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: Economic crisis boosting applications(U-Wire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) UWIRE-01/29/2009-: Economic crisis boosting applications (C) 2008 UWIRE via UWIRE By Michael Sewall, UWIRE () NEW YORK CITY -- Enrollment and admissions at colleges and universities across the country are on an upswing as the economy falters and companies slash jobs. While many schools prepare for their largest enrollment to date, many are also accepting more early applications and deciding whether to abide by the College Board's SAT Score Choice program. Oregon State U. prepares for largest enrollment Source | OSU Daily Barometer With the help of extensive planning, Oregon State University is preparing for the largest enrollment numbers to date for the 2009-2010 academic year. Enrollment numbers are expected to increase across Oregon's public universities. According to the OUS Factbook for 2008 on the Oregon University system Web site, the state is projecting 86,546 students within the system in 2009, an increase of 4,297 from 2008. For OSU, the Factbook projects that there will be 20,520 students in 2009, up an additional 200 students from 2008. More… UCLA faces over-enrollment Source | Daily Bruin Despite the University of California system Board of Regents' recent cut to university admissions, both UCLA and UC-Berkeley will allow for over-enrollment this year just as they did last year, said Thomas Lifka, UCLA's associate vice chancellor. Lifka also said that though this record-breaking applicant pool is larger and more competitive than previous classes, it should not hurt any prospective or current students. UCLA applicants must still abide by the same guidelines as previous years and will be evaluated on the same criteria as well, he said. According to a university news release, the number of freshman applicants for fall 2009 rose by 199 from 55,437 for fall 2008, while the number of transfer student applications saw a 9.6 percent increase from 15,075 for fall 2008 to 16,521 for fall 2009. Although the acceptance process for incoming freshmen will remain similar to previous years, prospective transfer students will face a slightly different admissions evaluation, university spokeswoman Claudia Luther said. More… Budget cuts hit U. Washington system admissions Source | Daily Evergreen Budgets cuts run deep, not just at Washington State University, but also at the other five public universities in Washington. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a 12 to 13 percent budget reduction for Washington universities. In March, the legislature will determine its budget forecast, which will indicate whether budget cuts will go beyond the governor's mark. "The thing that we need to keep in mind is that we're just at the beginning of this budget process," said Joan King, executive director of planning and development. Students have inherited the burden already at University of Washington, where officials announced this month that they will decline student admission for spring quarter. It is the only of the six public universities in Washington to take such an action. Only a select few students will be able to enroll in UW's next quarter, including a handful of engineering students, seven student athletes who had committed before the announcement was made, and pre-college students who are part of the Transition School/Early Entrance Program. UW has taken this action several times in the past when it was over-enrolled. More… U. Iowa bucks second-year student retention trend Source | Daily Iowan University of Iowa freshman Jennie Berman may be in the midst of applying to transfer after this academic year, but she's an exception at the university. While the national numbers of students who return to their schools for the second year of college are dropping, the UI numbers are heading in the opposite direction. Nationally, retention declined by 2 percent for the 2007-08 academic year with only 66 percent of freshman returning for their second year of college at the same institution, according to a study released last week by ACT Inc. While that marks the lowest national percentage since 1989, the UI's rate rose to 83.1 percent in 2007, up 0.4 percent from the previous year. UI data from 2008 have not yet been released. Iowa State University had a higher retention rate than the UI in 2006 by 2.2 percent, while the UI was 0.5 percent higher than University of Northern Iowa. "Traditional higher education fails to take notice that there are lots of different ways to earn college credit these days," ACT Inc. Principal Associate Wes Habley said. "Students are far more mobile and have so many more options than they used to." More students taking courses online and at numerous institutions could contribute to many not leaving college, but rather going through the college process in a less traditional way, he said. More… Admissions stats favor early decision at GW Source | The GW Hatchet Though overall applications to George Washington University decreased slightly this year, the school saw a major shift in when people apply-with a vast number choosing early decision over regular admission. Total applications to the university decreased 2.3 percent this year, despite a 43 percent increase in early decision applicants, said Kathryn Napper, executive dean for undergraduate admissions. Admitted students, guidance counselors and admissions officials said in interviews that GW's strong programs in political science, international affairs and media and public affairs drove many students to submit binding early decision applications. But the spike in ED applications could have more to do with the competitive college admissions climate than GW's strengths. A number of other universities saw substantial increases in early decision applications-including Tufts, Wesleyan, Dartmouth and Northwestern-despite the poor economy. Admissions experts attribute the change to an increasingly competitive college market. Students who look for admissions security may be looking to GW since they have fewer options at schools like Harvard