $2 million towards this ENTIRE compensatory education fund. That makes a little more sense to me in terms of the lack of clarity - there’s just not enough money available to provide adequate compensation. We don’t know exactly how many students were impacted, but if we use the estimated 25,000 number provided by the district (another estimation provided was 26,500, so I am trying to be conservative), we end up with $80/student. If half of those families do not pursue any type of compensation, that leaves us with $160/student.

As a taxpayer as well as a parent of a student impacted, I have mixed feelings on this entire issue, but I do think that every family should know what their rights are. I have personally found the Fairfax County Parents Association to be a great source of information and would recommend them to other families who want to stay in the loop.

On another note, we recently learned about an exciting opportunity for high school STEM students in the greater DC area. If you’ve conducted original STEM research, submit your work to the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. You might just have the chance to present your work and compete for scholarships. For more information, please visit the JSHS website.

Have a great [short] week!

Class of 2022 UVA Early Decision/Early Action Results

I’m sure that most of you have read Dean J’s blog post by now with the EA admissions statistics for UVA’s Class of 2026. I love how she breaks the numbers down between in-state and out-of-state, by the way. That is so helpful and I wish other flagship state universities would follow suit.

The Early Decision numbers for in-state applicants didn’t change all that much from last year, except there was more of everything: total applicants, accepted applicants, deferred applicants and denied applicants. It all balanced out, though. 38% accepted as compared to 39% last year; 29% deferred as compared to 26% last year; and 33% denied as compared to 35% last year.

Early Action followed a similar pattern for in-state applicants - the raw numbers for each group were up, but percentages were actually exactly the same as they were the year before: 30% accepted, 27% deferred, and 43% denied.

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But here’s the interesting thing. The percentages staying constant do NOT mirror what we are seeing and hearing anecdotally from kids here in Fairfax, Arlington, and even Loudoun County. Not at all. To the point that I checked my math about five times (I really hope I didn’t make a mistake)!

I am not going to perpetuate the rumor that UVA has quotas, because they don’t. Yet I would really love to know the breakdown of these in-state numbers by county or region. Is it possible that even though the in-state numbers as a whole don’t show a significant difference, the county-by-county breakdown would? It’s just really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that the percentages stayed the same this year when so many of us counselors (independent and high school) are observing a different scenario with our Northern Virginia students:

Here’s what we noticed in particular:

1. Over the past two years there has not been a huge difference in terms of the quality of the admitted student pool between the ED and EA rounds. Statistically, ED is slightly easier, but it’s also a different applicant pool - there are typically more legacy students and recruited athletes in any school’s ED applicant pool. This can often balance out a moderate differential. Anyway, in terms of our internal data (which is admittedly statistically insignificant and from a similar demographic), it did not seem like the ED advantage was anywhere near as substantial as it is for some other schools. Other independent and high school counselors noticed the same.

2. This year was different, starting with ED. We had some students admitted in that round that I was very surprised (but thrilled, don’t get me wrong!) were admitted. These were not kids with any particular connections, either. And of course we also had students admitted ED that were extremely qualified. As well as a couple that we thought should have been admitted. But overall, it was a significantly easier ED year.

3. We did not have that many EA applicants this year, because so many of our students had UVA as their first choice and applied ED. We also had a lot of ED kids admitted to other schools who later pulled out their UVA EA apps. But of the remaining applicants we had in the EA pool, there were some really shocking decisions. Kids who 100% should have been admitted were not. If I shared their stats, which I can’t for confidentiality reasons, you would be shocked. And you can’t blame it on essays or teacher recs or something else, because these ultra-qualified kids have been admitted to other schools that are in some cases significantly more competitive than UVA. And SO MANY OTHER COUNSELORS are noting the same. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had this week about it.

4. A number of students (not our clients, actually) were not admitted even though they had already advanced in the rounds for the Jefferson Scholarship. This is WILD to me. Understandably, these students were more focused on the scholarship at this point and assumed that admission itself was more or less a done deal, since, hello! They are supposed to be the top students in the applicant pool! The reason this is so interesting to me is because the admissions committee does not make the decisions for Jefferson Scholars - it's a separate committee from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation. And my assumption is that the Jefferson Scholars committee is free to make decisions based on merit, while the admissions committee has to take other factors into consideration about shaping the class.

Again, I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the stats do not add up with what we observed from other years with our admittedly-not-representative-of-the-state-as-a-whole student group.

