Admissions Academy Blog

Application Methods and Deadlines

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on August 20th, 2008 in Admissions
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What does applying Early really mean? What are the different application methods available to students, and what makes each unique? Here’s a rundown of the most common options:

* Early Decision (ED): Binding. Students typically apply by early November and receive a decision in mid-December, making a commitment by late-December to attend if they are admitted. Early Decision applicants are expected to submit only one Early Decision application. They can submit applications to other schools under regular or rolling decisions but agree to withdraw all other applications if they are accepted to their Early Decision school. Examples of schools offering Early Decision: Brown, Pomona, George Washington.

* Early Action (EA): Non-Binding. Students typically apply by early November and receive a decision in mid-December. Early Action gives students the benefit of early notification without the binding obligations of Early Decision. Students are not restricted from applying to other institutions and have until May 1st to consider their options and confirm enrollment. Examples of schools offering Early Action: MIT, Cal Tech, Santa Clara.

* Restrictive Early Action (REA): Non-Binding. Restrictive Early Action (also known as Single-Choice Early Action, SCEA) functions similarly to Early Action except that students are restricted from applying EA, ED, or REA to other institutions. If offered admissions, students have until May 1st to confirm. Examples of schools offering Restrictive Early Action: Stanford, Yale.

* Regular Decision: Non-Binding. Students typically submit an application by early January to receive a decision by early April. Students are not restricted from applying to other institutions and have until May 1st to consider their options and confirm enrollment. This is the default and most common admissions path available through all colleges.

* Rolling Admission: Non-Binding. Institutions review applications as they are submitted and render admission decisions throughout the admission cycle. Students are not restricted from applying to other institutions and have until May 1st (or later) to consider their options and confirm enrollment. Examples of schools offering Rolling Admission: University of Michigan, Quinnipiac, California College of the Arts.

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Legacy Admits at Selective Colleges

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on August 5th, 2008 in Articles of Interest
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Inside Higher Ed recently reported results of a study examining legacy (or alumni) admit rates and student performance at Duke University. While the study only examines the practice at one highly selective college, the authors argue that these findings could be replicated at other “elite” institutions. The researchers found that legacy admits on average had lower test scores, and lower first semester grades in college, than did those of other students with highly-educated parents. The authors also found that the average family income for legacy admits was nearly double that of other students with college-educated parents, and more than triple that of students whose parents didn’t attend college. This article once again raises concerns that preferential admission for legacy applicants, or even “development” candidates, provides another advantage to students who are already advantaged in the admission process.

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Colleges and Salary Potential

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on August 1st, 2008 in Articles of Interest
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PayScale Inc., an online database for employee compensation information, recently released their 2008 College Salary Report. Rather than look only at starting salaries for graduates, as other ranking methodologies do, PayScale also tracks “mid-career” median salaries of graduates with 10 or more years of work experience. The data is sorted into a number of reports, including salary potential by school type, college majors associated with the highest compensation, popular jobs by school type, and popular schools and job type. The results do include familiar names, although many of the winners may not be household names. Here’s a summary of relevant findings:

* Top earning potential schools in California: Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, UC Berkeley, Occidental College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UCLA, UC San Diego, Pomona College, USC, UC Davis, UC Irvine, San Jose State University, UC Santa Barbara, CSU Chico, CSU Fullerton, San Francisco State University, San Diego State University, CSU Long Beach, CSU East Bay

* Top earning potential private schools: Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Stanford University, MIT, Yale University, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Cooper Union, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University, Bucknell University, Rice University, Georgetown University

* Top earning potential public schools: UC Berkeley, Colorado School of Mines, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Davis, University of Colorado Boulder, UC Irvine, Case Western Reserve University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Texas A&M University, SUNY Binghamton, Missouri University of Science and Technology, San Jose State University, Virginia Tech, UC Santa Barbara, University of Maryland College Park, University of Texas Austin

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