"… An example is Harvard University which earns $3 million in gross profits from rejected applications every year, and that is according to UCEazy. The data from the study also show that universities are able to make over $200 million in total from rejected applications because applicants are not prepared and unqualified …
… Here are the five schools that earn the most from rejected applications.
University of California-Los Angeles: $5,369,840
University of California-Berkeley: $4,681,320
Stanford University: $3,632,130
University of California-San Diego: $3,608,290
University of Southern California: $3,419,440" ...
While I find it reasonable to believe colleges for their own reasons encourage apps from kids unlikely to get in, and bringing in revenue to admissions may play a part, the “facts” underlying this profit report are nonexistent.
In other words multiply the number of rejections by the app fee and call that “profit”. Because app readers work for free, so do the adcoms reviewing the apps and the office staff handling them, the computer systems for processing the apps are donated by vendors as are any office supplies used, etc.
not to mention a lot of students get a fee waiver so you can’t just do “# of applicants - # of accepted” x application fee
i applied to 4 UC’s and a private school that has a $90 fee. didn’t pay a dime (thankfully! if not i wouldn’t have applied. i wanted to apply to more UC’s but $70 for a “what if” is too much for me and my family)
Stanford for example has 30 territory managers. Those managers have salaries, offices, bosses and out of pocket expenses (lots of travel). At $3.6M, I wouldn’t be so sure they aren’t losing money after fee waivers.
The original “analysis” I linked to in post #2 that formed the basis of the article consisted of multiplying the number of rejected students by the app fee. Period.
This is dumb. Depending on the school, an admissions counselor makes around 40k. At a top school it’s probably higher, something like 50 or 60 k. If an admissions counselor spends an hour looking at your file, That’s around $25 bucks right there. And that’s not counting the salary costs related to filing the paperwork you mail/fax in, answering the phones when you inevitably call them every day to ask when your decision will be returned, and small costs like postage, paper, etc. I’m sure they make a small margin on rejected applications, especially at schools like CSUs where the admissions processes are much less holistic and don’t have an essay component, but wow that’s some click-bait journalism.
I mean maybe I’m missing the point here but it is true that a TON of unqualified students apply to schools that they have no business applying to. Like, the kid who has 0 ECs and a bad GPA and bad test grades but knows nothing about college admissions and has only heard of Harvard and other much-talked-about schools so applies to them “just to see” is totally a thing that happens. It happened multiple times in my graduating class.
So like, they totally are getting revenue from unqualified students who don’t know better than to not throw their money away on an app.
I know we’re all really informed here on CC but a LOT of kids/families don’t know the first thing about how college admissions works.
EDIT: changed “profit” to “revenue” for clarity (i.e. not trying to imply they net positive. Probably not. But there IS money coming in.)
I think there was once an MIT blog post from an admissions counselor that even roughly approximated the number of apps they get that are actually “qualified” apps. And from there, they widdle down. The obviously-not-going-to-go-here apps just get thrown away outright.
Some colleges don’t charge fees, and their application numbers don’t go up all that much. It takes time to write a good application, and most students do value their time during senior year. I doubt that anyone would write a ton of applications just for fun or to see if they get in.
However, with highly selective schools that brag they could fill themselves twice over with valedictorians and such I wonder what is the purpose of the rigamarole. The idea that they are “crafting” an ideal class is about like Paul Masson serving no wine before its time. The school could simply throw darts at the top half of its applicant pool and be fine. Why labor over the essays, recommendations, etc? It is splitting hairs. I do feel sorry for the student applicants who pour themselves into the process.