Late to the application party? Disappointed with current choices?
Here is a link to the 2015 “College Openings Update,” which is published annually at this time of year by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It lists colleges and universities throughout the U.S. (and a few beyond) that still have vacancies for the coming fall.
Note that some colleges have spaces only for transfers and not freshmen … or vice versa. The list also indicates which colleges still have financial aid and housing … and the vast majority do.
There will be additions to the list in the days ahead, so check back often. But if you’re interested in any of the places that are already included, don’t dawdle!
There are a ton of GREAT schools on this list this year (including the one I’ll be attending next year.) Wooster, DePauw, Reed, UFlorida, Washington & Jefferson are just some of the schools that appear on this list. Students looking to attend school in the fall seem to have some great options!
@minohi -Note that several of the places you named aren’t taking freshmen, just transfers … although the majority of colleges on the list overall are still accepting both.
@Sally_Rubenstone Aaaah I missed that. DePauw and W&J are looking for freshman, but Wooster and Reed aren’t. They’re all looking for transfers. Thanks for clarifying, I think I just got overly excited at the options, lol.
@minohi … I was pretty excited about the range of places on this list, too, including some of the schools that are still taking freshmen. Best of all, there are extensions on the finaid deadlines and not just on the application deadlines at the majority of schools.
Belmont, Berry, Ferrum, and Hollins are some great, lesser known, colleges still taking freshmen and transfers with fin aid and housing still available. Awesome opportunities for people still looking!
@foobar1 -Reed is only on the list for transfers. I can’t recall if they were on the list at all last year. I don’t remember seeing Reed in the past … but I can’t remember what I did an hour ago either.
@mstomper To be honest, you’re better off doing research on schools that are generous with financial aid than basing it off of this list. There are many schools that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need, but it’s really up to you to find the ones that will give you the most money. According to a list posted by Time Magazine, Vanderbilt, Duke, Grinnell, and Harvey Mudd are among some of the best schools for financial aid (as is my school, The College of Wooster.) Edit: I should note that my school was not on this list. I can read lol
In all honesty though, public schools are usually the most stingy with financial aid. So if merit aid is important for your family, I’d look at in-state public schools and private schools that your child is above the 50th percentile at. Hope I helped!
@mstomper Also be mindful that many merit scholarship opportunities require the student to apply early action for consideration, particularly those from public institutions.
@Sally_Rubenstone Thanks for posting this list. I sent it to my daughter’s guidance counselor as a resource. I know it is hard for them to stay really up to date with everything they have to do, particularly at this time of the school year.
I recall seeing Wheaton (MA) on the list in the past. DePauw is a new school on the list this year (at least by my recollection).
CTCL colleges Juniata, Knox, Marlboro and New College are on the list as well (I recall seeing New College and Marlboro here before, but not Juniata or Knox). Tulsa, St. Mary’s (MD) Truman State, St. John’s (NM) and Elmira are all interesting choices still taking freshman applicants.
I am honestly quite surprised by this list, by the depth and breadth of good colleges still looking for quality students (students academically qualified to matriculate). Does anyone know if these schools, esp the CTCL types, typically fill their seats by the end of the summer?
@lr4550 Some do, but others fail to fill their seats come the end of summer. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, very much a CTCL type institution, had a major problem with this last year thanks to the switch in financial aid and marketing policies. I’m surprised to again see it on the list. I assumed they had corrected their issues.
Keep in mind that many publics on this list have a policy of accepting students until August. The University of Arizona and Georgia State aren’t actually having trouble getting students.
Here are the colleges I would not have expected to see on the list:
-Berry College (only an hour or so outside of Atlanta, a fast growing city)
-Carroll College (given the explosive growth of Colorado and Utah, the dearth of secular small colleges in the Mountain West, and the success of MSU and UM at recruiting OOS Coloradoans, I would have thought it would have limited difficulty filling seats)
-Depaul University (always struck me as a less selective NYU which is a dream school for many and has little difficulty filling seats)
-Illinois Institute of Technology (a good urban engineering school wouldn’t seem to have much difficulty attracting students)
-New College of Florida (niche school, but a less expensive niche public in the fourth most populated state)
-University of Tulsa (the propensity of many Texans to look out of state coupled with its status at the best non Texas private in the region makes me surprised that TU failed to meet the recruiting goals)
-Universities of San Diego/ San Francisco (good schools in located in prime real estate near high income areas. Perhaps their costs are finally too high to justify?)
Other thoughts, given the coming demographic shifts in the country, the Northeast is going to have far more schools on this list than it currently does, and it has quite a few. I’m somewhat startled to see so many decently regarded California privates on the list, as well as the near absence of many small struggling schools in low growth Midwestern states.
Here is what surprises me about the list. My D’s boyfriend was rejected by one by these schools (I’m not going to say which one). It was his first choice and his stats were right on target with SAT between 50 and 75th percentile. Now they still have openings and are looking for more applications? Either they really overestimated how many admitted students would commit, or they really didn’t like something about his application. D, who is a junior, had been considering the school for next year but took it off her list when he got rejected because her SAT’s aren’t as good as his. It does make me wonder what is going on.
It is pretty crazy that these strong schools have open seats when the most selective tier schools are flush with applicants and have such low admits rates.
I can attest to the strength of Carroll College’s program and am surprised to see it on this list as well. Has excellent academics and its students go on to professional and grad schools at a very high rate. Helena, MT is a beautiful location with a ton of outdoor rec opportunities to boot!
Many of the small LAC’s work on such razor thin margins, that if they miss their anticipated yield by a handful of students, it can put them in a real financial bind.
For example, if Ripon was anticipating 250 students to enroll in their freshman class, but only 220 students put down a deposit – those 30 extra empty seats has a real financial impact on a school of its size and wealth (or lack thereof). My guess is, me29034, that the school which rejected your D’s boyfriend ended up with a significantly lower yieldfrom their accepted students population than they anticipated. Now, they are scrambling to fill those seats. If he is still interested in that institution, he may want to contact the admissions office to see if they would reconsider his application. What could it hurt?
I too was surprised by the University of San Diego, the University of San Francisco and the University of Redlands appearing on the list – given their location. Tulsa always surprises me when they show up on this list. And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why the well respected public liberal arts colleges (New College and Truman State, e.g.) seem to scramble to fill their seats. Those schools seem like the best deal in higher education, in my opinion.
I always wondered how complete the NACAC list is when it comes out. My guess is that there are a number of schools (particularly in demographically shrinking regions) that have openings but do not participate in the NACAC survey. Other schools show up one year, but never show up again (Hendrix, U of Rochester, e.g.).