SO - My advice for Class of 2023 juniors interested in attending UVA? Apply early decision, and for the love of God, please PLEASE continue foreign language during your senior year!!! 😃 I HATED IT TOO SO I FEEL YOU BUT THIS WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU!

Majors to Watch in 2022

A big part of college admissions strategy is choosing the right lens for the application - and that includes choosing a major! If on the fence between various options, we always recommend that students consider newer, growing majors in their field of interest - particularly in niche subject areas, if possible.

Because these programs aren’t as well-known as others that are more common, there may be less competition - which students can leverage to their advantage in terms of both admissions and merit scholarships! For example, if you’re interested in city planning, real estate, or even entrepreneurship, why not check out the University of Michigan’s brand-new B.S. degree in Urban Technology?

Today, we’re sharing some of the fastest-growing majors and programs we’ve been seeing recently at schools around the country - and who knows, your student might just discover their future career on this list!

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Homeland Security

Traditionally, a major in Homeland Security was only offered as an option in evening or professional school divisions. As the field has expanded, and the need for specialists has grown, a number of schools have begun to offer this option as a traditional undergraduate major.

Programs to Explore:

VCU: B.A. in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness

George Mason: B.S. in Criminology, Law and Society with a concentration in Homeland Security and Justice

Monmouth University: B.S. in Homeland Security

DeSales University: B.A. in Homeland Security, also offered with a concentration in Data Analytics

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University: B.S. in Homeland Security

Community Organizing

As social justice-oriented vocations and careers become more popular, majors in community organizing and related disciplines have proliferated on college campuses. These majors are housed in a variety of departments, including Education, Public Policy, and Social Work. 

Programs to Explore:

University of Colorado, Boulder: B.A. in Leadership & Community Engagement

University of Kentucky: B.S. in Community and Leadership Development

Arizona State: B.A. in Community Advocacy and Social Policy

Ohio State: B.S. in Community Leadership

University of Delaware: B.S. in Organizational and Community Leadership

University of Washington: BA in Education, Communities and Organizations

Loyola University Chicago: B.A. Advocacy and Social Change

Supply Chain Management

While not necessarily a new major, the public eye has certainly had an increased focus on the supply chain lately! As this type of problem-solving work becomes increasingly appealing to students, supply chain management programs are becoming more popular. 

Programs to Explore:

RIT: B.S. in Supply Chain Management

Michigan State: B.A. in Supply Chain Management

University of Tennessee: B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Supply Chain Management

Penn State: B.S. in Supply Chain & Information Systems

Ohio State: B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering with a concentration in Supply Chain Management and Logistics

In addition to growing demand for students in these fields, these interdisciplinary majors allow students to explore different areas and maybe find a new passion! Do any of the newest majors appeal to you or your student? Let us know in the comments!

The Post-Game Analysis: Everything You’ve Been Dying to Know about Class of 2021 Admissions Data

As we’ve mentioned, decisions are out, so we took some time this week to dive a little bit deeper into what the statistics are showing us for schools that have already released their admissions data for the current cycle. Of course, none of this is fully complete because we do not have final waitlist numbers yet, but we are so excited to be able to share some of our key takeaways with you!

Note: These are based on the 100+ colleges and universities who have released data so far, and may change as we hear from more schools, so we will make sure to keep you updated with what we learn!

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1. Colleges are receiving more applications.

It seems like we’ve been talking about this all cycle, but initial data is showing that it is absolutely true. Overall, the Common ApplicationⓇ saw an 11% increase in applications this cycle. What is interesting to note is that the increase came mostly from students applying to more schools, not an increase in the number of students using the app. 9% of students applied to additional colleges, while the rise in different students applying accounted for only 2% of the jump.

On average, students who used the Common App submitted 5.8 applications each. We recommend looking at this number as a baseline, encouraging students to aim for the 8-12 range with an absolute minimum of 6.

Of course, the total number of schools to which a student should apply is closely linked to the probability of admission to each individual school. Remember that selectivity and predictability are inversely proportional - so a straight-A student with a perfect test score hoping for a highly selective school will have a very unpredictable outcome no matter how qualified she is. As such, that student will need to apply to more schools than a peer with a less competitive academic profile.

The unpredictability factor offers one explanation for the unequal distribution of application increases during this cycle. We learned that “dream reach” schools, those highly selective schools with admissions rates in the single or low double digits, saw an average application volume increase of 28% year over year! Yikes.

