Oddly, the bone of ethics contention on that forum is that by holding onto the civilian spot, some other kid did not get an acceptance. No one there seems to understand that many more offers of admission were made than a school had room for and that the kid they are worried about did not even make the bloated cutoff. There is no next-in-line applicant who is hurt by planned-for attrition/non-matriculation at these mostly overenrolled schools. Never mind the potential to come off a waitlist at a non-overenrolled school.
There is no rancor on the SA forum for kids who leave academies at the halfway point (our son will be taking that oath in two weeks before his junior year begins) or who five-and-fly. It is well understood that the military is not for everyone, and the academies plan on that and prefer that cadets/mids figure that out before further investment is made. Our son says the cadets at West Point have been briefed about this and encouraged to spend this summer thinking hard about this point-of-no-return decision. Historically, West Point counts on 50-75 cadets separating on Oath Night. They also plan on post-commitment attrition as the armed forces cannot keep or provide a long-term promotion path for every officer they commission; they absolutely count on the the five-and-fly. They have already determined that five years is sufficient payback for the education received; no hard feelings on either side when officers choose to leave. Like Doritos, they’ll make more (if they need them).
Around here, it is generally considered unethical to matriculate to more than one selective college at the same time (not limited to service academies).
A student can only matriculate to one college. Also, because the academies are free, there is no double-deposit. And, unlike civilian colleges, academy apppointees DO get hurt and/or get medical turnbacks during basic training and absolutely need that fallback. The academy admissions process emphasizes having that plan B, but there are still people who aren’t OK with that. And that’s fine; no one is forcing their child to hold on to a plan B. However, every year on that forum, there are stories of kids who don’t finish basic training and have nowhere to go that year.
If a student meets the criteria to get into an academy, they will have good opportunities for merit elsewhere. If the go to CC, they will lose the chance for good merit. For many kids, this would affect their ability to afford college.
I heard of an ROTC scholarship recipient who lost his scholarship at the last minute for a medical reason. It’s tricky because the medical test are the last step. And then you might have to get a waiver that’s decided on a case by case basis. It’s a tough position for a kid to be in.
My D had been interested in the AF ROTC, but she has a medical history. She could go through the application process, be accepted, enroll in a college we couldn’t afford without the scholarship, and then be told she didn’t receive a medical waiver. I have very mixed feeling about her taking that path without a good plan B.
Since the other colleges presumably do not like the idea of someone committing to two colleges at the same time, do they make exceptions for when the other college is a service academy?
@MACmiracle - My son has a friend who was discovered to have color blindness during the ROTC screening process. It was apparently so mild that it was never an issue as he grew up but he failed the detailed testing and was kicked out of the running. He’s adopted so his mom said that at least she and her H weren’t blaming each other for it! He had advanced pretty far in the process as he is truly a brilliant young man and an Eagle Scout.
I hadn’t really thought about what @ChoatieMom said about cadets/plebes, etc. needing a backup plan, but it makes tremendous sense to me on consideration. These young people are ready and willing to serve our country and then something makes that unworkable, why should they lose a year - they already lose their deposit if they stay in service.
This runs counter to the trend that this thread discusses. It appears that small liberal arts colleges and non-STEM specialized colleges are bearing the brunt of this decline. Not mentioned in the article are sharp declines in enrolment at some lower tier state colleges.
In the Boston Fenway area Wheelock and SFMA have taken the next step to merger with universities and Simmons has had an enrolment drop too. While Wentworth Institute of Technology is doing well and building new buildings.
One of the reasons for Northeastern’s rise in the past two decades is its emphasis on career preparation. Even though liberal arts purists still look down on that type of school.
As previously mentioned, Scripps had a significantly higher yield than they expected, leading to a freshman class that’s over-enrolled by about 80 students - more than 30% over their target. They were scrambling on housing placements until the very last minute, placing 40 freshmen in off-campus apartments owned by Claremont Graduate University, after few upperclassmen responded to the anemic incentives they were offered to move. Nevertheless, move-in went quite smoothly, and I have to give Scripps credit for staffing up and making the classes available that the entering students needed. My daughter got the classes she wanted with the professors she’d hoped for, and her largest class has 22 students. They’re making it work!
One curious turn of language that I see in this article is it starts with “A startling decline in U.S. college enrollment” and then cites the census numbers from 2011 vs 2015 of the “# of Americans enrolled at a colleges or universities” as its evidence for this claim.
One does not imply the others. Americans enrolling at Universities could be going down while enrollment at U.S. Colleges is not.
To make matters worse, they fail to qualify the actual # with any relative % of college-aged Americans, yet still call the decline “startling”. And to top it off, they assign a cause to it all – rising tuition prices – without even attempting to show a relationship.
@NashvilletoTexas Agreed! It gets website clicks which helps raise ad rates. :))
A month ago there was an article, I forget where, that blamed the current administration for a sharp decline in international college applicants. It stated that 36% of colleges reported fewer international applicants. It did not mention the fact that apparently 64% of colleges had a steady or increasing number of international applicants.
Followup to my original post: Boston University was 90 students overenrolled and Boston College is 112 students overenrolled. Northeastern has not announced final enrolment figures yet. None of them wwnt to their waitlists.
Scripps managed enrollment very tightly this year, admitting conservatively (hence the drop in admit rate to 24%) and then adding from the waitlist according to yield. (They didn’t give any merit $ to waitlisted students, though.) 254 first-years and 13 transfers (presumably tilted toward junior transfers given the already-oversized sophomore class?) moved in last week. This was the first time in three years that any transfer students were admitted.
The college president’s house on campus was repurposed to house students, and the not-so-successful off-campus apartment arrangement of last year was not repeated. Of last year’s huge entering class (328 I believe?), it looks like 301 sophomores are enrolled for the fall (based on the total enrollment shown in the portal for all sections of the required Core 3 class). The differential includes both outgoing transfers and students taking LOA’s, but in what proportion I don’t know; and I don’t know if any incoming transfers are taking Core 3.
Drexel had another huge class. Their class of 2020 was 2324 which jumped to 3,268 last year after a summer melt from 3500+ deposits. This year they got 3600+ deposits so they expect 3300+ come move in in late September.
Also, because the academies are free, there is no double-deposit. And, unlike civilian colleges, academy apppointees DO get hurt and/or get medical turnbacks during basic training and absolutely need that fallback. The academy admissions process emphasizes having that plan B, but there are still people who aren’t OK with that. And that’s fine; no one is forcing their child to hold on to a plan B. However, every year on that forum, there are stories of kids who don’t finish basic training and have nowhere to go that year.