Vol.15 No.10 June/July 2001
CB's Year -End Roundup
Reflections on the Spring
Admissions Season
THE GREENE REPORT
"THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS at the more selective colleges and universities this year was, as expected, competitive and challenging. But the happiest students were those who effectively and appropriately targeted a right school for them early in the process, and then made a commitment through Early Decision. That is, they were happy when it worked."
That's how Matthew Greene, educational director, Howard Greene and Associates in Westport, Connecticut, saw it. Other new trends spotted by Greene: [back to top]
CASUALLY APPLYING EARLY
Most students felt a lot of pressure to apply ED this year, and many talented students were not accepted at schools for which they were qualified. Many students actually casually applied to several Early Action schools without real commitment or knowledge. This new trend among students is causing a reaction among colleges. Brown University, for example, recently decided to move to using Early Decision instead of Early Action. [back to top]
FRUSTRATION WITH SPECIAL STATUS
"We also are hearing a great deal of frustration from students and parents about the other students who were accepted because of some kind of special status," said Greene. "Interestingly, we hear most often about the athletic recruits. Top academic students in every high school, public and private, can point to peers who were significantly less qualified academically, but who were accepted to top schools because of their athletic ability. This works well for those student-athletes, but is sowing seeds of discontent among those not athletically inclined.
"But, we have continued to emphasize to families how important it is to cast a wide net geographically, as this has continued to help good students gain admission to excellent schools across the country. We have also pointed to the importance of students indicating their interest to the schools to which they are applying, as we have continued to see that reflected in wait-list versus admit admissions decisions. [back to top]
MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS BACK UP
"We have heard rumors of students applying to upwards of 15-20 schools, a practice we discourage. But many students and families are throwing up their hands in a 'why not?' manner, arguing that the admissions process can be so capricious from their perspective that they should apply to as many schools as possible.
"Nevertheless, at schools such as Stuyvesant High School in New York City, which limits applicants to seven colleges, students were able to achieve strong results. There is clearly a lot of frustration though on the part of parents and students who feel bewildered by the admissions process and 'the system' or the individual 'institutions' with which they are dealing. [back to top]
INCREASED PRESSURES
"Additional pressures such as the SAT/ACT, the essays, and the pressure to take advanced courses earlier and earlier have added to the stress of applicants. It was clear that in many cases, low SAT scores held students back in a year of record applicant pools, even when those students had good courses and grades. Thus, the pressure has increased for all students to do SAT prep so as not to hurt their chances for admission to selective colleges. [back to top]
LENGTHY WAIT LISTS
"Lengthy wait lists have not helped those students put on them with little chance for admission. Most families would clearly rather be told that there is no chance for admission, than to be dragged out another month or more in the spring.
"Yet, we once again found that once students committed to a school in April, visited, and began to engage with others, they quickly began to put the schools to which they were not admitted behind them, and to think more positively about their high school career and their move to college in the fall.
Matthew Greene can be found at greenesguides.com. [back to top]
THE COUNSELOR'S CORNER
Smart Borrowing Tips
ASK MOST PARENTS of high school-aged children what are their main concerns, and they will say it is figuring out how they're going to pay for their child's college education. Indeed, the prospect of paying college expenses can be overwhelming. But new research just out indicates that holders of bachelors' degrees earn, on average, $15,000 per year more than their counterparts with no education beyond high school. So not only can a delay in paying for college into the future be tempting, for many families, borrowing some portion of the family's contribution makes sense. Sometimes, it's even the best choice.
But, parents need to make sure that they are making a good decision and that they've considered all the options. In order to successfully afford the school of their son's or daughter's dreams, parents have to be smart...and think strategically. To assist families in thinking about this, here are 10 tips on how to be a "smart" borrower. [back to top]
1. Exhaust all other options first. The questions parents need to ask themselves first are "how can I carve money out of my monthly budget?" Or "do I have debt that I can satisfy to free up monthly cash flow in preparation for college bills?" The point is, how can parents accumulate savings or other assets to pay the college bills or a portion of the bills? Is a monthly payment plan a reasonable option? These are all answers parents need to have before they proceed.
2. Never borrow more than needed. In financial aid circles, this is known as "the $87 pizza rule." Borrowing now for anything that is not absolutely needed can cost much more in the long run. Is it really worth it? [back to top]
3. If parents decide to borrow, consider first those loans which offer tax deductibility of interest. This means looking at federal loans programs (Stafford for the student, Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS for the parent borrower). Parents should consult with their tax preparer to determine whether their income level will allow them to claim these education loan interest deductions.
