Harvard Checking Authorship of Application Essays?

College applicants who are tempted to cut corners on their application essays by using 'boilerplate' text or by following an 'model essay' template might want to consider this news item:

According to the Harvard Crimson, Harvard University is one of several schools that is now using plagiarism detection software to verify the originality of application essays.

Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons told the Crimson that his staff catches "a handful" of suspect essays each year.

And most of those catches, he implied, have less to do with anti-plagiarism software than they do with admissions officers' own sense of what does and does not sound like an applicant's own writing.

Just a few of the clues that set off an admissions officer's internal alarm are: an essay that is far superior in writing to the rest of the application or to the applicant's SAT or ACT writing sample; an essay that sounds an awful lot like essays submitted by other applicants; and an essay that sounds too much like one of the 'model college application essays' in wide circulation.

Source: "Colleges Use Web Plagiarism Checks," by Aditi Balakrishna, the Harvard Crimson, April 10, 2007

MIT Releases 2007 Decisions

MIT released its 2007 admissions decisions on March 16. Just 12.3 per cent of this year's applicants received an admissions offer:

Applications received: 12,443

Accepted - Early Action: 390
Accepted - Regular Decision: 1,143
Total Accepted: 1,533

Waitlist Offers: 499

Source: Matt McGann '00, Admissions Blog at MIT.edu

ACT and SAT Now Accepted Everywhere

It's now official -- every U.S. college or university that requires a standardized test score for admission now accepts scores from either the SAT or the ACT.

Harvey Mudd College, the engineering and technical school of the Claremont College Consortium, will begin accepting ACT scores for the first time this fall. Wake Forest University, another late adapter of the ACT, began accepting ACT scores for this year's admissions.

One of the main differences between the SAT and the ACT is that the writing component of the SAT is mandatory, while the ACT writing test is optional.

To date, most schools are not making much use of writing scores from either test in their admissions decisions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when colleges do draw on a SAT or ACT writing sample to make an admissions decision, it's often to check whether an applicant wrote their own essays. An application that includes highly sophisticated essays but a barely literate SAT or ACT writing sample is going to raise a red flag.

U Penn Accepts 29% of ED Pool

The University of Pennsylvania's Early Decision acceptance rate rose slightly this year, with 29 per cent of early applicants for the Class of 2011 receiving acceptance letters.

Last year, U Penn's ED acceptance rate was 28 per cent. This year's rate was higher partly because fewer students applied under the early deadline.

The ED admits will fill 48 per cent of the places that U Penn has available for freshmen in Fall 2007. Their average SAT scores are 697 in Critical Reading, 722 in Math, and 705 in Writing.

Source: "29% of Early App Students Admitted," by Jon Meza, the Daily Pennsylvanian, January 12, 2007

Harvard Opens Secondary Fields Option

Students graduating from Harvard this spring will be the first class in the University's history with the option of listing a 'secondary field,' or minor, on their diplomas.

To graduate with a secondary field, a student will have to take a sequential set of four to six courses approved by the University. To date, 49 secondary field programs have been approved, ranging from Anthropology to Celtic Languages to East Asian Studies to Evolutionary Biology.

Additional secondary field programs in global health, archaeology, and other disciplines are under review.

Source: "Secondary Fields Open to Seniors," by Johannah S. Cornblatt, the Harvard Crimson, January 31, 2007

Over 50,000 Apply to UCLA for Fall 2007

Almost 50,700 high school seniors have applied to the University of California - Los Angeles for freshman admission this fall.

This year's applicant pool is 5.1 per cent larger than last year's and sets a record for the number of applications received by UCLA in a single application season.

UCLA typically receives more applications than any other college or university in the U.S. The University admits about 25 per cent of applicants on the basis of a holistic admissions review that considers personal achievements and evidence of character in addition to high school academic records and standardized test results.

Source: "UCLA Remains the Country’s Most Popular University with More Than 50,000 High School Seniors Applying for Fall," press release, UCLA (Los Angeles, CA), January 24, 2007

Duke Gets Near-Record Number of Applications

Duke University received nearly 18,500 applications for seats in its Class of 2011. That's significantly fewer than the almost 19,400 it received last year, but still marks the second-highest number of freshman admissions received in one year in the school's history.

Duke admitted 475 students during its Early Decision round in December. It expects to accept enough students through the Regular Decision round to fill the approximately 1, 665 seats it still has open for Fall 2007.

Source: "Applicant Pool to Duke Is Second Largest in School History," press release, Duke University (Durham, NC), January 9, 2007

U. of Mich. Delays Making Admissions Decisions

The University of Michagan has announced that it will not begin making Fall 2007 admissions decisions until January 10, approximately one week later than orignially planned. The delay affects applications for freshman, transfer, graduate, and professional school admissions.

The delay arises from ongoing legal developments concerning the consideration of race in admissions decisions at Michigan universities.

Last November, Michigan voters voted in favor of a referendum that requires publicly-supported institutions to refrain from using race, gender, color, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions decisions, effective January 1.

The University of Michigan was one of several schools that went to court in mid-December to request a six-month delay in implementing the new law. They argued that introducing new admissions policies on January 1 would mean using two sets of standards for the 2007 applicant pool -- one for candidates whose applications were read before January 1, and another for applicants whose files were read later. (The University of Michigan has been accepting freshman applications on a rolling basis since last August.)

