One thing that would help is if the Common App limited you to 10 applications. You could still apply elsewhere but you have to apply directly. Lots of ways to fix it.Windy City Ag said:Quote:
It was decision week for UF so I've been reading around a bit to see if it's as crazy other places, looks like it is. The bottom line is that I don't envy parents or kids these days, it's gotten to where USF and UCF are as hard to get into now as UF was when I applied. UF went to an early decision this year, and they got 90k applications for maybe 16k spots, and FSU will be similar. When I applied they were getting less than 15k probably. How do you even differentiate those kids? And similar to some of the posts here, how do you tell a kid with a 4.0 and 1400 they aren't good enough for a public school or its business school?
I think what is really interesting is the yield conundrum for these admissions folks. I have seen at least 10 families whose kids were pulled off a deferral or waitlist in late April or early May at colleges ranging from UNC-Chapel Hill to University of Washington to University of Wisconsin.
It seems that things like the common app have allowed for minimal expense spamming out applications. These schools are trying to figure out who might go and who might not and falling back to previously deferred candidates very, very late in the game to make up for no-yield acceptances.
Issue is that the "have" schools are incentivized to keep the current system. Why wouldn't they want countless applicants to choose from and shape their class how they want? The Private schools play games like ED1 and ED2 to protect their yields. The Publics know they will be able to fill with In State kids and they can do lots of alternative pathways.
In the end this favors kids that know how to game the system and especially those who can afford to do ED admissions and be full payers when it comes to private schools. They also give a lot of favoritism to QuestBridge students so they can make sure to hit their numbers for low income/first gen/etc students. The kids in the vice grip are those in the middle and upper middle who don't even understand the game and how to play it or they don't have the resources to play it.
It's a really difficult problem to fix because you are talking about so many different Universities in every state and with different rules. Every school is looking out for themselves first and foremost so it becomes the Hunger Games. I'm just surprised there have only been a few schools go under so far, that number should start to radically increase at some point as many schools are playing financial games that are just delaying the inevitable. The demand for expensive private Liberal Arts colleges that don't have a ton of prestige is lower than ever and falling. I can't imagine the stress level of someone who is in charge of admissions at some of those schools, they are shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
Best of luck with the decision, once he makes it, never look back. 