4. When choosing a loan program, investigate the terms thoroughly. There are many loan programs available for education, all with slightly different terms. When choosing a loan, PLUS should be the benchmark. It has a capped interest rate (9%) and the possibilities of tax deductible interest. Many loans offer discounts for several years of consecutive on-time monthly payments and reduced interest rates for automatic payments from a checking account. Check out these conditions. [back to top]
5. Repay as soon as possible. Unlike many commercial loans, education loans permit prepayment without a penalty. Parents can use tax refunds, Christmas Club accounts, stock gains, raises, or other windfalls to reduce education loan balances.
6. Plan ahead to avoid or minimize the need to borrow. Retire debt, especially credit card debt, which is the most expensive debt. Don't take on new debt. Continue to save systematically. Understand the value of money invested over time. [back to top]
7. Don't overlook the student's capacity to contribute. The student's priority when not enrolled in college should be to earn money and save, too, toward college expenses. At a minimum wage (about $5.15 per hour), working 40 hours per week can net a student close to $3,000 during a summer. Cars and related expenses, clothes, and vacations should be somewhere down the list of prioritiesafter college expenses.
8. Don't borrow from more than one loan program over the life of education borrowing. Once parents decide to borrow, they should plan to stay with that loan program and that lender throughout. They shouldn't respond to each new loan initiative the way consumers might change credit cards. For one thing, balance transfers won't be an option. The result is multiple payments to multiple lenders. This is not a good way to manage money. [back to top]
9. Understand that a loan is a tool that can help make a long-term investment in education. But if parents are going to borrow, they need to decide who should assume the debt? Should the parent be the borrower? Should the student shoulder the loans? Does it make sense to share the responsibility?
10. Talk with a college's financial aid staff about options. These folks will not only be able to advise parents regarding loan funding, they will also know about such options as the newly expanded government loan forgiveness programs for graduates who assume full-time teaching responsibilities. In addition, lenders are continually developing new loan products in response to the needs of families. This may be the quickest way to get the most current and comprehensive information available. [back to top]
Finally, there are helpful tools on the web that parents may want to explore as they consider borrowing and other financing options. These include the following: Collegeboard.com for loan repayment calculators; Kiplinger.com for tips on saving for college; Fastweb.com for a free scholarship search.
Helen Nunn is director of financial aid, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa. [back to top]
SUMMER READING
For Families. Don't Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money: The Essential Parenting Guide to the College Years, Helen E. Johnson & Christine Schelhas-Miller (St, Martin's Griffin); ISBN 0-312-26374-0, $16.95.
Campus Daze: Easing the Transition from High School to College, 7th edition, George Gibbs (Octameron Associates, 2001-02); www.octameron.com; $6.
Discounts and Deals at the Nation's 360 Best Colleges, Bruce Hammond (Golden Books, $19.99); designed for parents meandering their way through the financial aid process. [back to top]
On Admissions. Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges, second edition, Barron's Educational Series, Inc., describes 56 of the most academically demanding colleges across America; ISBN 0-7641-1272-4, $16.95.
Beach Reading. Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What we Can do to Change It, Peter Sacks (Perseus Publishing), ISBN 0-7382-0433-1, $17.50.
Beer and Circus: How Big Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education, Murray Sperber, (Henry Holt & Company); ISBN 0-8050-3864-7; $26. [back to top]
ADMISSIONS TRENDS
Wait List Watching. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created a wait list this year for the first time. It received 20,000 applications, accepted 12,000 and expects 6,200 students to enroll. In addition to creating its first wait list, it opened 100 new freshman positions.
The College of William and Mary received 9,300 applications, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, admitted 3,200 and expects 1,300 to enroll. It also put 800 students on its wait list. [back to top]
Tests Scores Rising. One of the by-products of greater competition to the nation's top colleges and universities this year is reflected in higher average test scores. The Chicago Sun-Times, for example, reported that Johns Hopkins and Pomona College boosted average SAT scores to 1420, Harvey Mudd College to 1450.
"O'Canada...Singing." Enrollment at 29 colleges and universities surveyed recently by the Canadian Embassy found that enrollment of U.S. students grew 74 percent over the last three years, from 2,246 students to 3,906. Renowned McGill University in Montreal now enrolls 1,400 U.S. students, up 60 percent since 1996, according to published reports.
Part of the lure is the tuitiona year for a U.S. student at a Canadian school is approximately $4,000 to $6,000. Ontario University of Windsor cut tuition for U.S. students from $12,000 Canadian to $3,800 Canadian. It expects 65 U.S. students in the fall, according to the Chicago Tribune; a few years ago it had none. Other "hot" Canadian universities: The University of Toronto, Queen's U in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. [back to top]
Princeton Upping its Ante. The talk among the Ivy League institutions this spring is Princeton's recent announcement that it was spending an additional $16 million from its $8.5 billion endowment next year to eliminate loans from undergraduate financial aid packages and replacing them with grants.