A U.S. District Court initially granted the request for a delay. On December 29, however, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision, effectively ordering schools to adopt the new law as originally planned.

University officials say that admissions offices are free to communicate decisions that were made before December 29 to applicants. Other decisions will be put on hold until January 10.

Source: "U of M Delays Admissions Decisions," AP (Lansing, MI), January 3, 2007

Yale Accepts 19.7 Per Cent of Early Applicants

Yale University accepted 19.7 per cent of this year's Early Action applicants.

Yale received 3,594 EA applications for the Class of 2011 and accepted 709. Last year, 4,008 applications were received, and 724 were accepted.

The 709 EA admits will comprise approximately 45 per cent of the Class of 2011.

Source: "Admit Rate Rises to 19.7 Per Cent," by Kimberley Chow, the Yale Daily News, December 20, 2006

Early Admissions Outcomes at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton

Harvard University accepted 875 of this year's Early Action applicants from a pool of over 4,000, making for an EA acceptance rate of just under 22 per cent.

Priceton's Early Decision acceptance rate was 26 per cent, with admissions offers being extended to 597 applicants out of a pool of 2,276.

Stanford accepted 750 of its 4,644 Early Action candidates, marking a 16 per cent EA acceptance rate.

MIT Admits 11 Per Cent of Early Applicants

MIT's Early Action applicant pool grew by about 13 per cent this year, contributing to a slightly lower acceptance rate than was seen last year.

MIT accepted 11 per cent of this year's EA applicants. An equal number of EA applicants were denied. The remaining applications were deferred to the regular admissions round.

MIT's non-binding Early Action program usually has an admit rate close to that for the same year's overall applicant pool. MIT limits the number of students admitted through Early Action to 30 per cent of the incoming class, and typically defers the majority of EA applicants to the regular pool.

Last year, 295 of the 2,370 EA applicants deferred to the regular pool were ultimately admitted to MIT, making for an acceptance rate of 12.4 per cent for deferred candidates. The overall acceptance rate for the year was 13 per cent.

Sources:

"MIT Early Applications Up 13%," by Emily Sachar, Bloomberg, December 13, 2006.

"Admissions Statistics," posted to the MIT Admissions webpage

Lake Forest Goes SAT-Optional

Lake Forest College, a well-regarded liberal arts college located in the Chicago suburbs, has announced its switch to a SAT- and ACT-optional admissions policy.

Starting immediately, applicants can choose whether or not to provide SAT Reasoning Test or ACT scores with their applications.

Lake Forest will, however, continue to require a SAT or ACT score from applicants who want to be considered for a Presidential, Prarie State, or Trustee's scholarship.

Like other schools that have made standardized test scores an optional part of the application package, Lake Forest says its experience has shown that academic records and community involvement have proven a better predictor of college success than ACT or SAT scores are.

Lake Forest received almost 2,200 applications for seats in its Class of 2010. The 385 students who enrolled this fall represent the second-largest freshman class in the College's history. The application deadline for fall 2007 admissions to Lake Forest is February 15, 2006.

Source: "Quick Takes," Inside Higher Education, December 5, 2006

Nearly One-Third of '04 HS Grads Took AP or IB Courses

You have every reason to be proud of doing well in an AP or IB class -- but you may want to think twice if you think that achievement will be enough to make your college application stand out from the crowd.

According to a study recently released by the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, over 30 per cent of the students who graduated from U.S. high schools in 2004 had at least one AP or IB course on their transcripts.

AP and IB courses were even more common among students in demographic categories associated with high rates of college attendance. 43.6 per cent of students whose parents attended college took AP or IB courses, as did over 50 per cent of students from high-income households.

Source: "Academic Pathways, Preparation, and Performance," The National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (Washington, DC), 2006

Early App Volume Down at Yale and Brown, Up Slightly at Princeton

Yale University saw a surprising drop in the number of people applying for freshman admission under its non-binding Single Choice Early Action Program this fall.

Just 3,541 people applied under the program this year, compared to 4,084 last year. The change amounts to a 13 per cent decline in the number of EA applications received.

Some observers think that the record-low acceptance rates Yale posted last year may have discouraged some prospective students from applying this fall. Yale accepted fewer than 1 out of 5 EA applicants last year.

Brown University saw a much smaller decline in Early Decision applications, with this year's volume falling by just over 2.5 per cent from last year.

Princeton University's Early Decision application rose modestly, by 1.7 per cent.

Unlike Yale's non-binding SCEA program, Brown and Princeton's Early Decision options are both binding.

Harvard Approves 9 Secondary Concentrations

Beginning this spring, Harvard students will have the option of graduating with a degree reflecting a minor field of study in addition to their primary concentration.

The University's Education Policy Committee has already approved 9 proposals for secondary degree concentrations so far. A total of 15 to 20 secondary concentration programs are expected to be approved before the end of this year.

The fields that have already been approved for secondary concentrations are Earth and Planetary Sciences, Folklore and Mythology, History of Art and Architecture, Linguistics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Philosophy, Romance Languages and Literatures, Sociology, and Visual and Environmental Studies.

To qualify for a secondary concentration, students must take 4 to 6 designated courses. At present, only one course may be used to fulfill both a secondary concentration requirement and the University's core curriculum requirements.

Source: "Nine Secondary Fields Approved," by Peter R. Raymond, the Harvard Crimson, November 17, 2006