Kick-off to College Planning November 15, 2011 Aliza Gilbert & William Morrison College Counselors Highland Park High School

B AD NEWS : A PPLICATIONS N UMBERS A RE U P For the tenth year in a row, ~75% of all colleges and universities reported an increase in applications. The number of applications submitted by students nationwide also continues to increase. At HPHS the Class of 2010 submitted 2242 applications and the Class of 2011 submitted 2320.

M ORE B AD N EWS : Admit rates continue to drop…. For Fall 2010 most of the very highly selective universities had admit rates below 25% and most of the Ivies were below 10%. Admit rates are unpredictable… For Fall of 2010 Tulane University had an acceptance rate of 26%, which was lower than the Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, and George Washington University and the University of Rochester.

“A DMISSIONS B OOM AT T OP C OLLEGES ” NY T IMES, S EPTEMBER 21 “…the nation’s top colleges and universities find themselves in the midst of an admission boom this fall.” “As the number of applicants has soared, the most selective colleges have had their pick of the top students in the country.” “College Bound…has just surveyed 250 liberal arts colleges and universities and received 130 responses. Of these, 81 reported an overall increase in applications.”

The article was published September 21, 1988

G OOD NEWS : T HINGS Y OU N EVER H EAR ! Class of was largest in history with 3.23 million students. This number began to decline with Class of 2010 and will continue until Some freshman class sizes are growing. Fall 2000 the freshman class at UIUC was 7142 and in Fall 2011 it was 7561 Many public universities are looking for more out-of-state students. For Fall 2011 the University of California system increased offers of admission to out-of- state students by 4%.

M ORE GOOD NEWS ! 86.6% of students nationwide from the class of 2009 attended their 1 st or 2 nd choice college. The average acceptance rate at over 2500 colleges and universities is 70%. More than three fourths of all 4 yr colleges and universities accept more than 50% of applicants. Only 1% of all schools accept less than 10% of applicants.

E VEN M ORE G OOD N EWS ! HP graduates for the class of 2011 were admitted at 67% of the schools to which they applied. In % of HP applicants were accepted at UIUC. From the average admit rate for HP applicants to UIUC was 77% (as opposed to UIUC’s overall admit rate of 67%).

A DDITIONAL T IDBITS On average 60% of new students at Harvard Law School each year received their degrees from schools outside of the Ivy League. One half of all U.S. Senators are graduates of public universities. Only 4 CEOs of the top ten Fortune 500 companies attended highly selective colleges In Arizona State University produced more Fulbright students than Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin and UPenn, Brown, Cornell, Princeton and Georgetown. In St. Olaf College produced more Fulbright students than Middlebury, Swarthmore, Grinnell, Bowdoin or Wesleyan.

M Y FAVORITE ! Earlham College, with 1200 graduates, produces a higher percentage of graduates who have since received doctorate degrees than Brown, Dartmouth, Vassar, Northwestern or Penn.

R ANKINGS US News and World Report ranking based on the following factors: Peer assessment Average graduation rate ACT/SAT scores Average alumni giving rate Class size (under 19; over 50) Average freshman retention rate Acceptance rate Faculty compensation Percent of full time faculty Student to faculty ratio

W HAT ABOUT …. What will they learn? ( Project of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni What Will They Learn? SM rates each college on whether the institution requires 7 core subjects: Composition, Literature, Foreign Language, U.S. Gov’t History, Economics, Mathematics, and Natural/Physical Science

C OLLEGE N AVIGATOR National Center for Education Statistics Offers information about such things as: - Accreditation - Campus Security - Retention rates - Graduation rates - Net price

W HAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR JUNIORS ? Don’t believe everything you hear Think outside of the box Recognize the importance of self assessment Parents need to view schools with fresh eyes rather than outdated perceptions Name and Rank ≠ Fit Be a smart consumer

College Search, Selection & Financing

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