It is always rewarding to see your work play out in the lives of the students you serve. But every once in a while, it can be fun to see the field of college admission make headlines thanks to celebrities who are going through the process.
These celebs headed off to college or announced their college plans this year:
NACAC member Nicholas Soodik has seen the trend with his own eyes.
As college acceptance rates have declined over the last decade, many students feel compelled to apply to more and more colleges. The shift has changed the application process for college-bound teens, and not necessarily for the better, Soodik noted in a recent column published by Inside Higher Ed.
“Students have to balance being successful high school seniors while working on college applications, many of which include supplemental writing sections,” writes Soodik, assistant director of college counseling at The Pingree School (MA). “The applications add stress, and we live in a cultural moment when anxiety diagnoses, rates of depression, and sleep deprivation among teens are rising. We ought to worry about how college applications contribute to these problems.”
Continue reading Member View: Application Process Leaves Students Stretched Thin
A lack of access to college counselors was cited as a major factor in a new report on New York City’s low college success rate.
Only 22 percent of students who enter community college associate degree programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) earn a degree in three years and just 55 percent of students enrolled in four-year CUNY programs finish after six years, according to the research.
Continue reading Report: Lack of Access to College Counselors Stymies Success for NYC Students
New policies unveiled this week by ACT and The College Board will reduce the fees low-income students encounter in the college admission process.
Starting in September, students who use a fee waiver to register for the ACT will be able to send up to 20 free score reports to the institutions of their choosing. Previously, ACT test-takers were allotted only five free reports, with each additional transmission costing $13.
Under the new College Board policy — which goes into effect next spring — low-income students who take the SAT will be able to send unlimited score reports to colleges. Previously, low-income SAT test-takers were allotted up to eight free score reports, with additional transmissions costing $12 each.
Continue reading Testing Companies to Offer More Free Score Reports to Low-Income Students
What a year it’s been!
Review the highs, the lows, and everything in-between Monday during a special year-end episode of Admissions Live.
Host Adam Castro will be joined by Eric Hoover, a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education; and Jon Boeckenstedt, associate vice president of enrollment management and marketing at DePaul University (IL). Together, they’ll identify the topics that got professionals talking this year and discuss how those trends will impact the field in the future.
Continue reading Year in Review: ‘Admissions Live’ Will Examine the Top Trends of 2017
They say the apple doesn’t fall from the tree. This is especially true when it comes to job choice.
According to General Social Survey data collected between 1994 and 2016, working sons are about 2.7 times as likely as the rest of the population to have the same job as their working fathers and about two times as likely to have the same job as their working mothers.
Continue reading Study: Parental Occupations Can Affect Job Choice
Congress has signaled it’s ready to tackle reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), but a bill introduced last week in the US House of Representatives has NACAC and other education organizations concerned.
“While NACAC agrees that the HEA needs to be reauthorized, this bill goes about it in the wrong way,” Michael Rose, NACAC’s director for government relations noted in a press release. “After an initial review, it is clear this bill reduces or eliminates student protections against fraud and abuse, and further dilutes the federal contribution to improving access to postsecondary education.”
Continue reading ICYMI: NACAC Opposes HEA Reauthorization Legislation
Can you believe it’s already December? That means our next #NACACreads book chat is just a month away.
On Jan. 9, we’ll discuss My (Underground) American Dream with author Julissa Arce.
An estimated 65,000 undocumented immigrants graduate from US high schools each year. In 2001, Arce was one of those students.
Continue reading Help Shape the Upcoming #NACACreads Discussion
Could an early offer of admission encourage more minority students to pursue postsecondary education?
A Maryland counselor put that idea to the test this fall by organizing an “instant admission college fair.”
The event, held last month, drew students from 20 Baltimore County high schools and featured admission representatives from 15 historically black colleges and universities.
High school seniors — armed with their transcripts, test scores, and optional writing samples and recommendation letters — met with college reps and received admission decisions on-site. By the end of the day, more than 950 acceptances had been extended to students.
Continue reading Counselor Organizes ‘Instant Admission’ College Fair
One state has figured out an innovative way to boost interest in computer science courses.
High school enrollments in computer science are up 50 percent since 2014 in Georgia, primarily due to an amended admission requirement by the University System of Georgia.
In 2015, the Georgia Board of Regents altered its admission requirements making them more computer science-friendly. Previously, students needed to have completed two years of the same foreign language to apply for admission to the university system. The requirement still exists, but computer science now counts as a foreign language.
Continue reading Should Computer Science Count as a Foreign Language? Georgia Says Yes.