We collected some of the data from schools that are popular with our students:

And at the University of Florida, which was one of the only schools in the country to still require students to submit test scores? An increase of only 6%.

2. Early decision REALLY matters.

We have always emphasized to our students that ED is one of the best tools in the college application process for students that do not need to compare financial aid offers, and this was more true in this cycle than ever before (we say that each year, by the way - every year it just becomes more and more important).

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know that we’ve been posting nonstop about the plummeting acceptance rates across the board that we saw this year. But ED applicants experienced an entirely different landscape at many schools - in fact, those numbers are moving in the opposite direction! Yes, it was actually easier, on the whole, to be admitted ED during Fall 2020 than it was in Fall 2019! That’s wild when you consider how enormous the applicant pools were.

Overall, the differential in acceptance rates shifted another 4% this past cycle in favor of ED applications. At many of our students’ target schools, however, the ED rate saw an increase of 10% year over year. 

At BC, the ED admit rate went up 9% from last year. Johns Hopkins saw an 11% increase from last year, while UVa’s went up 6%. Bucknell and Villanova had the largest increases - with ED admit rates soaring over 15% higher year over year!

3. We did see some deferral impact after all.

At the start of this cycle, many colleges tried to assure students that the high rates of deferral for the Class of 2020 would not impact their selectivity for the Class of 2022. We even wrote about it!

However, this did not turn out to be accurate at some schools - particularly at smaller institutions which had less of an ability to absorb the deferrals.

Duke, for instance, had already filled 9% of its Fall 2021 class with students who deferred admission. Williams, which already has a tiny entering class in and of itself, filled a whopping 21% of its spaces with students who deferred! This cut the admit rate for regular decision students in half, from 13% to 6.5%. 

Given what ended up happening this year, we anticipate that we will continue to see an impact for the Class of 2022 - particularly at smaller schools that couldn’t fully absorb the impact in one year.

4. Regular decision has taken a big hit.

Looking at the factors above, it is no surprise that regular decision admit rates plummeted the way they did. The combination of more applications overall, more students admitted ED, and more spots filled by deferrals led to an incredible drop in regular decision rates across the board.

At Bucknell, for instance, students who applied early decision were 42% more likely to be admitted than those who applied regular decision. At BC, early decision applicants were 22% more likely to be admitted.

Just a note that the information above applies to ED I applicants at most schools. ED II, a binding option with a later deadline, has an extremely varied impact depending on the school. At BC, for instance, the ED II admit rate was similar to the ED I rate - in other words, significantly higher than the regular decision rate. At Emory, by contrast, ED II had almost no statistical impact on admission, because ED II applicants were admitted at around the same rate as regular decision applicants (to be fair, they may have been a less qualified group overall, so there was probably a slight difference).

5. Test scores do matter - a bit.

This is the information that many students and parents were most eager to hear this cycle: does it matter if I submit test scores or not? The answer is, again, it depends. At the most selective schools, those with the single-digit acceptance rates, it is so difficult to be admitted that test scores don’t really seem to make much of a difference from a statistical standpoint. Depressing, right?

But here’s the interesting thing - schools in the moderately to very selective range (as compared to the “most” or “ultra selective” ones mentioned above) did actually wind up leaning more on test scores than they claimed they would. On average, the admit rate for students who did not submit test scores was 15% lower than those who did. And then, because nothing is ever simple in our world, test score submission stopped mattering again for schools a little further down the selectivity ladder!

Take UGA, for example: students who submitted their test scores were 16% more likely to be admitted than students who did not. The graphic above might give you some idea as to why - with a 39% jump in applications, they needed some way to sort applicants! 

Again, though, we can’t emphasize enough this is such an individual decision and general statistics will not paint an accurate picture for a given student. A straight-A student with an “average” test score should not jump to submit; more often than not, that student is still better off withholding for any school (of course, this depends on extracurricular involvement, course rigor, and so forth). If you are wondering whether you should be submitting test scores to your schools, chat with us or check out our blog post on the topic: Is Test-Optional a Trap?

6. It is truly the year of the waitlist.

Again, this is something we’ve discussed on the blog before, but it bears repeating: wait lists, this year, are big. And I mean really big. Schools are putting together these lists with the expectation that they will have a low yield on admitted students, due to the fact that students applied to many more schools and that they may not have had the opportunity to visit before applying, so may be more likely to change their minds.

