Black Enterprise Names Top Colleges

Black Enterprise magazine has released its 2006 list of the 50 best U.S. colleges and universities for black students.

The top 10 schools on the list are:

1) Florida A&M University
2) Howard University
3) North Carolina A&T State University
4) Harvard University
5) Spelman College
6) Hampton University
7) Stanford University
8) Columbia University
9) The University of Pennsylvania
10) Wesleyan University

Black Enterprise compiled the list on the basis of survey data showing the rate of graduation for black students, the quality of the academic and social environment black students found on campus, and other factors.

For more information, see the September issue of Black Enterprise, available on newstands this week.

GMU Drops SAT Requirement for Certain Applicants

Beginning this year, George Mason University will no longer require SAT or ACT scores from high school students with a 3.5 or higher GPA.

Dean of Admissions Andrew Flagel told AP that the change was adopted on the basis of a three-year study of GMU students that found little connection between standardized test scores and academic performance.

GMU will ask applicants who choose not to submit SAT or ACT scores to submit two additional letters of recommendation.

One exception to the new admissions policy concerns applicants who want to play basketball or another intercollegiate sport at GMU. They still have to provide SAT or ACT scores regardless of their high school GPA because test scores are used to determine NCAA eligibility.

This policy change makes GMU the first public Virginia university to make standardized test scores optional for any applicants.

Source: "No SAT Test Required for Some Applicants at George Mason University." AP (McLean, VA), August 25, 2006, as posted to the CNN website.

Basic Stats for MIT's Class of 2010

The following, preliminary figures for students entering MIT this fall were posted to an MIT website:

Applications received for fall 2006: 11,373
Acceptance rate – 13%
Yield – 67%

Male – 52%
Female – 48%
Underrepresented minorities – 16%
International students – 8%

Median SAT scores – Verbal, 740; Math, 780

Minnesota Students Get Top ACT Scores

For the second year in a row, Minnesota students turned in the best overall ACT performance in the nation.

The 67 per cent of Minnesota secondary school graduates who took the ACT had an average composite score of 22.3. The national average was 21.1.

Iowa and Wisconsin students ran a close second to their Minnesota peers. The average score for Wisconsin students was 22.2, and for Iowa students it was 22.1.

Several states reported even higher average ACT composite scores than Minnesota did. Connecticut students scored an average of 23.1, Massachusetts students scored an average of 23.0, and Washington students scored an average of 22.9. In those states, however, only a small minority of high school graduates took the ACT -- 12 per cent in Connecticut, 13 per cent in Massachusetts, and 15 per cent in Washington.

Illinois and Colorado are the two states where all high school graduates are required to take the ACT. Their students' average scores were 20.5 (in Illinois) and 20.3 (in Colorado).

Outside of Illinois and Colorado, the states where the highest percentage of students took the ACT were Tennessee (93 per cent), Mississippi (93 per cent), and North Dakota (80 per cent). The states with the lowest ACT registration were Delaware (5 per cent), Rhode Island (8 per cent), and New Jersey (8 per cent).

Sources:

"Minnesota Again Tops Nation on ACT Exams" - The Associated Press, August 16, 2006, as carried on the website of KARE-11 (Minneapolis - St. Paul)

"2006 Average ACT Scores By State" - table posted to ACT website

U of Iowa Enrolls Largest-Ever Freshman Class

The University of Iowa will welcome between 4,250 and 4,300 first-year students to campus this fall, making for the largest freshman class in the school's history.

This year's freshman class outnumbers last year's by approximately 400 students.

University of Iowa officials say this year's admissions yield was higher partly because of the school's rising academic reputation and partly because of the University's efforts to reach out to students from neighboring states.

Other Iowa schools are seeing unusually large freshman classes this year, too. Iowa State University expects to enroll between 3,900 and 4,000 first-year students, which is 130 to 230 more than it usually has. The University of Northern Iowa expects a smaller but significant increase in its student body.

Source: "U of I Freshmen Feel Squeeze," by Lee Hermiston. The Des Moines Register, August 17, 2006

2007 USN&WR College Rankings

And they'rrrre out!...

The 2007 US News & World Report collge rankings, that is.

According to America's Best Colleges 2007, the top 10 U.S. national universities are:

1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Yale
4. California Institute of Technology, MIT, and Stanford (tied)
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Duke
9. Dartmouth, Columbia, University of Chicago (tied)

The top 10 liberal arts colleges are:

1. Williams
2. Amherst
3. Swarthmore
4. Wellesley
5. Middlebury
6. Carleton
7. Bowdoin and Pomona (tie)
9. Haverford
10. Davidson College and Wesleyan University (tied)

Princeton edged out Harvard for first place in the national university rankings this year partly because of the no-loan financial aid policy it introduced five years ago. The new policy has contributed to a spike in applications that in turn increased Princeton's scores on selectivity and popularity. Harvard has since adopted a similarly generous financial aid policy.

The University of Chicago credits its six-place jump from 15th place on last year's USN&WR list to 9th place this year on past errors in the survey data it submitted. Chicago officials said the school had been selling itself short on the number of small classes and on educational spending. Once it got those figures right, the school's overall score placed it in the top ten.

Reed College again placed in the middle of the USN&WR list of the top 100 liberal arts colleges despite its refusal to return rankings surveys. Reed has pointedly declined to answer USN&WR surveys since 1995. The boycott has done no harm to the popularity of the USN&WR's annual college guides, but it's done no harm to Reed, either. The College has continued to gain prestige and to attract a growing number of high-achieving applicants, and is arguably doing better on both scores than a number of higher-ranked schools are.

