Kick-off to College Planning

November 15, 2011

Aliza Gilbert & William MorrisonCollege Counselors

Highland Park High School

BAD NEWS:APPLICATIONS NUMBERS ARE UPFor 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.

MORE BAD NEWS:

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.

“ADMISSIONS BOOM AT TOP COLLEGES”NY TIMES, SEPTEMBER 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

GOOD NEWS:THINGS YOU NEVER HEAR! Class of 2008-2009 was largest in history

with 3.23 million students. This number began to decline with Class of 2010 and will continue until 2015.

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%.

MORE GOOD NEWS!

86.6% of students nationwide from the class of 2009 attended their 1st or 2nd 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.

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS!

HP graduates for the class of 2011 were admitted at 67% of the schools to which they applied.

In 2000 - 67.4% of HP applicants were accepted at UIUC. From 2009-2011the average admit rate for HP applicants to UIUC was 77% (as opposed to UIUC’s overall admit rate of 67%).

ADDITIONAL TIDBITS 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 2011-2012 Arizona State University produced more Fulbright students than Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin and UPenn, Brown, Cornell, Princeton and Georgetown.

In 2011-2012 St. Olaf College produced more Fulbright students than Middlebury, Swarthmore, Grinnell, Bowdoin or Wesleyan.

MY 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.

RANKINGS US News and World Report ranking based on

the following factors:Peer assessmentAverage graduation rateACT/SAT scoresAverage alumni giving rateClass size (under 19; over 50)Average freshman retention rateAcceptance rateFaculty compensationPercent of full time facultyStudent to faculty ratio

WHAT ABOUT….What will they learn?

(www.whatwilltheylearn.com)Project of the American Council of

Trustees and AlumniWhat 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

COLLEGE NAVIGATOR

http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/National Center for Education

StatisticsOffers information about such things

as:- Accreditation- Campus Security- Retention rates- Graduation rates- Net price

WHAT 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

CONNECTION.NAVIANCE.COM/HPHS

PASSWORD = GIANTS

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