Hopeful news for this year's applicants

Parents Forum
1

<p>In today's L.A. Times, there was a fascinating article regarding the anxiety felt by universities' admissions committees as they cannot predict how many students will accept their offers of admission this year (as opposed to past years), due primarily to the uncertain economy which may push more middle class students to state schools vs. private. The economy may make families/student find taking on college debt particularly unappealing this year so state schools may get more admits, but on the other hand, there is a fear among students that state budget cuts may adversely impact the quality of education. Other factors that make this year so tough to call are the slight dip in total number of hs graduates (from the all-time high in 2008), the announced 3% decrease in students being accepted to the UCs this year, uncertainty about substantial FinAid due to endowment decreases, and the historical evidence that more people do go to college during harsh economic times rather than right into a depressed job market. Whew!</p>

<p>What good news is there in all of this for this year's applicants? Here's a quote from the article:</p>

<p>"Other private schools, including USC, Boston College and Colgate University, also say they expect to raise admittance rates by a couple of points or so in case more accepted students than usual choose to enroll at public universities instead.</p>

<p>L. Katharine Harrington, USC's dean of admission and financial aid, said that if the school decides to exceed last year's 22% acceptance rate, she will happily take the risk that more students than expected might show up in the fall.</p>

<p>"That's the thing I'd love to get my hand slapped for," she said, jokingly adding that she would open her home to students left without dorm rooms.</p>

<p>USC received 35,600 applications this year, about 200 fewer than last year. But to help ease families' financial concerns, the school is boosting its budget for undergraduate financial aid by 8%."</p>

<p>Really, the entire article is quite interesting. For those who want to read the entire article: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-admit8-2009mar08,0,4495429.story%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-admit8-2009mar08,0,4495429.story&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Best of luck to everyone!</p>

2

<p>Great LA Times article.</p>

3

<p>The waitlists should be interesting this year.</p>

4

<p>most interesting is that according to all other data, this years graduating class was said to be the largest.</p>