and University of Virginia, who dropped their early decision option. More… Dartmouth College gets record number of applicants Source | The Dartmouth Dartmouth College received a record number of applications for the class of 2013, bucking a trend of stagnant or decreasing applications among similarly sized, private liberal arts colleges. The 17,768 applications mark a 7.5 percent increase in the past year, said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris. The college plans to accept 1,800 applicants for next year. That would mean a total class size of 2,200, or an 11 percent to 12 percent acceptance rate, the lowest in Dartmouth's history. Laskaris said. Laskaris, in an interview with The Dartmouth, placed schools into three categories with respect to the ongoing economic crisis: public universities; Dartmouth and other members of the Ivy League that have "all significantly enhanced [their] financial aid institutions" and colleges that have tuitions similar to those in the Ivy League, "but don't have the strength of our financial aid." Institutions belonging to the first two categories will likely continue to receive high numbers of applicants in 2009, Laskaris said. More… Duke admissions sees record-breaking 23,750 applications Source | The Duke Chronicle A record-breaking 23,750 students applied regular decision for admission to Duke's Class of 2013, officials said Tuesday. The University received 3,400 more applications than last year's total, a 17-percent increase and the greatest single-year jump the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has ever seen. "I have data about the number of applications going back 50 years…. This is by far the largest increase in applications in a single year we've ever seen," Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag said. "I think-particularly given the state of the economy-it's a remarkable development, and I think it's a testament to the appeal of Duke as a place for students to study for four years." The recent economic downturn has altered the college admissions landscape, with some public universities struggling to process record numbers of applications and a number of small private universities concerned about meeting their enrollment targets, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. More… MIT accepts 540 out of 5,019 early applicants Source | The Tech MIT accepted 10.7 percent of early applicants this year, in what may be the most competitive admissions season yet. Out of 5019 applications, 540 students were offered early admission, according to Dean of Admissions Stuart Schmill ‘86. Compared to last year, the early action pool grew by 28 percent, though roughly the same number of students were accepted. A storm of regular applications caused the admissions office to extend the deadline to Jan. 3. Though they have not all been counted, Schmill said he is confident MIT received at least 15,000 applications, a significant increase over the 13,396 regular applications last year. Despite the growing number of applications, Schmill said there are no plans to increase the size of the incoming class. Schmill said the increase in early applications is partly due to MIT's decision this year to participate in the Questbridge College Match Program. Questbridge, a California-based non-profit, helps low-income students apply for full-rides at prestigious colleges. Close to 600 students applied early to MIT through Questbridge, and 36 of were accepted. Over 25 top US universities participate, including Princeton, Yale, Caltech and Stanford. More… Cornell U. rejects SAT score choice option Source | Cornell Daily Sun Applicants to Cornell University will have to send all of their SAT scores, after the university rejected a controversial option created by the test's maker to let students send only their best scores. But the test maker is letting students cheat that system if they want. College Board, which administers the SAT and Advanced Placement tests created a program called Score Choice, which is set to begin with tests taken in March 2009. Under Score Choice, students will be able to select the scores they wish to send to colleges by test. The policy applies to both the SAT Subject Tests and the SAT, although students will not be able to send separate scores for the critical reading, writing and mathematics sections. The decision by Cornell admissions means the unviersity is keeping its current policythat all applicants must submit all their SAT scores along with their application. "We have decided that we will maintain our current practice and our current policy, which is that students send us all their scores," said Assistant Provost Doris Davis, who heads the admissions office. More… Yale to give no choice on SAT scores Source | Yale Daily News Yale became the latest school Thursday to dismiss the College Board's plan to allow students to submit only their top SAT scores from individual exams to colleges. In its rejection of the College Board's new Score Choice option, Yale will require applicants to send all their scores for the SAT Reasoning Test and SAT Subject Tests, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeff Brenzel said in a statement Thursday morning. Yale will also require applicants taking the ACT to submit all their score results, Brenzel said. "We believe that our policy maintains a more level playing field for low-income students who cannot afford repeated testing or the expensive test preparation that often accompanies it," Brenzel wrote in the statement. "We also hope that this policy will help to discourage excessive testing and help to simplify testing issues for all of our applicants." Yale's policy relies on applicants' integrity. Students applying to Yale will be on their own honor when submitting all their test scores, and there is no system to police students when submitting test scores, spokespeople for both the ACT and the College Board-which administers the SAT-said. More… ##30## ((Distributed on bahalf of U-Wire via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com)) ((U-Wire - http://www.uwire.com)) Copyright ? 2009 U-Wire |