college admissions

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Last-Minute Flood Jams College Application Site

Students received timeout errors as server overloaded

(Newser) - Some high school seniors submitting college applications hours before the Dec. 31 deadline encountered timeout errors and slowdowns that gave them quite a scare, the New York Times reports. The Common Application site—used by a million students to apply for 350 colleges—buckled twice under the volume of last-minute...

Gap Year Gains Favor Among High School Graduates

Industry grows to help them put off college

(Newser) - As more high school graduates decide to take a so-called “gap-year” before college, a veritable industry has sprung up to offer these seekers advice on how to go about it, the Wall Street Journal reports. Given the increased popularity of a year off, which some educators advocate because “...

Colleges Drop SAT Bar for Jocks

Athletes score 220 points lower on SAT than average classmate

(Newser) - Though athletes have long enjoyed a break on college admissions, new numbers on how far they lag behind other students on SAT scores have raised concerns of fairness. Nationwide, football jocks average 220 points lower on the SAT than their classmates at 54 universities studied by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Basketball...

US Students Flock North for Cheap Tuition

Canadian universities appeal to Americans in tough economy

(Newser) - Cash-strapped Americans with their sights set on college see Canada as an affordable alternative to domestic institutions, the Boston Globe reports. Low tuition fees and a stronger US dollar—it’s worth $1.21 in Canada right now—are luring more high school students in the northeast across the border,...

Applicant Pool Down, Private Colleges Begin to Panic

Fears of high costs may be driving drop

(Newser) - Private colleges are receiving notably fewer regular applications this year, sparking widespread concern among the schools that enrollment will plunge, the New York Times reports. Reasons for the drop may include families’ worries about soaring tuition and a general decline in the number of schools to which each student applies....

Colleges Seek Kids' Opinions on Grapefruit, Perfect Crime

Quirky questions catch students off-guard

(Newser) - Bored with prospective students regurgitating textbook knowledge, Cambridge and Oxford have revamped their interview questions to include the abstract (Would you rather be a novel or a poem?), the existential (What does it mean to be happy?), and the downright crazy (How would you poison someone and get away with...

Want to Get Into College? Try These Student Tips

College freshmen share their lessons about admissions success

(Newser) - Applications continue to flood into top US colleges despite the economic slowdown. With admissions as competitive as ever, the Wall Street Journal talks to six people who know—college freshmen—and asks for their advice:
  • Don't let naysayers deter you from your dream school: "It pays off to keep
...

At More and More Colleges, SAT Is Now MIA

Standardized test seen as poorly calibrated measure of students' abilities

(Newser) - Colleges are fleeing the SAT, saying the standardized test is not a reliable predictor of academic success, the Boston Globe reports. But though a coalition is forming against the requirement, even doubtful admission officials see the need for a field-leveler for disparate applicants. “The SAT only measures how good...

GPA, Personal Essay, SATs ... and Sabotage?

Anonymous smear letters on the rise, say admissions officers

(Newser) - With competition for college admissions ever rising, some students are aiming to get ahead by trashing their rivals. Admission officials around the US have reported receiving newspaper clippings, references to Facebook pages, and, in one case, a letter written in crayon pointing out other applicants' false claims or unseemly behavior....

Throw Out SAT, Say College Deans

Panel recommends move away from standardized testing

(Newser) - Colleges should make admissions decisions without requiring the SAT or ACT, says a group of deans led by Harvard's admissions chief in a yearlong study that concluded standardized tests distort students' high school experiences, exacerbate class disparities, and enrich only the billion-dollar test prep industry. Instead, say the admissions officers,...

Prof Rips UCLA for 'Illegal' Race Admissions

School denies 'coverup' over rising number of black students

(Newser) - A UCLA professor is accusing the school of admitting students based on race even though the practice remains illegal in California, the Los Angeles Times reports. Tim Groseclose resigned this week from an admissions committee and posted an 89-page report online accusing the university of a "coverup." "...

PSAT Will Expand College Testing Stress to Jr. High

Earlier exam will help students prep, College Board says

(Newser) - The College Board will start offering the PSAT to eighth-graders in 2010, the LA Times reports. Students normally take the exam, a precursor of the SAT, in 10th or 11th grade, but kids have been signing up earlier in recent years. Critics charge that the College Board is pushing the...

SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy
 SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy 
Jul 15, 2008 10:44 AM CDT

SAT, ACT Cheats Get Off Easy

Agencies under fire for canceling scores without exposing, punishing students

(Newser) - College hopefuls caught cheating on their ACT or SAT exams are likely to face few consequences, the Los Angeles Times reports, due to policies under which the administering agencies simply cancel suspicious scores on the college-admission exams. High schools and colleges are kept in the dark about potential wrongdoing, and...

Ruling Lets Students Pick Top SAT Score

Officials slam new policy as benefit to wealthy kids

(Newser) - High school students can soon pick which of their SAT scores are sent to colleges, the Los Angeles Times reports. Starting with the class of 2010, the College Board, which administers the exam, will reverse its policy of sending all results—good, bad, or indifferent. A spokesman said the change...

'Sisters' Colleges Recruit in Middle East

Single-sex education remains strong in region

(Newser) - Facing fewer applicants than comparable co-ed institutions around the US, representatives of top women’s colleges toured the Middle East this spring on a recruiting mission, the New York Times reports. While women’s colleges have become a niche market for US applicants, single-sex education remains widespread in the Middle...

Road to Ivy Paved With Rejection Letters

Thin-letter notices reach students in record numbers

(Newser) - The dreaded thin letter from college admissions offices is cluttering mailboxes in record numbers this year, but you'd think the elite of the elite would be safe. Not so, reports the Austin American-Statesman, which talks to local top students, including one who capped his impressive high school record with perfect...

Top Colleges Report Record Low Rates of Admission

Harvard accepts just 7% of applicants

(Newser) - Acceptance letters from the nation's top colleges will begin to arrive on prospective students' doorsteps today, but far more rejection letters are in the mail than ever before, reports the New York Times. Harvard and Yale accepted only 7.1% and 8.3% of applicants, respectively, both record lows as...

Diploma Drop to Make College Entry Easier

Slump in high school grad numbers will spark 'buyers market'

(Newser) - Students will find college entry far easier in coming years as the number of high school graduates falls, the New York Times reports. The annual US grad count is expected to peak at around 2.9 million in the next year or two, and then slump until 2015. “For...

Colleges Turn to New Media to Recruit Students

Recruiters using blogs, social networking, even text messages

(Newser) - If MySpace and Facebook are where the high school kids are, then that’s where college recruiters are headed. Schools competing for today’s tech-savvy teens are reaching out to them through podcasts, online videos, virtual campus tours, live chats, blogs, and social networking profiles, reports the Boston Globe—and...

UK Students Choosing Ivies Over Oxbridge

Financial aid, academic freedom lure record number of Brits

(Newser) - A record number of British students are forsaking Oxford and Cambridge to apply to elite American schools, the Times of London reports. Lured by more generous financial aid packages and less restrictive curricula, students are crossing the pond to the Ivy League. Yale's applications from Britain, for one, have tripled...

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