<p>gtjopeful: I think the tendency to apply to more schools is prevalent in the northeast because many of the so-called elite schools are in our area, and they make no bones about looking first at students from far away so as to increase geographic diversity on campus. So if you are from, say, Mass., you may likely apply to Harvard + Yale + Brown + Dartmouth + Columbia (assuming you just GOTTA go to an Ivy) so that you may have a chance on connecting with one of them.</p>
<p>Girl in my D's class...1960 SAT, 95 weighted GPA, 4 APs over 4 years. Very involved in school, but hasn't done anything that wasn't available to a large number of people. No National Merit, Intel. Applied because Dad told her to. </p>
<p>If this is the type of kid responsible for the increase, the qualified applicants have nothing new to worry about.</p>
<p>Nice chunk of change for Harvard...all those application fees.</p>
<p>Well its not really 2.2 mil. At my school at least I know of 10 students who simply applied to every Ivy/top school on the common app simply because they had a fee waiver. The same is true with their test taking. A lot of people are simply applying because they can. Even when my Sis went to college (5 years back) the norm was to apply to 1-2 reaches 2-3 matches 1-2 safeties, not its to apply to as many schools as possible in the time frame. If the common app had a limitation on the number of applications you could submit to maybe idk 7 or 10 then probably application numbers would be down.</p>
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Maybe the Math SAT can be more easily cracked by test preparation.
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<p>Absolutely; the xiggi method works extremely well for this. Don't forget, the math tested on the SAT 1 is only Alg I + Geom + ~5 Alg II problems -- it ain't rocket science.</p>
<p>To make a curve, CB has to make the questions 'tricky', i.e., the Reasoning part of the test. For example, a little practice on the rate-distance problems (a train leaves Chicago while another leaves Cleveland...), and the SAT math become relatively easy to work for any kid reasonably strong in math. Neither of my kids like math (or science, for that matter), but both scored well on M just by practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>Both Bowdoin and Midd are test optional, and we should assume that the bottom ~25% (or botton half?) of their test takers do not submit test scores.</p>
<p>I know these schools are supposed to be need-blind, but they ask on the application if you are applying for financial aid or not. Would a student who checked off "No" be given an advantage (I'm sure there aren't too many out there, but nevertheless) in admissions, all things being equal? I ask because this question came up at a college program I attended. Smaller schools without the resources of HYPS are really strapped, and parents were asking about this. Didn't get a clear answer, though, other than "We are committed to need-blind policies."</p>
<p>I applied to 4 colleges in 1979. My son applied to 8 and two had no admission fee and used the common application. Is there a wonder why applications are up?</p>
<p>On another thread they are talking about priority applications -- sign here and you're in - -kinds of marketing. Funny that someone said Tulane was huge in this effort, which now makes understanding their applications being up so high far more understandable.</p>
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I think the tendency to apply to more schools is prevalent in the northeast because many of the so-called elite schools are in our area, and they make no bones about looking first at students from far away so as to increase geographic diversity on campus.
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<p>I suppose this is true. I grew up in the South where there are comparatively few good schools. It's my experience that many do not want to leave the South for reasons such as weather unless they get into the school of their dreams (90% of the time it's Harvard or MIT).</p>
<p>I would say the idea of applying to many schools is only in the northeast. Oregon, Cali, and Washington have a lot of people applying to the top schools (mostly Stanford and Ivies).</p>
<p>Here is an article from today's Indiana University student website on how the bad economy is affecting that Indiana flagship university and another local college.</p>
<p>"Last year IU saw a record of about 31,000 applicants, and the number of people applying is on the rise.</p>
<p>“At the moment we are not seeing a significant impact in terms of applications,” said Roger Thompson, vice provost of enrollment management. “We are up 10 percent in terms of applications compared to a year ago.” </p>
<p>He added there is currently a “boom period” of high school graduates.</p>
<p>Hanover College, a private school in Hanover, Ind., is experiencing a record-breaking 45 percent increase in applicants.</p>
<p>"Over 70% of students applying to colleges in the fall of 2007 submitted three or more applications."</p>
<p>"Nineteen percent submitted seven or more applications"</p>
<p>According to these statistics, 10 to 15 applications per student is obviously NOT the average. (Bulletandpima might want to revisit this assertion he/she made)</p>
<p>I still don't understand why 29,000 people apply to Harvard. The only relevant argument for it is prestige and maybe location. But prestige is only important if you know how to use it = network. Few kids my age know how to do so. Besides prestige you have TAs teaching all your classes, massive grade inflation, and an ego the size of Texas.</p>
<p>This is an inside story, folks: my dad used to work on the recruiting board at a major major oil company. He and the two other people who were responsible for reviewing applications, doing the interviews, and selecting the candidates generally avoided Harvard people for the very reasons above. He told me that the best candidates came from Princeton, Texas A&M, and CalTech. This is no lie.</p>
<p>Thats a large generalization bluebubbles that is not merited by Harvard graduates. It also has arguably the best fin aid policy in the nation. It still is amazing in academics. TAs dont teach the classes, just lead some discussion sessions. Professors do the lecturing. </p>
<p>Bottom line: don't generalize about students of a particular college because it's simply not true. And remember, the kids who got into Harvard had to be legit in the first place, so they are not necessarily less qualified than P-ton, A&M, or C-tech students.</p>
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And remember, the kids who got into Harvard had to be legit in the first place, so they are not necessarily less qualified than P-ton, A&M, or C-tech students.
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<p>It could just be that Harvard students are deemed less desirable because they feel they command a high salary. bluebubbles didn't provide enough information straight from the horse's mouth about why they thought caltech/princeton/a&m produced more suitable candidates. "Qualified" doesn't have to mean academics.</p>
<p>Miller1te, I've known two people that went to Harvard. One graduated two years ago and he told me that at most 20% of his professors lectured. The rest of the classes usually had the professor show up the first day for intros and what-not and then once or twice during the semester while TAs taught everything else. The other one transferred after her 1st year to Cornell but she said similar things about TAs. They both did say that their TAs were excellent.</p>
<p>I do have to admit that the fin aid policy is spectacular, especially for the fact that anyone under $60,000 pays nada. I must give Harvard props for that and sorry that I didn't mention it in my earlier post.</p>
<p>But in terms of academics, we can all agree that other Ivy League schools, top LACs, Stanford, MIT, Caltech are all "amazing". Why aren't these schools getting 29,000 applicants?</p>
<p>Harvard fosters the application "mania" by sending out letters to tens of thousands of rising high school seniors (I believe, 19,000 in 2007), encouraging them to apply. I agree that this process may represent a source of income for the school. </p>
<p>There has definitely been SAT grade inflation as well, ever since the median score was reset (1990's)? Over three thousand kids had 800/800 scores when my son applied last year; they can't all be accepted.</p>