<p>Boston College has sent out an email expending their deadline until Midnight on Sunday, January 6. This is good news for all those who are stressing last minutes.</p>
<p>Would anyone here care to speculate why BC extended its regular decision deadline? Could it be due to a reduction of RD applications received to date?</p>
<p>There was a big snow storm in Boston on Saturday. I was there for a family holiday. Airports were closed, people got stuck places and I’ll bet some mail was delayed.</p>
<p>does anyone know if this is Sunday going into Monday 11:59 or Saturday 11:59 pm?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I think it is possible (although a stretch) that they did, in fact, extend their deadline due to a reduction of RD applicants. I say this mainly because this year was the first year that they had a supplement essay on their Common App, but again its more likely due to the weather delays</p>
<p>I think it was because of the weather in Boston, although, after being deferred EA, I sure do hope it was because of a decrease in the number of RD applications</p>
<p>I’m sure it was the weather situation though</p>
<p>We now have confirmation that BC saw a 26% reduction in applications due to the new essay requirement.</p>
<p>[Boston</a> College Sees a Sharp Drop in Applications After Adding an Essay - Students - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Boston College Sees a Sharp Drop in Applications After Adding an Essay”>Boston College Sees a Sharp Drop in Applications After Adding an Essay)</p>
<p>Dear Rastaman : This is an incredibly important data point and thank you for sharing with the forum. The article cites 34,051 applications last year with approximately 25,000 in this application season. Now, what conclusions can be drawn from these numbers?</p>
<p>[1] Is that decrease of 9,000 applications strictly tied to the introduction of the new essay?</p>
<p>[2] What is the estimate of how many of those 9,000 would have attended Boston College if the supplemental essay had not been required?</p>
<p>[3] Is there any concern over 9,000 x Application Fee not being part of the upcoming fiscal year budget?</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it could be said that the resulting 25,000 applications are “more interested” in actually attending Boston College. What happens to the final numbers in the acceptance pool for the Class of 2017 remains to be seen.</p>
<p>The yield percentage from this year’s acceptance pool will be a telling number on the value of the supplemental essay.</p>
<p>and, I would add to scott’s list:</p>
<p>4) Perhaps BC gets more kids who really want to be there – they “get” the idea of a Jesuit education and will (hopefully) thrive in that environment – as opposed to the fact that is was the ‘highest ranked school that they got into’ and perhaps end up transferring out later.</p>
<p>Did BC have a drop in the number of EA as well!?</p>
<p>Dear Damond3 : Unofficially, I have been told that the EA round numbers went from 6,000+ to 5,000+ for a decrease of approximately 16% although the final numbers are still to be made public.</p>
<p>just a comment from the cheap seats: If I were the Dean of Admissions, I woulda suggested a length of ~250 words which, on the surface, appears less daunting, and might scare away fewer interested kids (experiencing college essay burnout). </p>
<p>But in practice, it is rather difficult for most high schoolers to make a salient point in ~250 words, so it would be harder to complete.</p>
<p>I doubt one extra essay scared away many interested kids. It would only really be a deterrent to someone who was luke warm to begin with. I’m sure BC knew this would happen and made a well thought out decision to add the essay. I think they might also see an increase in yield. I wonder whether they will rely more heavily on the wait list this year. It must be hard for them to know how many to accept during the transition.</p>
<p>Seems like an alarming decrease in the number of apps…especially at a time when you see better schools apps increasing at such a high rate (for example UVA EA apps up 17.5% over prior yr. in second yr of EA). I get the extra essay discouraging some from applying but this seems odd to me.</p>
<p>This is interesting. I hypothesize that the quality of applicants did not drop. I had to write six different supplemental essays and I found that many can be molded to a particular institution to save time. Of course, time is still vital in communicating interest but knowing a couple classmates who were deferred, I’m still quite confident in the quality of the pool.</p>
<p>Dear Damond3 : If one postulates that the decrease of 9,000 applications and the introduction of the second 400 word essay are tightly correlated, one can similarly conclude that there is little correlation to previous achievements and therefore assume that the overall quality will remain the same. Similarly, a reasonable conclusion is that the essay addition to the Common Application has somewhat self-selected more committed students from those just throwing another $100.00 at the “Top 30” named schools. </p>
<p>The single most interesting data point moving forward will be the yield from the acceptance pool. Whether the currently depressed economic climate keeps the yield in the same range or the $52,000/year sticker shock sets in for those expecting huge pacakges have any additional impact will need to be closely examined. If this group has been self-selected, one should expect an increase in the yield.</p>
<p>Dear emotup : From the January 17th edition of the Boston Globe, the following text appeared covering the new essay.</p>
<p>
The idea that 34,000 applications were processed to fill a class of 2,250 students always felt excessively skewed to me. One would have to agree with Mahoney that a pool of 25,000, committed to completing the extra essay, eliminated a number of “Why Not?” applications. Further, we should infer that the 25,000 would be substantially more receptive to an acceptance letter.</p>
<p>Dear bluebayou : Your point about a decrease in the word count actually increasing the essay’s difficulty is spot-on. Those High School Seniors who wrote to me off-the-board during this application season were most often in the 500-600 word range. Often times, these candidates lacked a critical eye and the deep editing skills needed to retain their core theme while tightening the delivery.</p>
<p>Im glad BC added an essay to its supplement. While some universities eliminated the requirement for submitting standardized test scores or choose to keep their supplements essay-free, I think it is positive that BC has gone the other route.</p>
<p>With an endless stream of information via the internet, as well as the convenience of the Com App, colleges are being inundated with applications while applicants are sending out more and more each year. All parties are uncertain. Colleges dont know which students are serious and students find it hard to assess their chances amidst such a large pool.</p>
<p>Some universities use marketing agencies to attract applicants, some send out emails and letters based on test scores to students who would never get accepted (I personally find this distasteful). Ranking has become very profitable for businesses (US News and World Report, Forbes, Princeton Review) and for colleges (all of them). Its a numbers game: get the highest number of applicants, have the lowest number of acceptances, show the best yield, all the while raising the tuition. More is better. Even better is even more.</p>
<p>But whats lost in this prestige chase is the effect the application process has on the high school students. The pressure, the stress, the disappointment, the blow to self-confidence and loss of application fees. Pretty harsh. Dont get me wrong, I think that competition is a good thing and that hard work should be rewarded. Im just getting a little jaded.</p>
<p>BC made a well thought out calculation. It knew very well that by adding an essay to its supplement, the number of applications would drop. But it also realized the number of not-so-serious students it would lose is a good thing. The quantity will drop but not the quality, since an essay really isnt a hardship for those students used to lots of writing in their AP classes compared to those who find it onerous. Further, Admissions will gain insight and information about its applicants and be better equipped in its decision-making. For the students who really want to go to BC but were deferred (many of whom have high GPAs and test scores), the additional essay helps to weed out potential competitors. </p>
<p>Quote: Seems like an alarming decrease in the number of apps Its all relative. The end result will be more clarity. Soon enough, everything will right itself.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at BC. When he learned that Admissions was adding an essay, he commented that this would only have enhanced his candidacy last year because BC was one of his very top choices. I think the drop in applicants gives serious students, as opposed to those who are browsing, a much better chance to shine since far fewer non-serious candidates will take up the oxygen in the room. BTW, he LOVES BC and cannot sing its praises more highly. Very proud EagleMum here. ;)</p>