Following Merit Scholars. Where did the 2000 Merit Scholars head to college last fall? According to tallies from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation the top 10 schools with the greatest number of merit scholars:
Harvard, 382; U of California, Berkeley, 245; U of Texas, Austin, 245; Stanford, 209; Yale, 191; U of Florida, 166; Rice, 162; U of Chicago, 151; MIT, 148; and U of Southern California, 148. [back to top]
Money Matters. Admissions officers are reporting shifts in applications based on need. Temple University reported a six percent increase among in-state applicants ($7,000 a year tuition) and a decrease of 3 percent in out-of-state applicants ($12,000 tuition). This compared to a 20 percent increase in applicants of nonresidents last year. Temple also added $500 to 800 scholarships.
Community Support. Many community colleges across the country are seeing an increase in applicantsparticularly because there really are more students going to college and partly because of the economy. Applications to Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan, for example, are up 17 percent over last year.
Who's Counting? Among statistics gathered this spring: University of Miami received 17,500 applications for 1,850 positions.... Yale College term bill has been set at $34,030 for undergraduate tuition and room and board for 2001-02. [back to top]
WORLD OF WORK
College Pays. When this year's grads move from the classroom to the workplace, they will be rewarded with an average yearly salary of close to $40,000, according to the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.
Students with degrees in computer science and engineering are in the greatest demand, and hence garnering the highest offers, close to $50,000. Undergraduates with science are seeing a 12 percent salary increase over last year, up to $39,500. Business degree salaries are up 9 percent to $32,900. Liberal arts and social science graduates though are at the bottom of the pay scale. Also, after a year of dot.com-busts, only 13 percent of graduates state they want to work in a dot-com company.
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Nurses in Demand. The national nursing shortage is getting worse, according to federal reports, and tens of thousands more nurses will soon retire. The average age of the nation's 2.6 million nurses is now over 45 years old, according to the American Nurses Association. So many colleges are rushing to recruit more nursing students to fill the gap.
Unfortunately, they are not doing enough. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the number of students in nursing programs fell 2 percent last year, the sixth consecutive year of declines.
But some universities are bucking the trend. Loyola University Chicago, for example, has stepped up its targeted recruitment of nursing students. This year LUC attracted 302 applicants, up from just 134 last year.
Students who graduate should have little trouble finding immediate work, despite the fact that many hospitals are cutting back on their nursing staffs. [back to top]
Hiring Up. Employers are hiring 6 to 10 percent more college graduates nationally, although this is a smaller increase over last year compared to 1999, according to Michigan State. Hiring has been good in retail, financial services, food and lodging sectors, according to Philip Gardner, a Michigan State researcher. Demand is also high for teachers, and in technical fields such as engineering and computer information systems. But hiring for graphic design and Web-page designhot fields over the last three yearswill be limited.
Fastest-growing Occupations. According to a recent Kiplinger Letter, database administrators, computer engineers, systems analysts, teachers, librarians, counselors and health care workers are among the occupations that will be in demand by 2008. [back to top]
NEWS YOU CAN USE
International Affair. According to the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper, the number of new students entering higher-education institutions in China this year will be 2.5 million, a 14 percent increase over last year. Observers note this reflects a drive by the Chinese government to increase access to higher education.
Surf's Up. Spurred by the need for greater expertise in the lucrative surfing industry, the University of Plymouth in England has started a new four-year degreeSurf Science and Technology. Students study oceanography, business management, anatomy, environmental studies, meteorology and materials, and design construction. Costs: $1,500 annually and $10,575 for non-European students. [back to top]
New Global Film School. This spring CB kept hearing about the surge in interest in film studies. Well, the University of California at Los Angeles has teamed up with the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the National Film and Television School of Great Britain to capitalize on this interest world wide. It announced the creation of a new film school. The courses, available in about six months, will be offered in four sections or "zones": free media literacy courses for elementary and secondary students; low-cost introductory courses for open learners; specialized courses for aspiring filmmakers; and the fourth for professional filmmakers. For more info, see globalfilmschool.com.
Odds and Ends. After 35 years as a paper and pencil exam, the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) will be a computer-based test (CBT). Beginning July 1, the CLEP CBT will provide instant score reports and a streamlined billing process. See collegeboard.com/clep for more info.
To coincide with the celebration of it's 50th anniversary, Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky, changed its name to Bellarmine University. (See bellarmine.edu for a new virtual campus tour.) Elon College becomes Elon University June 1 and effective July 16 Beaver College in Glenside, Pa., will become Arcadia University.
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CAMPUS LIFE
Alcohol Free. Students who are members of fraternities are no more likely to drink after college than other alumni. But Greeks are twice as likely to be rated as heavy drinkers after their freshman year than other students, according to a recent Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. The authors of the study contend peer influences often determine student behavior in college as well as once out.
