Interesting article for those in the UC ecosystem in CA. To recap, they don’t think it’s feasible to develop a UC/specific college readiness standardized test (in lieu of SAT and ACT) by 2025. They’re thinking about a version of the Smarter Balance test that CA kids take in middle and high school (that also is a dumb test).
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Congrats to the UNC acceptances!
Swag: D21 has 2 sweatshirts bought on tours, and she didn’t end up applying to either school! Other than that waiting on a decision.
School: she’s had the option to go in person since October but has chosen to stay virtual with the majority of her classmates. Their setup is basically virtual but in a classroom (teacher teaching same in person and virtual) and she hasn’t wanted to go. There aren’t any in person activities either so she’s not missing much. We can change selections every six weeks, so depending on the situation I may urge her to consider going back in March to finish up the year.
Still waiting on UT decision here. I saw that 60k application number, ugh. Non auto admit, in state acceptance rate will be somewhere in the low teens, on par with many elite schools. Fingers crossed for good news soon. Planning on dragging D to the local U for a self tour this weekend. She needs a goal to visualize (just college in general) bc spirits are definitely low over here.
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Newly released admissions information from Boston University:
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75,559 students applied, a 24 percent increase from last year
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41.6 percent of applicants indicated they want their standardized test scores considered
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average SAT score submitted is 1440, 76 points higher than last year’s average score of 1364, and the average ACT score is 33, 2 points higher than last year’s average score “although these numbers are skewed a bit since all applicants to the Class of 2024 were required to report their scores”
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average high school GPA is 3.73 (compared to last year’s 3.72)
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“Despite the lack of standardized test numbers, Walter says, she is confident that her office will be able to make well-informed decisions regarding admission. The reason is that test scores never drove the admissions process at BU; in fact, she says, the primary piece of information has always been an applicant’s high school transcript, as well as the classes they’ve taken, how many years of each academic subject they’ve taken, and other factors like extracurricular activities.”
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First-generation applications jumped more than 20% to 15,618.
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International applications increased 9.9% from 12,737 to 13,998.
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Applications from African American/Black students increased 25%, from 3,308 to 4,140
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applications from Hispanic/Latinx students increased 29% from 7,384 to 9,535
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5,720 students went ED a 13% increase.
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40% of the University’s Class of 2025 has already been accepted through ED1 (there are two rounds)
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admission team members visited more high schools (albeit virtually) than they do in a typical year. “I’ve never traveled to South Africa and Botswana for BU work before, and this year I talked to students there”
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Interested students didn’t ask too much about BU’s lauded coronavirus testing program and Learn from Anywhere learning model. Instead, they gravitated towards typical admissions questions, inquiring about BU’s average class size, Study Abroad programs, housing options, and how to get an on-campus job
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3,200 available spots left in the class of 2025
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@anaray Michigan has a high rate of OOS students but in normal years they tend to defer a lot of students in their EA round. If this happens to your daughter she shouldn’t get upset as it’s common. They are also very big on yield protection. As far as I know, they don’t reject anyone in EA round, just defer them all and then in some cases never reject/accept some people ever and they just stay as deferred indefinitely which frustrates a lot of people. They also give little merit.
The other thing they tend to do is to defer top students to protect their yield. So someone who ordinarily would expect to get in during EA, won’t. Then they have to send a LOCI and that usually works if they meet their “qualifications” but it’s frustrating how they do it there.
They have a formula for how they recalculate GPAs, remove +/-, do something with rigor etc. also. So that’s another factor.
Our high school tends to be a feeder and accepts about 25 students per year with about 1/2 who then attends, but this year, anything goes. Who knows what will be!
Good look to your daughter!! Tell her to hang in there.
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@ububumble - gosh, I love it when colleges release this level of detail. Tks for sharing!
I think this year has taught colleges that standardized tests are a barrier in attracting applications from URM and first gen kids.
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I will tell her so that she is mentally prepared for any decision come Friday. Thank you very much!
@mm5678 I’ve said this previously, not sure if in this group or the UT group, but as a parent of a UT student, who loves it, I am appalled with how they do their notifications, especially this year. I know they have tons of applications, but at least one of these admissions people must have kids going through this process too and know the stress kids are under. They also didn’t need to extend the RD in December allowing for more applications. That’s on them. They clearly expected to get more applications because this year they also started accepting auto admits immediately in September which is quicker than they normally do.
The fact that there is still one more big wave of OOS that they haven’t accepted before Monday and all those rejections by then as well is going to be rough. They usually have the last big wave well before that group of rejections, but now it looks like they’re coming down to the last minute. I also don’t understand why they don’t reject people right away. There are clearly people that they will be rejecting and they know it immediately. Just do it back in September when they apply and not string them along!
My daughter was an OOS and this would have been excruciating.
Good luck to yours!! Hook’em
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Yes and doing virtual info sessions has helped them do targeted sessions for URM and First generation.
Plus probably harder for them to be, sued in a TO world.
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My kids’ TX public high school mates are quite interested in UNC. About 45 (or 8%) apply per year and 16% admitted over last 10 years. ~40% fewer apply to U-M. Avg test score and grades are just slightly higher at UNC and U-M acceptance rate at 20%.
USC is comparable to U-M in stats and 10% more apply than UNC.
UVa: ~ 15% more apply than UNC. Better stats but higher admittance rate. Higher caliber student applying?
Vandy is comparable to UVa. 60 apply per class and 13% admitted. Admitted stats on par with UVa with fewer admitted. People I know getting into Vandy apply ED.
Vandy = UVa > UNC > U-M = USC (slight differences)
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May I ask, are there many of you out there whose class of 21 kiddos have not had their mid-year reports sent to colleges yet? I’m curious to see if we are in the majority or the minority here.
No reports yet.
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None of my kid’s schools require a mid year report
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Our grades for term 2 close tomorrow so nothing sent out yet. Our school opening was delayed a bit this year so about 2 weeks later than usual.
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My daughter’s report card doesn’t come out until February 4th. Hopefully they go out soon.
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OK – I’m starting to feel better that we are not in the minority with mid-year reports!
In regards to UMich, our local public HS’s Naviance has recorded many EA rejections. I mentioned on the UMich thread that one recent applicant who was rejected EA with a 4.3 GPA and a 1,570 SAT score. And we’ve also had UMich EA applicants post a few rejections here on CC.
As for “deferred indefinitely,” I haven’t heard/seen that. We’ve had posts here on CC where applicants were deferred from EA and then waitlisted in RD waves, but eventually did receive answers in the April/May/June timeframe.
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Mid-year reports aren’t finalized yet at my S21’s school, so have not been sent. Likely will be sent mid-February.
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D had her midyear report sent on 1/20. For the EA school that wanted first quarter grades by 12/1, she sent a progression report that just showed her grades as they stood at the end of November since we don’t have quarters. They were fine with that. It seems that some here don’t know that’s an option. It’s too late now but, for anyone here who has younger kids, if an EA or ED school asks for fall grades, I would just ask if they can send something like D did.
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Yes, my D20 had the progress report sent for Richmond last year as well. The GC at her school had never done that before, so it took a lot of back and forth to persuade her to do it. Finally, the GC contacted the AO and that’s who convinced her it was necessary. I think the GC at our school is just slow and inexperienced. D21’s mid-year transcript is ready, but nothing sent yet. I just feel better that there seem to be a good number of other kids whose mid-year reports have not been sent, either.
S21’s GC won’t be sending reports out until 2/1.
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