Sources:

"US News & World Report Announces Annual Rankings of America's Best Colleges" - press release, USN&WR (Washington, DC), August 18, 2006

"U of C Jumps to 9th in College Rankings," by Jodi S. Cohen - the Chicago Tribune, August 18, 2006

"Princeton, Harvard, Yale Top US News College List" - Bloomberg, August 18, 2006

"Is There Life After Rankings?" by Colin Diver - the Atlantic Monthly, November 2005

Schools Use Interactive Websites to Draw in Admits

A growing number of colleges and universities are using virtual meeting spaces to turn admits into committed members of the school community.

The University of Chicago has credited its online networking site for admitted students with helping to increase that school's undergraduate admissions yield. Admissions officers say that the message boards and other interactive features on the website seem to reduce admits' concerns about the quality of social life at Chicago. As admits make contact with peers and current students, they not only decide that Chicago's reputation as a coldly intellectual environment is unfair, but develop a feeling of already belonging to the Chicago community.

Colleges and universities that are introducing networking sites for admits and freshmen this year include The College of William & Mary, Seton Hall, and Wellesley College.

In the near future, communications scholar Steve Jones told USA Today, "virtually every college will have something like this...."This has become such a familiar mode of communication for teenagers; it's basically meeting them on their own turf. It makes it more comfortable to get information they might not otherwise get."

Source: "Colleges Connect Students Online," by Janet Kornblum. USA Today, August 15, 2006.

U of California Campuses Prepare for Bumper Crop of Freshmen

A number of campuses in the University of California system are bracing for higher-than-expected freshman enrollment this fall.

Almost 750 more first-year students than expected accepted admissions offers to UC Davis this year. That amounts to a freshman class that is roughly 6 per cent larger than expected. To accommodate the increased number of students, UC Davis administrators are converting dorm rooms from doubles to triples, renovating common rooms into residence space, and expanding advising and health services.

Other UC campuses coping with population surges are UC San Diego, which has about 350 more freshmen than expected, and UC Irvine, which is about 400 students over its usual enrollment.

Enrollment is unexpectedly high at some private California schools as well. Santa Clara University received approximately 150 more confirmations from admitted applicants than it expected, making for its largest-ever freshman class.

California's experience reflects admissions trends across the U.S. Colleges and universities in New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island also received unusually high numbers of acceptances from admits this year. Some observers have noted that this trend is especially strong at state universities, and suggest that tuition costs may have reached a tipping point where a greater percentage of Americans will choose less expensive public schools over private colleges and universities.

Source: "State Campuses Struggle With Enrollment Surge," by Tanya Schevitz - the San Francisco Chronicle, August 14, 2006

Schools Still Making Limited Use of SAT Writing Scores

The half-hour essay that was added to the SAT last year has probably caused more confusion and consternation among test-takers than any other part of the revised exam. We're still hearing questions like, "Which matters more -- what I write about or how I write it?," "How long does my essay need to be?," and "Do I have to quote 'great books' like The Great Gatsby or The Scarlet Letter to get a high score?"

Not surprisingly, a lot of test-takers also ask an obvious follow-up question: "What do colleges and universities do with my SAT writing score, anyway?"

The answer is, in most cases, not much.

Colleges are reserving judgment on the validity of the SAT writing test as a predictor of academic success until they've had an opportunity to how several classes of incoming students have performed as undergrads. Until then, SAT writing scores will play a limited role in the assessment of applicants' academic qualifications. Many schools say they will not begin considering SAT writing scores in admissions decisions until 2008 or 2009.

That's not to say, however, that the writing score is always irrelevant to admissions decisions -- or that college-bound students shouldn't make an honest effort to perform well on the SAT essay and the multiple-choice writing section.

A high writing score can be one more thing that draws favorable attention to your file and sets it apart from the competition. Admissions officers at several schools have said that a high writing score can be the thing that tips the scales in favor of one applicant over another. This seems to be the case most often at selective schools where admissions officers have to make difficult choices between applicants with similarly strong profiles.

Writing scores have the potential to draw unfavorable attention to an applicant's file, too. An application that includes a brilliant essay but a miserable writing score may leave admissions officers wondering whether the same person who took the SAT wrote the essay. Suspicions that an applicant submitted someone else's writing as their own can be enough to move an application to the reject pile.

The bottom line is that you should do your best to master the basic writing skills that will earn you a good score on the essay and writing section of the SAT. Don't do this just for the sake of the SAT writing score. Do it because good writing skills will serve you well throughout your college years and beyond. The SAT writing test is an ordeal you'll have forgotten about within half a year. The ability to write well is a valuable asset that you'll be grateful for forever.

Northwest College Tour Schedules

If you're headed to the Northwest to tour college campuses this month, you might want to take along the following notes about campus tour schedules. (Please note that tour schedules are subject to change -- it's a good idea to call each school to confirm tour availablity before making plans for a trip.)

Reed College - Campus tours are scheduled for 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. (That schedule may change during New Student Orientation, which takes place August 23 to 27. Call the Admissions Office at 1-800-547-4750 ahead of time to check.)

Seattle Pacific University - Campus tours begin at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. More detailed tours are given on Summer Visit Days, which are scheduled for August 11 and 18. (Tel: 1-800-366-3344)

Seattle University - Campus tours begin at 10 a.m, 12 noon, and 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. (Tel: 206-296-6000)

The University of Oregon - Campus tours are held at 10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Admissions information sessions are held at 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, and at 9:30 a.m. on Saturdays. (Tel: (800) BE-A-DUCK)

The University of Washington - Campus tours begin at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Admissions staff also hold information sessions at 1:30 p.m. on Fridays. All campus offices will be closed for the Labor Day holiday on September 4; the Saturday tour for September 2 is also cancelled because of the holiday weekend. (Tel: 206-543-9686 )

Source for information on Seattle-area college tours: "Before Applying to College, Be Sure to Tour Campus," by Christine Frey - the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 1, 2006