Keep in mind that, just because a college claims to have both space available and financial aid, it doesn’t mean that there will be a spot for all academically qualified candidates. I’ve heard of high-need students who are currently waitlisted at colleges on this NACAC roster while, apparently, the school is still prospecting for new applicants who probably require less financial aid. The same could be true of the young man cited above (see post #17). Perhaps his need was higher than the college could afford to spend on him?
So if you, too, are moldering in waitlist limbo at one of these places (or you were already denied) and you are wondering why the college is still seeking new applicants, it’s most likely a money issue.
I suppose that some of these schools may be open for some majors or programs and not others. If a school has a very competitive program, I’m going to assume those would not be available at this point. Could that also be a reason for @29034’s boyfriend’s situation?
The admissions folks at all colleges, not just the ones on this list, are letting the press clippings get to their heads. I have direct experience with a couple of colleges on this list. One of the colleges on the list tried to nickel and dime a student I know. He accepted a spot at cross-town rival. On May 1st, they went back to him with a much better offer; one that was even better than that of the cross-town rival. He stuck with his original selection. Another college on this list goes on and on about how they are sooooooo selective. Now they’re looking for freshman?
The stories are coming in about other highly selective colleges who rejected good solid candidates with very high GPAs and standardized test scores. Now these same schools are going to waitlists and pulling in students whose scores are nowhere near as high as those of the solid candidates they rejected earlier. With all due respect to the OP, admissions folks are viewed as idiots by a large segment of the parent population; most of which don’t frequent this site.
@NorthernMom61 I am pretty sure that not all of these schools have closed off merit aid. For example, my university, Illinois Tech, considers all applicants for merit aid of some kind. The big full-ride and full tuition scholarships have a deadline but we have a significant number of late applicants. Our non-engineering (science, mathematics, humanities, social sciences and business) programs are places where late applicants can find a good home.
That could be one factor in low yields. Another could be that there is more competition for the students who fall in the admissible range for these schools or that the entering calss is unbalanced with some majors full up but others lacking sufficient students.
@xraymancs That is great to hear about merit scholarships still be in available too. Thanks. I am going to tell one of my friends whose son might still be looking.
Probably depends upon how much aid you’re looking for. Some of these colleges, like Loyola Maryland, made a decision a few years back to offer smaller amounts of merit to a wider group of people, so it’s a good bet you’d get something. But that less merit to more people policy is what took Loyola Maryland off my high stats kid’s list. We knew , best case scenario, Loyola was still going to cost us more than our state school. Hardly seemed worth it, particularly when three other nearby Jesuit schools - Fordham, St. Joe’s and Scranton - all still have the possibility of full scholarships.
By the way, St. Joe’s (which is still on the list), is very generous with merit money. Definitely worth looking at unless you want engineering (which SJU doesn’t have). Its business school is very well regarded in Philadelphia.
We did not have this happen to us, but I know several families who did experience this with the merit money. They are likening it to used car salesman tactics. “If you accept today,we’ll take off another 6 grand! Wait till tomorrow and the offer might not be there!” Thing is, it’s become such common knowledge that several local schools might give you some more money if you hold out that nobody’s committing until the very end of April/May 1.
@halfemptypockets - Colleges like to say they model tuition pricing using the same models that airlines use to price tickets. In contrast, they are much more like car salesmen, where every seat has a butt. Except for the colleges on this list of course.
Wasn’t expecting Penn State (University Park) or Tulsa to be on the list, though they both make sense.
People are becoming more savvy about finances, so Penn State’s ridiculous cost and notorious lack of financial aid repel students that would have otherwise gone there.
Tulsa is a lesser-known expensive private university that does not offer much aid, either.
Sonn enough we’ll see the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign on this list!
My insanely inexpensive essentially-open-access institution that’s the default choice for most of the non-really-high-achieving high-school graduates in our region is seeing enrollment numbers drop due to the simple demographic fact that the number of high-school graduates is dropping and is expected to stay low until 2017 at the earliest—and we’re not even in a region that’s been hit terribly hard by that. I can only imagine the havoc it’s wreaking with colleges in, say, the Northeast that had started to believe their own marketing hype.
Of course the most effective strategy is to fill those seats which would otherwise be empty in certain majors and not to overfill the popular majors. If this were done rationally, then the merit aid or discount would depend on the major since some additional income in an otherwise half empty classroom has no additional overhead. I implemented this for some of our graduate programs (Masters degrees only)at Illinois Institute of Technology when I was directing graduate admissions for the university. It has worked well in our physics program as we now routinely have over 10 students in a class when we used to only have 3-4 Ph.D. students.
Here’s something interesting for you all. What is “UNIVERSITY OF MOUNT OLOIVE,” because it just doesn’t exist. I think they might be talking about Mount Olive College, but who would ever want to go to a school that doesn’t even know its own name? They didn’t even spell olive right.
For those of you with kids who are interested in engineering I would look into University of Maryland - Baltimore County which still has spots available.
I wonder if we’ll see an uptick in the demonstrated interest category for any of these schools in the next iteration of their admissions selection criteria? The “Level of Applicant’s Interest” listed on the college data web site for some notable schools that seem to have some level of yield issue is as follows:
DePauw: Considered
Goucher: Considered
Juniata: Considered
Knox: Considered
Ripon: Not Considered
Wheaton (MA) Considered
Really surprised that a small school like Ripon supposedly doesn’t consider demonstrated interest a relevant admissions variable.