Applicants getting
first choices
in college admissions, study finds
Amid growing concerns that it is getting more difficult for American high school seniors to be accepted into universities and colleges, one recent study shows that that’s not the case.
According to research by Lucie Lapovsky and the Lumina Foundation for Education, high school applicants worry needlessly that they’ll have to settle for second, third or even last choice. Lapovsky, a researcher who writes on higher education issues, reports that students are not only being accepted to colleges but are often getting into their first choice.
Locally, though, those findings may not apply to students seeking admission to Washington and Lee University. Washington and Lee’s admission standards have increased since an $85 million gift from benefactor Rupert Johnson made more scholarship money available and drove up the number of applicants.
That makes it more difficult for high school seniors applying, said Robert Koch, assistant director of admissions at Washington and Lee.
“The Johnson [Scholarship] is attracting a lot of attention,” Koch said. “Because of that, the quality of applications has increased.”
Koch said the sheer number of American high school seniors graduating has also increased in recent years. In 2007, Washington and Lee received 3,719 applications and accepted only 27 percent of those applicants. Of the early-decision applicants, who see Washington and Lee as their top choice, only about 40 percent were accepted.
The competition among applicants may prove to be even stiffer after statistics for the class of 2012, the first class with Johnson Scholars, are available.
On a national scale, though, says the Lumina Foundation’s Lapovsky, the situation is far different. A former president of Mercy College, Lapovsky says the fears of American high school students and their parents that they will have to settle for a school at the bottom of their list are unfounded.
“Students get into a lot of colleges, and most get into their first-choice college,” she said in an interview with Inside Higher Ed, an online news source for higher education. “We need to try to calm down this craziness that’s out there.”
In fact, Lapovsky found that 88 percent of high school seniors applying to college got into their first choice of schools. The Lumina Foundation is an independent, private organization that aims to expand access to post-secondary education through research and policy education.
Two of Virginia’s public universities, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, have higher acceptance numbers than Washington and Lee. Last year, the University of Virginia accepted 34 percent of its applicants while at Virginia Tech, 64 percent of applicants were accepted.
Gender as a factor in college applications is also a concern among college applicants, according to various news reports. Nationally, more women are enrolled in college than men, and the majority of American universities report that they are receiving more female than male applicants.
Many high school women are concerned that they will be turned away, even if they are qualified, if the university or college they are applying to wants to have an equal number of men and women on campus.
At Washington and Lee, Koch said that the university does not turn away fully qualified women to keep an equal gender ratio on campus. The university accepted 22 more women than men in 2007; there was an equal gender ratio among the students who actually enrolled.
Virginia Tech’s class of 2012 is 55.4 percent male and 44.6 percent female, while the University of Virginia’s freshman class is 56 percent women and 44 percent men.
Despite the concerns of high school students and parents, some applicants still have an open mind about the process. W&L sophomore Taylor Joosten said that when she applied, she did not have a top choice. She believed she would have been happy attending any of a number of schools.
“Even the less elite had strong characteristics, either socially or geographically,” Joosten said. “I figured I would be happy anywhere.”
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Lisa Tracy
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd