phillyfan26
Blue Crack Supplier
- Joined
- May 7, 2006
- Messages
- 30,343
The graduation rate (and, thus, college application rate) is to peak with this year's high school graduating class, before falling again. It is to be the largest in the history of the United States.
Students ante up for a pivotal quest | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/06/2008
This is my high school graduation class. And this worries me more than anything in my life right now.
My reason for posting this is just to hear what people think should be done, hear what people think can be done, etc. I'm legitimately interested in hearing how this could turn out, because this is an issue that directly effects myself and the other people in the class of 2009.
You can feel free to ask me questions about the situation as it relates to me personally, too, since I'm one of the few high schoolers to post in FYM.
Students ante up for a pivotal quest | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/06/2008
Besides the usual crushing stress and difficult decisions, competition this year for the best colleges will likely be tougher than ever.
More seniors are expected to graduate than in the official peak year, 1977. Nearly half the 3.3 million are aiming for four-year colleges.
Also, students are applying to more colleges than ever before. In 1990, just 9 percent of students applied to seven or more schools. In 2006, 18 percent did.
And paying for college may prove especially onerous as families are rocked by the nation's financial turmoil, threatening their jobs, their savings, and their ability to land loans.
The cost of a four-year college education, including tuition, room and board, and fees, ranges from around $55,000 at West Chester University (assuming costs don't rise) to $185,000 at the University of Pennsylvania.
Even before those bills, while students are still in high school, some families spend thousands on consultants, tutors and SAT courses.
...
Colleges are purchasing more names of prospective students from organizations such as the College Board. The board sold 81 million names this year, up from 64.6 million in 2001.
The schools are stepping up their recruitment to prepare for a drop in student population over the next decade, as the number of echo baby boomers, whose births peaked around 1990, falls off.
And they are constantly seeking to boost the quality and diversity of their freshman classes and become increasingly selective, a plus in college ranking systems.
Penn, for example, last spring admitted fewer than one in five applicants, down from nearly one in three a decade ago.
The College Board charges colleges 32 cents per name for information that can be diced by geography, test scores, class rank, career interests and other measures. About 75 percent of SAT test takers agree to allow the board to share their names, said Mike Matthews, director of its Student Search Service.
"We have heard increasingly over time that institutions that used to have a strictly regional focus are adopting much broader recruiting areas," said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, an organization of admissions professionals.
Locally, some colleges said they had boosted their mailings and e-mails. The University of Delaware mailed to more than 240,000 students this year, up 50 percent from five years ago.
This is my high school graduation class. And this worries me more than anything in my life right now.
My reason for posting this is just to hear what people think should be done, hear what people think can be done, etc. I'm legitimately interested in hearing how this could turn out, because this is an issue that directly effects myself and the other people in the class of 2009.
You can feel free to ask me questions about the situation as it relates to me personally, too, since I'm one of the few high schoolers to post in FYM.