All posts by Mary Stegmeir

Admitted writer/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at mstegmeir@nacacnet.org.
College Readiness

Study: Perfectionism Rising Among College Students

A blessing? A curse?

No matter how you view perfectionism, a new study shows that today’s college students are more likely to exhibit its traits than past generations.

Survey data collected from more than 41,000 students who attended college in the US, Canada, and UK between 1989 and 2016 shows that three key types of perfectionism have become more common in recent years.

“Our findings suggest that self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and other-oriented perfectionism have increased over the last 27 years,” researchers conclude in a study published last month by the American Psychological Association (APA). “We speculate that this may be because, generally, American, Canadian, and British cultures have become more individualistic, materialistic, and socially antagonistic over this period, with young people now facing more competitive environments, more unrealistic expectations, and more anxious and controlling parents than generations before.”

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College Admission, International Education

Colleges Contend with Cuts Following Declines in International Student Enrollment

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US colleges experiencing declines in international student enrollment are beginning to feel the crunch, according to a recent New York Times article.

Preliminary figures from the Institute for International Education (IIE) showed a 6.9 percent decrease this fall in the number of international students studying in the US.

The downturn comes on the heels of “a decade of explosive growth in foreign student enrollment,” according to the article.

“Just as many universities believed that the financial wreckage left by the 2008 recession was behind them, campuses across the country have been forced to make new rounds of cuts, this time brought on, in large part, by a loss of international students,” the Times noted. “Schools in the Midwest have been particularly hard hit — many of them non-flagship public universities that have come to rely heavily on tuition from foreign students, who generally pay more than in-state students.”

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Career Exploration

Opinion: Make Internships a College Graduation Requirement

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Requiring undergraduates to complete an internship would benefit both students and colleges, according to Brandon Busteed, executive director for education and workforce development at Gallup.

“The top reason students, parents, and the public value higher education is to get a good job,” Busteed noted in a blog post co-written by Zac Auter, a consulting analyst at Gallup. “Yet, among bachelor degree graduates from 2002-2016, only 27 percent had a good job waiting for them upon graduation.”

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College Admission, College Readiness

Member View: Foster Acceptance in the New Year

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A brand new year, a brand new you?

Across the country, millions of Americans are setting resolutions — vowing to build good habits and break bad ones over the next 12 months.

Hit the gym? Eat right? Unplug? All valid goals, says NACAC member Brennan Barnard.

But for college-bound students, he’d like to add one more to the list.

“In 2018, I am resolving to foster acceptance, and will encourage my students to do the same,” Barnard, who works at The Derryfield School (NH), wrote in a recent column published by The Huffington Post.

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College Admission

Report: Enrollment Slide Continues in US Higher Ed

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The number of students enrolled in postsecondary education fell for the sixth straight year, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Enrollments in US higher education dropped by 1 percent from fall 2016 to fall 2017, a loss of nearly 200,000 students. Notable decreases were recorded among first-time college students, which experienced an overall decline of 2.3 percent.

The decrease in the new-to-college category was seen among both traditional-aged and adult students.

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College Admission

Member View: Application Process Leaves Students Stretched Thin

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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.”

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College Admission, Standardized Testing

Testing Companies to Offer More Free Score Reports to Low-Income Students

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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.

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