Interest in top colleges rises as people struggle to find applicants

Prestigious universities like Cornell never struggle to attract students. But this year, the admissions office in Ithaca, NY, is swimming in 17,000 more applications than it has ever received, driven primarily by the school’s decision not to require standardized test scores during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We saw people who thought ‘I would never get to Cornell’ and thought, ‘Oh, if they did not look at a test point, I might have a chance,'” said Jonathan Burdick, vice-pilot. for Cornell, said. .

But while selective universities like Cornell and its fellow Ivy League schools have experienced unprecedented interest after waiving test results, smaller and less recognizable schools are handling the opposite: empty mailboxes.

In early December, applications at Cal Poly Pomona, east of Los Angeles and part of the California State University system, declined by 40 percent compared to prospective freshmen, and 52 percent of transfer students, most of whom started high school . education at community colleges.

A decrease in applications does not always mean a lower enrollment. But at a time when many colleges and universities are being financially hampered by the pandemic and the loss of public funding, the prospect of fewer students ending up – and losing critical tuition fees – at schools that have already cut programs and laid off staff.

To avoid this, the faculty and administrators of Cal Poly Pomona, which lost $ 20 million in government funding this fiscal year, spent December on students who started their applications but did not submit, or who applied earlier, and which was not accepted.

“It’s like Amazon,” said Luoluo Hong, who oversees admissions to the Cal States, a network of predominantly commuting schools. ” There’s a purchase in your basket! ‘And then we try to abide by the agreement and conclude. ”

The California State system extended the deadline for all its schools by two weeks, and Cal Poly Pomona managed to close the gap. But its hard work, at a time when Ivy League schools had to add an extra week just to consider their influx of applicants, further highlighted inequalities in higher education exacerbated by the pandemic.

“It affects both students from an equity perspective,” says Jenny Rickard, CEO of the Common Application, which is used by colleges across the country, “and then it also shows which colleges and universities are more privileged.”

According to the Common App, the country’s most selective four-year institutions, both public and private, increased by 17 percent record. Small schools for the free arts prospered, with applications for Haverford and Swarthmore by 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. So do large public schools such as the University of California, Los Angeles, where first-year applications increased by 28 percent.

Applications for the primary campus in Penn State, a Big Ten School, increased by 11 percent. Harvard saw a whopping 42 percent increase, while Colgate University in New York State received 103 percent more applications.

But smaller or less recognizable institutions, both public and private, have seen tremendous declines.

Applications dropped by 14 percent at State University of New York, the largest public college system in the country. In Portland State, Oregon, first-year applications dropped 12 percent and transfers 28 percent. Loyola University, Maryland, a private school for the liberal arts in Baltimore, saw a 12 percent drop in total applications, even after the deadline was extended by two weeks.

The declines come at a time when colleges and universities have been hit hard by the coronavirus, with an estimated loss of more than $ 120 billion due to enrollment and dried-up revenue streams such as food services and athletics events.

Many higher-level institutions struggled even before the pandemic, and a smaller first-year class could mean further distress, including more demarcated programs and layoffs from the faculty, making them even less attractive to prospective students in a vicious circle. A few colleges closed permanently even during the pandemic.

“Covid did not create this challenge, but it does expose and exacerbate the risk that institutions face financially,” said Susan Campbell Baldridge, a former Middlebury College provost and co-author of The College Stress Test. the financial threats to some American colleges and universities.

Dr Baldridge said before the pandemic: “the rich are getting richer and the poor are being challenged more and more, as far as the institutions are concerned.” The pattern of applications during the pandemic is just further evidence of a long-term trend, she said.

The Common App’s data does not include community colleges, as it usually allows everyone to enroll. But the schools, which often offer low-income students a first step in higher education, have also seen a sharp decline. In the fall of 2020, first-year students dropped by more than 20 percent.

“We have seen by far the largest decline among students from low-income high schools, high-minority high schools, high schools in urban areas, who would normally go to community colleges this fall and who have just disappeared,” said Doug Shapiro, the vice-vice president. said President of Research at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which publishes educational reports.

The students often have to work or have a lack of online access, which makes it harder to apply, he said. “These are students who are having the hardest time getting back on track, even when the pandemic is over.”

About 3 percent fewer students who would be the first in their families to go to university submitted applications, according to Common App data this year, along with a 2 percent drop in students qualifying for admission fees – a proxy for family income .

But although fewer people from these groups have all applied, some selective schools have seen a large increase in students who are usually under-represented at elite institutions. The University of California, Berkeley, received 38 percent more applications from black, Latino, and Native Americans than in 2019. The University of New York received 22 percent more applications from both black and Latino students.

There is little doubt about what drives these profits: to make standardized test scores optional for applicants. About 1,700 schools did not require SAT or ACT scores this year.

‘When students try to assess their likelihood of being admitted, they often look at,’ What are the averages of the test score? ‘or’ What is the GPA average? ‘ ‘it me. Rickard of the Common App said. Without a test score, she said: “Maybe they do not know exactly where to aim, or they think it is their opportunity to try to get into a more selective setting.”

Although most schools that have waived standard tests this year have done so temporarily, an increasing number are making it permanent because there are concerns that the tests are inherently biased. The University of California system, which serves nearly 300,000 students and includes some of the nation’s most popular schools, decided last year to suspend the SAT and ACT scores. Applications across the system have increased by 16 percent this year, a record high.

“Eliminating the barrier has increased the application,” said Emily D. Engelschall, who oversees admissions to the University of California, Riverside.

Some admissions officials said the attempt to ignore the scores could extend beyond the coronavirus crisis. The University of Chicago has already declared itself in 2018 as an optional test. And several Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, have said they do not have to test next year’s applications, most of which are currently high school juniors.

Cornell has made a great effort over the past few years to expand the diversity of its applicant pool, but Mr. Burdick, who oversees admissions, said nothing has such a big impact as waiving the test results. ‘We do not see an extension of wealthy children who say,’ Well, I’m going to apply for Cornell. “It has already happened,” he said.

Mr. Burdick said his staff developed a new way of reviewing applications – a ‘universal transcript assessment’ – that focused on the accuracy of the classes that applicants applied in high school and how they performed in them.

“The essay, the CV and the letters assume that it is more important than in a system in which the test mark sits on the assessment process just like a large object,” said Mr. Burdick said.

While Cornell and its peers are enjoying their abundance, the state systems and less selective private schools that teach the majority of U.S. university graduates are experiencing long-term distress as the decline in applications leads to depressed enrollments and lower tuition incomes.

Colleges usually increase students who they think they will attend. But this year, with increasing competition for them, students may be allowed to play field, or get stuck on the waiting list at more selective schools as a hectic year shuffles.

“For us,” said Dr. Hong of the state Cal said, ‘what will ultimately matter is: you are admitted to the university. But are you going? ‘