Washington Monthly - September/October 2014 - 66

TEN WAYS COLLEGES
WORK YOU OVER
What they don't want you to know
about admissions and financial aid.
By Stephen Burd and Rachel Fishman

#1
JUST BECAUSE A SCHOOL
ENCOURAGES YOU TO APPLY DOESN'T
MEAN THEY ACTUALLY WANT YOU.
High school students who are inundated with personalized letters and emails (and even partially filled-out applications) from colleges urging them to apply may mistakenly
think that the institutions contacting them are intending to
admit them. In reality, schools often encourage students to
apply so that they can reject them.
The aim of the game for colleges is to boost the number
of students who apply and can be rejected. By doing this, the
schools see their acceptance rates fall, making them appear to
be more selective-which helps them rise up the U.S. News &
World Report rankings.
Take Northeastern University in Boston. According to a
report in the Wall Street Journal, the university sends nearly 200,000 personalized letters to high school students each
year. The institution then follows up these letters with emails,
making it seem that the school is wooing these individuals.
These tactics appear to be paying off. Nearly 50,000 students applied to Northeastern this year for 2,800 spots in
the fall 2014 class-"more than in any previous year and a
ratio of 18 applicants per seat," the university boasted in a
news release.
Lowering its acceptance rates is at least one factor in why
Northeastern has catapulted up the U.S. News rankings, rising
more than 100 spots since 2002.

#2
A COLLEGE MAY NOT BE
AS SELECTIVE AS IT SEEMS.
Another way that colleges attempt to appear more selective than they really are is through use of the Common Appli66

September/October 2014

cation, a standard form that students can use to easily apply
to multiple colleges. Colleges have found that they can use the
Common App to inflate their applications in order to lower
their acceptance rate-one of the measures used to determine
an institution's ranking in U.S. News. As it turns out, the proliferation of the Common App has enabled students to easily
apply to more than one school even if they are underqualified.
Indeed, students are applying to more schools than ever before. In 2000, just a couple of years after the online Common
App was introduced, only 12 percent of students applied to
seven or more schools; in 2011, 29 percent did.
The University of Chicago provides an example of the
factors behind this trend. For years, the university publicly rejected the use of the Common App. In fact, it marketed its
own application as the "Uncommon Application." But by 2007,
Chicago officials caved to the demands of looking as competitive as the other schools using the Common App. As the vice
president and dean of college enrollment told the Brown Daily
at the time, "We took note of the fact that two of our major
competitors, Northwestern and [the University of Pennsylvania], had decided to accept the Common Application."
What was the result of the University of Chicago allowing the Common App? By 2013, the school increased the
number of applications it received by more than 20,000 and
reduced its acceptance rate by over 24 percentage points.
This helped move Chicago from being ranked number nine
nationally by U.S. News in 2007 to number five by 2014-
ahead of its competitors Northwestern and the University
of Pennsylvania.

#3
YOU MAY BE REJECTED OR WAIT-LISTED
AT A COLLEGE SIMPLY BECAUSE
YOU ARE NOT WEALTHY.
Every year, a substantial number of private colleges
reject or wait-list a certain proportion of applicants not
because of grades or test scores or because they would not

Washington Monthly - September/October 2014

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