And in truly mind-boggling news, we know of at least one highly selective school that will not allow accepted students to deposit if they plan to remain on other school’s waitlists. Can you imagine? In a scenario like that, a student would have to choose between depositing at the one they have vs. remaining under consideration at schools they prefer. This particular school has agreed to grant some extensions to students who wanted to remain on waitlists, but it’s unclear as to how many and for how long. Insane!

If faced with that choice, my advice would be to go with the bird in hand, but this is unprecedented. It’s exactly what I was talking about last week regarding the lack of regulation in our industry, now that NACAC’s “Code of Ethics and Professional Practices" no longer exists.

If you are on a waitlist, or you simply have a lot of decision letters and are unsure what to do next, we are happy to help! In the past week, we have heard from so many brand-new Class of 2021 seniors looking for advice that we added a strategy session just for non-client seniors who need post-decision help - let us guide your next steps!

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CHECK OUT THE POSTS BELOW FOR MORE ON DATA AND TRENDS IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS!

NACAC, CEPP, DOJ: Too Many Acronyms!

I got a little behind with my blog posts this fall, but there’s actually been a number of interesting developments in the college admissions world that I’ve been meaning to share. Now that November 1 is over, I’m excited to get back to blogging regularly!

In late September, while I was at the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) conference in Louisville, the membership voted to remove three provisions from our Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (CEPP). These changes have caused a wave of feedback across students, families, and college counselors...but what do these changes really mean for your college application process?

I’m unpacking the details in this post with a condensed, all-you-need-to-know version. Hopefully, families will be able to stay on top of the implications of these changes.

The History

NACAC’s long-time code of ethics, the Statement of Principles and Good Practices (otherwise known as the SPGP - another acronym!) had a big revamp back in 2017. The SPGP was a bit lengthy and some felt that it was outdated, so the creation of the CEPP (Code of Ethics of Professional Practices) was really welcomed. No matter the name, the purpose of these documents has always been the same: to protect students during the college admissions process.

Over the past two years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a major investigation against NACAC, believing that some CEPP guidelines are overly restrictive for both applicants (in terms of their ability to negotiate costs) and institutions (in terms of being restricted in their recruitment abilities).

The CEPP requires colleges to standardize their use of application plans, along with guidelines. For example, Early Decision is supposed to mean the same thing everywhere, and so forth. Colleges were not permitted to advertise exclusive incentives for Early Decision.

Additionally, all colleges had to abide by specific rules around the May 1st enrollment deadline: admissions representatives were not permitted to “knowingly recruit” students after that date who had already committed to other institutions. Along the same lines, they couldn’t solicit transfer applications from those students, either.

As a result of mounting legal bills, the organization decided to remove provisions from the CEPP to address these concerns. These provisions--you guessed it--include the Early Decision application incentives, recruiting after the May 1st college decision deadline, and the transfer student restrictions.

Early Decision

Before these changes, the CEPP outlined that colleges could not offer any incentive (special housing, financial aid packages, and special scholarships) to students to encourage them to apply under a binding Early Decision deadline. They were allowed to share the differences between admission rates, but that was it.

After the NACAC vote, this measure was removed from the CEPP:

"Colleges must not offer incentives exclusive to students applying or admitted under an early decision application plan. Examples of incentives include the promise of special housing, enhanced financial aid packages, and special scholarships for early decision admits. Colleges may, however, disclose how admission rates for early decision differ from those for other admission plans."

What does this mean? In short, colleges can now offer incentives under a binding Early Decision program. As our seniors know, Early Decision is a sign of serious commitment to the school and is only appropriate when it is a clear first choice and the student and his family are aware of the financial obligations if accepted. I am actually a big fan of using Early Decision as part of a student’s overall strategy, but it has to be a thought-out decision after careful consideration of the potential drawbacks.

Now that this provision relating to incentives has been removed, it’s sort of like “anything goes” in terms of what can be promised; high-pressure sales tactics are fine. If you receive any strange offers from colleges incentivizing an ED/ED II application, please let us know! These incentives may cloud some of the serious implications of an ED commitment--and they are not always guaranteed.

Check out High Point’s ED Incentives for an example of incentive offerings (you will need to click on the “Early Decision” link.

My guess is that the Class of 2021 will see much more of this than the Class of 2020, because of the additional time for the institutions to make policy changes.

