For as long as there have been selective colleges, the spring ritual has been the same: Some applicants get a warm note of acceptance, and the rest get a curt rejection. </p>
<p>Now, as colleges are increasingly swamped with applications, a small but growing number are offering a third option: guaranteed admission if the student attends another institution for a year or two and earns a prescribed grade-point average.
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Monica Inzer, the dean of admission at Hamilton College in upstate New York, called the practice borderline unethical, saying it had the effect of recruiting students from other colleges. We would allow a student to defer for a year, but never to matriculate full time at another college, Ms. Inzer said.
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Some admissions officers suggested in interviews that deferred admission had also provided an edge in college rankings. Because the rankings are based in part on the SAT scores and high school grade-point averages of freshmen entering in the fall, the scores presumably lower of students who are to begin later are not included. Deferring the admission of some students also lowers the colleges admissions rate, making it appear more selective. </p>
<p>William Caren, associate vice president for enrollment services at SUNY Geneseo, said the effect on rankings was not a motivation for his campuss offering deferred admission, but a collateral benefit.
<p>Its been going on for years. basically its a numbers game - filling in slots left open from transfers or people dropping out for various reasons. This is one reason why its hard to flunk out of medical school - they don’t replace the empty slots so they would rather give you remedial classes than lose the income if you flunk out!</p>
<p>Harvard has been doing this for years. An article written in 1992 referred to Harvard’ss “z” list of freshman[ mostly alumni children] who were asked to take a gap year and then they could start Harvard a year later. 70% said yes to the offer.</p>
<p>I’ve got a h.s. buddy who got that offer from Harvard back in the 80’s. His father had gone to Harvard. His older brother was a Junior at Harvard. My buddy sent the Harvard Dean of Admissions a letter that said, “I wait for no one.” He went to Columbia.</p>
<p>This is new to me – spend a year at another institution and they will guarantee a transfer??</p>
<p>Never heard of it…</p>
<p>I also know of a student who was offered deferred admission after a year but as a freshman… I’m not quite sure why a school would do this, as clearly they will have plenty of applicants to fill next year’s class.</p>
<p>USC calls it a contract admission. It’s normally used for kids of faculty and staff or for legacies. Considering that faculty/staff kids don’t pay tuition, I think it’s rather generous.</p>
<p>I think some of the SUNYs use it for Jan admits. They know some kids will drop out after one semester. As a taxpayer, I commend them for trying to fill spots. I think many of them go to CCs for the Fall, so I dont see this as taking advantage of other schools. I would think they miss out on some socialization, but they can take it or leave it.</p>
<p>“spend a year at another institution and they will guarantee a transfer?”
no, no. you are NOT allowed to matriculate anywhere during the gap year, just cool your heels so to speak, and then start college a year later.</p>
<p>"I also know of a student who was offered deferred admission after a year but as a freshman… I’m not quite sure why a school would do this, as clearly they will have plenty of applicants to fill next year’s class. "
that’s what Harvard does to keep some alums happy.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley: offers some freshman applicants spring admission. Such students can either attend community college or UC Berkeley Extension Fall Program for Freshmen (with a limited selection of freshmen level courses – no lab or computer science courses) in the fall (or not attend any college or university during the fall). It may actually be advantageous to a student pinching pennies, since s/he could take a full semester of transferable courses at (inexpensive) community college and then graduate after 7 (instead of 8) semesters at UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>UT Austin: some freshman applicants are offered sophomore year transfer if they enroll at a different UT campus for their freshman year.</p>
<p>If a college expects 50 freshmen to drop out by the beginning of sophomore year, why not offer those spots to some of the students who are at the top of the wait list and just missed getting in? Sounds a lot easier than opening up a whole lot of new files and evaluating them from scratch for transfer admission. And for the student who really has his heart set on some particular school, this sounds better than a rejection and a suggestion that you might want to try again; you know that you will go there in a year if you like. And if you find that you like the school where you spend freshman year better, then you stay there.</p>
<p>At Cornell, the Transfer Option is primarily in the Schools that have a more focused approach…Hotel, ILR, HumEc…these programs have limited space, (and rooming for freshmen is limited as they are all housed on North Campus) so this allows the University to offer more students the option of transferring in after they have done some basic course work elsewhere, as long as they get the grades.</p>
<p>Birdrock, the college where the kid goes freshman year loses out and resents these deals. Cornell does this much to the dismay of a number of NY colleges.</p>
<p>This is very different than super-selective colleges saying to go elsewhere for a year. Many big state schools have feeder systems with guaranteed admission if you do a year or two at the less selective/desirable campus.</p>
<p>Yes you are right. But does anyone really care, other than the ‘offended’ colleges who decide it’s ‘borderline unethical’ that their competitors do this? Get over themselves already. It’s a free market the last time I checked. </p>
<p>And who are they to talk? The policies that most colleges implement are typically to solely benefit themselves, even at the expense of more general fairness or to the wellbeing of highschool kids.</p>
<p>I know of at least 3 kids in different years who were offered conditional admissions to Cornell ILR as long as they took certain required courses at another school and maintained a certain GPA.</p>
<p>I have also heard that Geneseo gives a guaranteed transfer offer to certain kids after a year but there is no limit on what they have to take. I’m not sure if there’s a specific GPA but I would guess there is. Of the 2 kids I know who got that offer, one switched from Stony Brook and the other stayed at New Paltz. I also know a girl who transferred from Purchase (the only school she got in to) to Geneseo after the first semester.</p>
<p>It’s one thing if the student goes to a CC for the time being…but if he goes to a 4 year first and then leaves to go to the “better school,” that’s kind of poaching.</p>
<p>It also affects US News rankings, which is why some schools, notably LACs do it.
The kids who join the class in January or as sophomores don’t “count” for purposes of computing how selective the school is. I’m not sure, but I also think they are excluded from the 6 year graduation rate.</p>
<p>Do such arrangements allow enrolling in a community college before transfer? The community colleges presumably don’t mind students transferring out to four year universities. Also, it can be a way for penny pinching students to get their freshman year done inexpensively.</p>
<p>It does not seem to make a lot of sense to enroll in an expensive four year university just for freshman year and then transfer out (as the student featured in the article did).</p>