Category Archives: College Board

“Direct Admissions” Trend Could Give Students a Welcome Option

The financial fallout from the pandemic lockdown, along with declining birth rates, could benefit top students by giving them a streamlined application process and college scholarships. Called “direct admissions,” the process allows admissions officers to review the electronic profiles of high school students and contact those deemed to be an ideal match with the particular college and/or scholarship. It can also be a great opportunity to alert students to smaller and/or lesser-known schools that they may never have heard of, but which might be a good match and fit.

Currently 162 colleges and universities are accepting students through direct admissions. Online platforms such as Concourse and Sage Scholars help facilitate the process, and the Common Application is also sharing student profiles with a number of colleges. These include prestigious large colleges like George Mason University, with more than 35,000 students, as well as lesser-known colleges like the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, with an undergraduate enrollment of 2,385.

This is helpful to liberal arts colleges that are having a hard time attracting students. The offers of financial aid are also beneficial because too often families just look at the “sticker price” (which few pay).

If a college reaches out to a student with a direct admission offer, she or he should be flattered, and research the college and available financial aid. The more colleges a student is exposed to, the better, and the more likely it is students will find a good fit. After all, there are more than 4,000 colleges in the U.S., so students should consider a whole group of schools, not just a few.

While elite and Ivy League universities aren’t likely to adopt direct admissions, it has taken off in some parts of the country – even among lesser known but highly regarded schools. For example, 17^th ranked^*Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN plans to shift all applications to direct admissions, using the Common App and a Minnesota state program.

Robert Heineman, a retired political science professor at Alfred University in New York, was quoted in a Washington Times article as noting that the process is cheaper than traditional applications, which benefits schools struggling to financially recover from COVID lockdowns. Indeed, many smaller colleges are on the brink of closing due to lower enrollments. Students and families need to do their homework to ensure that the colleges they apply to are solvent.

Direct admissions also benefits colleges because declining birth rates have also decreased the pools of qualified students. According to the Pew Trust,^** fertility rates were down 15% in 2020 from the decade ending in 2010,

The only caveat with direct admissions is that colleges contact the student – students can’t request to be admitted through that process. However, if a student feels a college is a good addition to their college list, I’d encourage them to apply.

*U.S. News & World Report again named Augsburg one of the Best Regional Universities in the Midwest in 2022. This year, Augsburg is No. 17 on the list. Augsburg is also ranked fourth for best undergraduate teaching, eighth for social mobility, and ninth among most innovative schools.

**Ten states experienced reductions exceeding 20%. Mostly Western states led the way in incurring the most dramatic long-term fertility rate declines, despite often experiencing strong population gains overall, due largely to migration.

Read About Why Every Year in H.S. Counts!

Have a plan for every year

By high school, have a plan and let your child stretch academically. If a student is talented in math, let her take an AP math class. If it doesn’t work out, then she can step back.

Our conversation emphasized that every year in high school it important. College Admissions officers are looking for trends. They want to see that a kid is improving each year, and that they are challenging themselves with increasingly difficult courses.

I also gave advice on PSAT tests – they should be a guide for students to identify areas where they need more help and work. Although about 2,000 colleges are test-optional (including Wake Forest), students should take both the ACT and SAT tests. Some students do better on one or the other, and that’s the one they should submit.

We also discussed finding a college that’s a good fit, and how kids views of college size, how far they want to be from home, etc. change as they go through high school.

If you have questions, contact me at [email protected]!

College Board’s Changes Reflect Admissions Trends

College Board’s Stated Motivation

The College Board says that their motive is to reduce the burden of redundant exams and unnecessary anxiety on students, stating, “As students and colleges adapt to new realities and changes to the college admissions process, College Board is making sure our programs adapt with them. We’re making some changes to reduce demands on students.”

Some admissions experts have observed that doing away with Subject Tests is a step in the right direction: eliminating standardized testing in college admissions. But most colleges still require or accept SAT scores and consider them an accurate predictor of future academic performance. Skeptical admissions experts maintain that the GPA and the rigor of a high school curriculum should be the only academic criteria in admissions. Focusing exclusively on them is what will reduce pressure on students.

College Board’s Actual Motivation

The College Board is a not-for-profit organization that was formed in 1899 allegedly to expand access to higher education. It has more than 6,000 institutional members that use its services and govern it. The Board’s revenue, derived from member and student fees, exceeds $1 billion annually. There are 1,600 employees at its headquarters in New York and in its field offices.

Although devoted to serving the needs of its members rather than making a profit, the College Board has a bias toward self-preservation. The leadership is aware that standardized tests have increasingly been viewed as discriminating against racial minorities and the economically disadvantaged. The Board’s leaders have been tracking the adoption of test-optional policies that has resulted from this perception of bias.

Subject Tests vs. Advanced Placement

The motivating factor behind the decision to cease offering the Subject Tests is that the College Board stands to gain from the movement away from the tests as credentials or requirements for admission. Another factor is that Subject Tests will be replaced by GPA and the strength of curriculum as the only two academic criteria for admissions. The Board plans to shift to their Advanced Placement (AP) program as the most common way for an applicant to prove the rigor of their coursework.

Since 1955, the College Board’s AP program has been available for high school students who want to demonstrate their capabilities in the 40 AP subjects. More than 22,000 high schools offered at least some of the AP courses last year. The Board establishes the syllabi for the courses, develops the exams, and audits each AP program to assure compliance.

About 85 percent of colleges weigh AP courses and exams substantially heavier than regular courses. The AP courses are optional and, if a student is sufficiently confident that he or she can take a course’s final exam in May and pass it with a score of 3, 4, or 5, it counts as an AP credit even if they didn’t take the course. On the other hand, if a student takes an AP course but doesn’t score a 3, 4, or 5, it’s purpose as proof-of-rigor to colleges is foregone.

There’s at least one valid objection to the substitution of the AP program for Subject Tests. Subject Tests were offered five times per year and students were advised to take them after completing a high school course in the relevant subject. Last year, only a handful of colleges required applicants to submit Subject Test scores in specific subjects. Ten highly selective colleges “recommended” them, which essentially means that they required them. The other students that took the tests did so as a voluntary way to burnish their admissions credentials, especially in their intended field of study.

AP courses polish credentials because they’re more demanding than regular high school courses; it’s estimated that they require about 30 percent more work. AP students are expected to delve more deeply into topics through research, practical applications, and critical thinking. Colleges look favorably on AP courses and exam results as proof that an applicant is capable of doing college work.

There’s no set number of AP courses that a student should take, but many Independent Educational Consultants advise those aspiring to attend highly selective colleges to take three or four of them. For those aspiring to attend the most elite colleges, six or more are recommended.

AP exams must be passed prior to senior year in order to be reflected on a student’s college applications. This requires elite college aspirants to pass an average of two AP exams annually in their freshman, sophomore, and juniors years. That’s a tall order… one that isn’t consistent with the College Board’s stated purpose of reducing the pressure on students.