We hope everyone had a happy St. Patrick’s Day and a great week!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

MARCH MADNESS UPSETS

March Madness saw a big upset for UVA on Thursday, when Furman scored a 3-point shot in the last 2 seconds of the game to win! And speaking of Virginia, we saw a repeat of their 2018 historic loss to 16-seed UMBC when 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson beat 1-seed Purdue. On Saturday, the upsets continued with Princeton’s victory over Missouri, marking only the fourth time in history that a team seeded 15th reached the Sweet Sixteen. Despite the upset, Mizzou’s head coach is still one to watch - check out this article, which explores Coach Dennis Gates’s unique and sincere approach to coaching college basketball. 

WELLESLEY STUDENTS VOTE TO MAKE TRANSGENDER MEN AND NONBINARY STUDENTS ELIGIBLE FOR ADMISSION

Students at Wellesley, one of the most highly regarded women’s colleges in the country, voted last Tuesday to make transgender men and nonbinary students eligible for admission. While this is an indication of the direction the student body is leaning, the vote is non-binding, and Wellesley admissions has announced that they will stick with their original policy of not offering admission to trans men. The gender policy at Wellesley states that the school is open to all students who live and identify as women, including transgender women and nonbinary people who were assigned female at birth. Most women’s colleges, including Spelman, Bryn Mawr, and Barnard, are aligned with Wellesley’s policies; some, like Mount Holyoke, already admit students regardless of gender, including trans men and nonbinary students. 

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE WELCOMES NEW COLLEGE TRANSFERS

New College of Florida, a small progressive college in the Sunshine State, recently experienced a big shake-up with a new board of trustees appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Now, Hampshire College, a similar school in Massachusetts that, like New College, welcomes progressive students and does not assign grades, has opened its doors to any New College student in good standing and offered to match the in-state tuition that many of these students have in Florida. 

So far, one New College student has transferred and four others have applied. Hampshire, which nearly closed in 2019 and in the last several years experienced an enrollment drop from 1,500 students to less than 500, is using this opportunity to increase the size of its student body while serving Florida students who wish to transfer. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We’ve gotten a lot of questions recently from students and parents about the huge numbers of applications to top schools, and it is still going strong post-pandemic! Application numbers at top colleges have increased 32% since 2020. This means that overworked admissions officers are attempting to read nearly one-third more applications in the same amount of time, so colleges are encouraging students to apply early action in order to spread the application review over a longer period. Of course, this often means more deferrals, which is frustrating! For more information about this aspect of the college admissions landscape, as well as a peek behind the curtain at what actually happens in an admissions office after a student is deferred, we recommend this op-ed from Jeff Selingo.  

Shannon attended a session last week on the Princeton Review’s 2023 College Hopes & Worries Survey. The most surprising thing we saw in the survey was that the students’ top concern when it comes to college admissions was SAT and ACT testing - yes, even more than financial considerations, completing applications, or getting in! This is interesting because it shows that while many colleges continue to offer test-optional admissions, students realize that a strong test score can still be a major asset during the application process. 

We’ve always said that college rankings should not be the #1 consideration for undergraduate applicants, but we still understand that they can often be important to students and families. With potential shake-ups in the rankings, including Columbia’s recent withdrawal after a professor discovered inaccuracies in its data, attitudes may be shifting. For a deep-dive into all things college rankings, we recommend this Time article. 

Are you a senior heading to school in the fall and wondering about creating your own major? Check out this student’s story - she may just convince you on the benefits of choosing your own path through college! And speaking of choosing your own path - have you heard about Fairleigh Dickinson’s Jordan Sarnoff, the youngest D1 men’s basketball sports information director in history? We loved this profile on him - what a great example of how taking initiative and pursuing your own interests can pay off in a huge way.

OFFICE HAPPENINGs

I like data, so I always think the connection between college admissions and March Madness is fascinating in terms of predicting application trends in seasons to come. There was actually a fascinating study about this a few years back which found that private schools saw the biggest increase in applications after a Cinderella run, although the impact was just temporary.

Anecdotally, I think that certain private schools in the highly-selective (but not ultra-selective) category see more of a long-term impact, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a Cinderella run as defined by the researchers. Villanova’s sustained increase in selectivity after the 2016 and 2018 wins is a great example of this. It’s next to impossible to get into Villanova now, if you don’t ED.

On the home front, my son was so excited for the Miami/Indiana game all weekend and I felt sorry for him when he crashed shortly after it began!

What a game, though! After half time I started to get really nervous that he was going to wake up to a loss this morning but thankfully Miami came back strong. Sorry to our Indiana friends out there :) I am hoping for a good game against Houston on Friday but am managing my expectations!