<p>I think this is an important article for those new to the college application process. It basically states that just because one college receives more application than another, that doesn't make the first more "popular". It may be more of a result of the ease of sending in an applicaton to one college over another.</p>
<p>Bond-Rating Agency Says Increase in Applications May Not Be a Sign of a College's Popularity
By MARTIN VAN DER WERF</p>
<p>The college-application frenzy is beginning to have some unexpected side effects. </p>
<p>A large bond-rating agency, Standard & Poor's, announced on Monday that it would start looking more skeptically at the application numbers being reported by colleges and universities. </p>
<p>"We are questioning whether the increases reported are genuinely reflective of the popularity of a particular institution," said Gwendolyn Shufro, a higher-education analyst with Standard & Poor's. Rather, she said, the agency will be looking more at whether application numbers are being artificially inflated by the trend among students to apply to more colleges. </p>
<p>Those trends are being fueled, in part, by growth in the number of colleges that accept the Common Application and by the ease of online applications. </p>
<p>Application numbers have been important factors in bond ratings issued by Standard & Poor's and other agencies because this gauge of a college's popularity among prospective applicants -- what the agencies call "student demand" -- demonstrates to investors that the college has an enduring source of financial strength in its ability to attract paying students. </p>
<p>In a report titled "More Applications to U.S. Colleges and Universities Don't Necessarily Add Up to Higher Demand," the agency says it has become increasingly common for colleges to have 10-percent increases in applications from one year to the next. The report is available to subscribers of Standard & Poor's online data service, RatingsDirect. </p>
<p>The National Association for College Admission Counseling reported that 73 percent of all colleges and universities claimed an increase in applications for admission for the fall of 2005. If anything, Standard & Poor's says, the number of applications has only increased since then. </p>
<p>The percentage of applicants that an institution admits is one of the most closely watched barometers of quality and demand. It is one factor, for example, measured by U.S. News & World Report in its rankings of colleges and universities. But several news reports have also shown how some colleges have tried to make themselves look better by encouraging students to apply and then rejecting them, thereby giving the colleges a lower, and more desirable, acceptance rate (The Chronicle, May 25). </p>
<p>Joshua Stern, another analyst at Standard & Poor's, said the reasons for increased applications are more suspect. "In the past, say 10 years ago, if applications were going way up, it was because the institution was really in demand," he said. "Now we can't say that anymore." </p>
<p>Analysts, he said, would be paying more attention to other factors as well in assessing the creditworthiness of an institution. Among those factors are freshman retention and scores on standardized tests of incoming freshmen. The analysts are also likely to ask colleges for more information. </p>
<p>"As applications rise and selectivity increases, we will evaluate whether matriculation rates remain constant or increase, rather than decrease," the report says. If a college reports an increase in applicants at the same time it has a decrease in the number of accepted students who matriculate, it "may just reflect the nationwide trend toward an increase in applications rather than demand for a specific institution." </p>
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