Chronicle of Higher Ed: Admissions Group Eases a Rule on Early-Admissions Offers

Parents Forum
1

<p>the pendulum swings back....</p>

<p><a href="http://chronicle.com/news/article/3147/admissions-group-eases-a-rule-on-early-admissions-offers%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3147/admissions-group-eases-a-rule-on-early-admissions-offers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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At the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, members voted on Saturday to reverse a policy approved at last year’s conference that would have prevented colleges from making admission offers to students before September 15 of their senior year in high school.</p>

<p>The new policy will allow colleges to notify students of acceptance upon receiving a transcript that “reflects completion of the final semester of the junior year of high school or the equivalent,” meaning that colleges can accept students as early as June.</p>

<p>The previous policy, which had been scheduled to go into effect next year, was intended to rein in “admissions creep,” the trend of students’ increasingly becoming involved in the college-admission process — and stressed out about it — earlier in their high-school careers. Many guidance counselors and college-admissions professionals have said they think students need more time to contemplate their college choices and feel too much pressure to make decisions about which institutions to apply to and attend before they are ready...

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<p>I didn't find the idea of less selective colleges offering admission after the junior year terribly disturbing. Nearly all of these offers are non-binding and made to students for whom the real question is whether or not they'll be attending college at all. Knowing that there's an offer of college admission on the table can often be an incentive to stay in school and to do well for such students. </p>

<p>On a related front, did anyone see the story in this week's Time Mag. about admissions offers to junior high athletes, "Courting Eighth-Graders"? This seems really over the top:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666283,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666283,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>