Credit Card Check. Seven in 10 college students have at least one credit card. One in five will wind up with more than $10,000 in debt. That is according to a recent article in Parade Magazine and a report from Springboard, a nonprofit consumer credit management firm that provides tips, sometimes for a fee, on managing debt (1-800-947-3752).
Reality Check. Students who enter college with an overly positive outlook and self-image may end up feeling a little deflated after receiving their first report cards, warns two University of California researchers in a recent Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In fact, students who overestimate their abilities may become deflated and, then, less likely to graduate than students who are less optimistic, but more realistic of their abilities. [back to top]
Three Counselors Reflect
WHAT DID HIGH SCHOOL counselors think of the 2000-2001 college admissions cycle? This month, CB asked three private high school counselors in three different parts of the country about their reflections on this admissions cycle.
Feeling the Vise
At the Gilman School in Baltimore, counselor Ivana Turner reported that Gilman's students were doing fine "in a very competitive climate. But we certainly feel the vise a little more. Students we thought would be a shoein at certain places are not getting in. It means we have to be on our toes and get into a cycle of protecting students. It means they may need to apply to more colleges in the future because we don't know what is going to happen. It means we need to educate our parents, particularly our junior parents, so they have perspective a year from now."
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Same 50 Name Colleges
Hector Martinez at the Webb Schools, Claremont, California, said that this year, 100 percent of his "A" students were accepted by their first choice college. A respectable 75 percent of "B" students gained entry to their top choice, but just a quarter of "C" students were accepted by their top choice.
Martinez, who has been counseling for 14 years, noticed an increased amount of competition for certain top-tier schools. He has identified an "increased interest in the same 50 name colleges," and, consequently, it is "more difficult to get into the top 100 schools in the U.S."
Webb School students also are responding positively toward the increased availability of online applications. Martinez observed that not only is there an increased use, they are easy to use, and have made things faster and better for students.
Martinez also called for colleges to increase their understanding of the academic profile of his school and students. He listed "the rigor of my prep school and the fact that we don't do grade inflation," as two factors that colleges might understand better than they currently do. He also asks for a little personal understanding of "the stress and pressure of my job."
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Looking for Comfort Zones
Mary Ann Willis, college counselor, Bayside Academy, Daphne, Alabama, said that at her independent college prep day school, 44 percent of students this year will be attending a four-year private school, 48 percent will be attending a four-year public school, and 8 percent will be attending a two-year public school.
Willis encourages her students not to choose a single top choice school, but rather to choose a group of schools as their preference. "Students have so many choices; I'm a match mentality person," she said, explaining that she views the typical concept of "fit" for a particular college as too tight. Also, instead of asking her students to apply to "safety schools," Willis says that she urges students to think about "a comfort zone" within the continuum of colleges. [back to top]
This year, Willis saw an increase in marketing efforts on the part of colleges, either by mail, phone or email. She found that this increase in college awareness increases the number of applications that students submit, but consequently decreases the number of acceptances received, as schools choose from larger pools.
Willis commended the efforts of college representatives who actually visit schools across the country, and she urged them to continue to "get to know the high schools." [back to top]
NACAC 2001 Space Availability Survey
The NACAC Space Availability Survey: Openings for Qualified Students lists NACAC-member colleges and universities with space available for qualified students in their Fall 2001 freshman and/or transfer classes as of May 1. Financial aid and housing is noted also.
NACAC has issued this survey for the last 14 years to assist counselors working with students who have not completed the college admission process. The survey results can be found, broken down by state, at nacac.com /news and will remain posted throughout the summer. Colleges are to update their listings as the number of openings changes.
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Financial Aid Trend
Students Underestimate Debt. According to a new report, "Big Loans, Bigger Problems," from the State Public Interest Groups, students routinely underestimate the amount of debt they will have to assume to graduate from college. Almost 80 percent of students in its survey underestimated the cost of their student loans by an average of $4,846.
"Students are forced to take out loans to pay for college but most will end up with significant sticker shock when it comes time for repayment," the report said. Part of the problem is that students overestimate their post-graduation income. Most thought they would start earning $39,000, when in reality the average income for some recent grads was just $27,000.
Graduating seniors now leave college owing, on average, $12,000, up 36 percent over the last four years. Also, the number of students graduating with more than $20,000 debt has doubled over the past three years.
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COLLEGE BOUND's Editor: R. Craig Sautter, DePaul University; Associate Editors: Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti; Assistant Editor: Larry Busking; Circulation: Irma Gonzalez-Hider; Illustration: Louis Coronel; Board of Advisors: Claire D. Friedlander, Bedford (NY) Central School District; Howard Greene, author, The Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning Series; Terence Giffin, Choate-Rosemary Hall; Frank C. Leana, Ph.D., educational counselor; Virginia Vogel, Educational Guidance Services; M. Fredric Volkmann, Washington University in St. Louis, Mary Ann Willis, Bayside Academy (Daphne, Ala.).
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