May 1st Deadline/Transfers

I remember May 1st of my senior year so clearly: everyone was anxiety-ridden just weeks before, but then a switch flipped and they were all walking around proudly sporting t-shirts from their future colleges. May 1st is known as the “national decision deadline” for students to finalize their college admissions decisions. In the past, nothing changed after that date unless a student was admitted elsewhere off a waitlist. Both the SPGP and CEPP prohibited colleges from providing last-minute incentives (scholarships, housing, other benefits, etc.) to students to change their minds.

This measure was also removed from the CEPP during the recent vote:

"College choices should be informed, well-considered, and free from coercion. Students require a reasonable amount of time to identify their college choices; complete applications for admission, financial aid, and scholarships; and decide which offer of admission to accept. Once students have committed themselves to a college, other colleges must respect that choice and cease recruiting them."

Also removed…

"Colleges will not knowingly recruit or offer enrollment incentives to students who are already enrolled, registered, have declared their intent, or submitted contractual deposits to other institutions. May 1 is the point at which commitments to enroll become final, and colleges must respect that. The recognized exceptions are when students are admitted from a wait list, students initiate inquiries themselves, or cooperation is sought by institutions that provide transfer programs."

What does this mean? This has largely the same impact as the ED change. On May 1st, students are fully committing to an institution financially. These incentives, again, may cloud their judgment and cause second-guessing. While we are hopeful that colleges will still respect the previous ethical guidelines and each student’s right to make their college choice free from harassment, we will not know how this change will make an impact until after May 1st.  Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects involves the fact that the constant pressure may continue even after a student enrolls in college!

Here’s the last measure removed from the CEPP:

"Colleges must not solicit transfer applications from a previous year’s applicant or prospect pool unless the students have themselves initiated a transfer inquiry or the college has verified prior to contacting the students that they are either enrolled at a college that allows transfer recruitment from other colleges or are not currently enrolled in a college."

This has started already, as a number of colleges have started reaching out to freshmen enrolled at different institutions, offering them incentives to transfer.

The Wild, Wild West

Here’s the craziest part - in addition to outright removing the measures above, NACAC has put a moratorium on enforcement on every other provision that remains. Yes, you read that right. It’s like telling your kids: I’m getting rid of the rule about your curfew. I’m keeping the rest of our house rules, but I’m letting you know now that I won’t enforce anything. Hmm….

Actually, I don’t blame NACAC at all: they did what they had to do. But in the post-Varsity Blues world, it is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. If you are interested in reading all of the (no-longer-enforced) provisions in the new CEPP, you can do so here.

What Now?

Amongst all these changes, there still lies some ambiguity.

Will NACAC member institutions choose to uphold the values of the eliminated CEPP guidelines?

What about the guidelines that do exist that aren’t being enforced?

At this time, we don’t know anything for sure, but here’s what I anticipate happening (keep in mind these views are my own and do not represent NACAC, nor those of any of the other professional organizations to which I belong).

• Enrollment deposits may rise to sky-high levels. Right now they are mostly around $300-500 or so. If a student decides not to attend the school to which they have deposited, they lose that deposit, but that’s not the real penalty of breaking an enrollment contract. The real penalty has always been that the student will not be able to enroll anywhere else, because all of the schools stuck to the SGPG/CEPP guidelines. What kind of financial commitment will make it hard for a full-pay parent to walk away if their child gets an acceptance to their dream school after their high school graduation? Not $1000, that’s for sure. Probably not $10,000 either, in my opinion.

• Colleges may be extra-conservative in their admissions decisions, knowing that their predictive models may be invalid. In these situations, it’s always better to err on the side of conservatism. It’s easy to fill the class from the waitlist, but as we saw this year with Virginia Tech, it’s not so easy to manage the overcrowding that can result from the opposite situation.

• Students will have negotiating power for merit scholarships. This is a good thing, at least!

• Regular Decision round will become much more unpredictable than it already is because of (a) the increased interest in ED incentives and (b) the May 1 date becoming meaningless. I have started telling my juniors that we cannot call any school a “safety” during Regular Decision if the school offers ED - no matter how high the acceptance rate. It’s just too unpredictable now and we can’t bank on it.

• Students will be put in high-pressure sales-pitch situations. This is unlikely to happen at the most selective schools, but I could definitely see it happening at moderately competitive ones. This has been common with waitlists - colleges may call and give the student 24 hours to decide. It’s hard to be in that situation. Mom and dad out of town? Too bad! A deadline is a deadline. I can definitely see this becoming a “thing” during every round.

This will be an interesting year, for sure. Again, we ask that all of our clients (current and past!) report unusual activity to us so that we can help everyone make the best possible decisions!

Early Admission Trends of 2018-2019

Is it me or is winter moving very quickly this year? I’m not sure if it’s because most holiday breaks lasted further into January than usual, or because of all of the inclement weather-related school cancellations in January - but I feel as if I blinked and February came around!

Now that we are past the immediate post-deferral stage with our seniors, and our juniors are all at various stages of their college essays with the Wow Writing Workshop, I can finally take a minute to digest all of the news from the early round! I thought it would be a great time to share some of the trends that I noticed, because this year was a real game-changer. Those of you who know me in person are probably rolling your eyes, because - yes - I said the same thing last year too. The truth is, though, every year just gets crazier and crazier. The landscape is constantly changing and students need to understand and adapt to the changes in order to maximize their chances of success.

In late December, I waited with baited breath as most of the early admission decisions came in. I have posted before about this on our facebook page, but it’s a really stressful experience. I’m not big into politics, but I can imagine that it’s a bit like working as a political campaign manager. No, I’m not the applicant, and the campaign manager isn’t the politician - but when you put your heart and soul into helping someone else achieve their goals over a very long period of time, it’s only natural to become emotionally invested in the outcome. Fortunately, I belong to a great online forum of other college admissions professionals with whom I can share perspectives, results, and experiences to learn about trends nationwide. Around decision time, posts run the gamut from commiseration to celebration to a whole lot of anxiety, but at least it is nice to be in good company. I noticed a particular comment by the Director of Enrollment Applications at the University of Miami, Jay Jacobs, that stuck out to me and essentially summed it all up. He generously agreed to let me share it publicly with my readers:

A lot of us are much more competitive due to increased applicant pools. We are now in the era where “last year” will never look and feel like “this year.” “This year” will look and feel different than “next year.”

Doesn’t this say it all? It’s hard to imagine that the changes are so extreme from year to year - but they are. I had never thought about it that way before - rather than the “before” and “after,” we’re really in a constant state of flux.

Here were some of the biggest trends I noticed:

#1: Early applications were up - WAY up. Boston College dealt with a whopping 56% increase in early applications between 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. Can you even wrap your head around that?

#2: Applications from underrepresented populations were also WAY up. This is not surprising given that underrepresented populations are being actively recruited to top schools. UVA explained that “the number of minority applicants increased by 24 percent, and the number of first-generation applicants increased by 18.6 percent. Included in the increase in minority applicants was a 32.5 percent rise in African-American applicants and a 21.9 percent bump in Hispanic applicants.” Brown described their overall application increase of 20% as “staggering” and followed up with the fact that applications from the Midwest had risen by 43% in the past year. Confused by the Midwest reference? You shouldn’t be - it’s sparse country.

#3: Schools are filling up enormous percentages of their classes through binding early decision spots. I won’t write about why they do this, because I’ll save that for another day - but I’ll explain why it’s relevant: the more students that a school admits early, the less students that the same school can admit regular. This turns into a situation where the “overall acceptance rates” that are typically posted on institution web sites are simply inaccurate. You must dig deep into the school’s Common Data Set - or use a chart like this one - to determine the acceptance rate that corresponds to a given application type.

For instance, the most recent data showed that Hamilton College filled up 53% of it’s class through early decision. This resulted in an enormous differential - their ED acceptance rate was 41% and their RD acceptance rate was 22%. You just can’t consider a school’s “overall acceptance rate” when you are dealing with two wildly separate processes.

Same thing with Cornell - they filled up 42% of their class early, and those students were admitted at a 26% acceptance rate. Their regular decision students, on the other hand, were admitted at an 11% rate. If you go by these schools’ published acceptance rates, or those written in guidebooks, you’ll get a third percentage entirely - one that is not accurate for early decision or regular decision. That’s pretty scary when you consider that a lot of families are using inaccurate information to guide their decision-making.

What do I think about these trends?

To be honest, I’m not sure that my personal feelings matter all that much. I understand why the colleges are making the decisions that they are making and I understand why the applicants are making the decisions that they are making - and it doesn’t matter whether we agree with them or don’t agree with them- the bottom line is that we need to accept them as our reality. I thought this article was a great one in terms of dealing with frustration and the messaging that we are sending our children. As Jay suggested, this is just going to become a more competitive process every year - we may as well accept what we cannot change and start strategizing accordingly.