"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."   John Adams, December, 1770

Harvard College To Halve Transfer Admits -
College reexamines transfer admissions following freshman class size increases
MADELINE W. LISSNER, Crimson Staff Writer
As Harvard College admissions officers scramble to determine the final list of students who will be offered admission to the Harvard Class of 2011, there is one group of students that will feel the squeeze of the expanding freshman class—transfer students. The number of transfers students offered spots at Harvard is expected to be cut in half for the coming year, according to Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71.
During the 2006–2007 school year, 75 transfer students entered Harvard—55 in the fall and 20 in the spring, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67.
But in an interview on Thursday, Gross said it was no longer feasible for Harvard to absorb as many transfer students in the wake of a spring 2006 decision to increase the size of the freshman class.
Prior to the Class of 2010, the size of Harvard’s freshman classes had wavered around 1640. But the Class of 2010 had 1684 students, and administrators hope to have about 1675 students enter the Class of 2011 in September, including newly admitted students and students on leave.

Denison University Drops SAT, ACT From Admissions Requirements
GRANVILLE, Ohio -- Students hoping to attend Denison University can leave their No.2 pencils at home and stop toiling over SAT and ACT practice tests.

Davidson gets rid of financial aid loans
Davidson College announced Monday March 19 it will eliminate loans from its need-based financial aid packages and replace them with grants and work-study, a move school officials said would allow students to graduate debt-free. The liberal arts college had capped loan amounts in recent years to reduce student debt, but higher education experts said it's the only college of its kind to halt loan handouts in need-based aid packages.

All US Colleges Accept ACT - Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
The ACT college entrance exam, long the Avis ("We try harder") to the SAT's Hertz, is celebrating a bit of a milestone this year: It now says it is accepted by every four-year college and university in the USA that requires such a test.
All but a handful of colleges have long allowed applicants to submit either test. But Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem NC started accepting ACTs with last fall's freshman class. And this year, officials at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont CA said they would accept applicants' ACT scores beginning this fall. It was the lone holdout of an earlier era, when geography dictated who took which test.

Dartmouth College International Relations Studies
A new ranking of the U.S.' strongest colleges and universities for international relations studies, published in the March/April issue of the magazine Foreign Policy, places Dartmouth ninth among those offering such studies at the undergraduate level - making Dartmouth the highest-ranked institution offering such studies only at the undergraduate level.

Denison to Offer Leading-Edge Standardized Test-Optional Admissions Alternative
Denison University, a highly selective liberal arts college enrolling students from all 50 states, has announced it will begin giving applicants for admission the option of submitting standardized test scores or choosing not to include SAT I or ACT test results as part of their application credentials. The decision to make Denison admissions "test optional" beginning with applications for the 2008-09 academic year was approved by a vote of the general faculty of the college on March 1 and places Denison at the forefront of a trend among the nation's leading undergraduate liberal arts colleges. Heretofore, standardized test scores were required of all applicants to Denison.

Two more schools have dropped their ACT/SAT requirements:
- Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington - Whitworth.edu News
- Keuka College in Keuka Park, New York - Keuka.edu admissions

Stonehill Admissions Adopts Test-Optional
Beginning in fall 2007, and impacting high school seniors in the class of 2008, candidates applying for admission to Stonehill will have a choice whether or not to submit SAT or ACT scores with their applications. Scores will not be required; however, the College recognizes that many applicants may still choose to submit them to support their applications.

College Search on AMTRAK
A parent or guardian accompanying their high school junior or senior on college visits can travel free on Amtrak, and siblings, ages 2 to 15, can ride along at half fare. For additional information, go to: campusvisit.com/amtrak

University of Chicago sees record number of applications
By Blake Rachowin - Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
Applications for admission to the College are up eight percent to almost 10,400 from 9,542 last year, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. The number of applicants is the largest in College history.

On Campus Interviews Discontinued at Dartmouth
By Marina Agapakis, The Dartmouth Staff, Published on Friday, February 16, 2007
In an effort to expand on-campus programs for admissions visitors and provide greater equity in the admissions process, the admissions office announced last week that on-campus interviews for prospective students by seniors at the College will be discontinued this spring.
The shift away from on-campus interviewing has occurred at all Ivy League schools save Yale University. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Amherst College and Williams College have also ended their on-campus interviewing programs, said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg.

Princeton sets third consecutive applications record
From: News@Princeton, by Cass Cliatt · Posted February 8, 2007; 12:00 a.m.
Princeton University set another record this year for students applying for admission, receiving 18,891 applications for the class of 2011.
This marks the third year in a row for record applications, and represents an 8 percent increase over last year's record of 17,564 applications for the class of 2010. The applicant pool for that class was 6 percent larger than for the class of 2009, and the number of candidates applying for that class was 21 percent greater than for the class of 2008.

Siena College School of Business Receives AACSB Accreditation
From: Colleges of Distinction
The relentless effort to give Siena students the best possible environment to learn in has been recognized by AACSB - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which unanimously granted accreditation to the School of Business. This is the highest quality achievement possible for collegiate business programs. Siena’s School of Business is renowned for a high-caliber faculty, meaningful classroom interaction, technologically advanced facilities, and cross-disciplinary, challenging academics.

Swarthmore: Class of 2011 most selective in history thus far
February 8, 2007, by Kevin Bentley
Swarthmore’s admissions office is once again in the midst of notifying early decision applicants, and the office is especially busy this year. Admissions at the college, which is already known as an elite liberal arts college with a low acceptance rate and high selectivity, has seen a surge in the number of applicants. The office has received 5,186 applications for the Class of 2011, which is five percent more than last year and 24 percent more than two years ago. Jim Bock, Dean of Admissions, said, "We’re up in almost every category: international, women, men, minorities."

Study finds benefits in AP classes
Researchers: Students do better in college - By Jay Mathews, The Washington Post, 2/6/07
In the midst of a national debate over whether Advanced Placement courses place too much pressure on U.S. high school students, a team of Texas researchers has concluded that the difficult courses and three-hour exams are worth it. In the largest study ever of the impact of AP on college success, which looked at 222,289 students from all backgrounds attending a wide range of Texas universities, the researchers said they found ‘strong evidence of benefits to students who participate in both AP courses and exams in terms of higher GPAs, credit hours earned, and four-year graduation rates.’
A separate University of Texas study of 24,941 students said those who used their AP credits to take more advanced courses in college had better grades in those courses than similar students who took college introductory courses instead of AP in ten different subjects.

MCAT computerized with improvements - Test time reduced, more test dates offered
Teresa Pham - Issue date: 2/6/07 Section: City News
The Medical College Admissions Test will now be administered solely in a computer-based format, affecting all students who are currently applying to medical school. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the organization that manages the MCAT, the new computerized format will differ from the written test in several ways.
The computer format will reduce testing time from around eight hours to five-and-a-half hours. There will also be 22 test dates per year instead of two, and the amount of questions on the exam will also be reduced. Additionally, the scores will be reported 30 days after the test date instead of 60.

The Common Application will have 23 new members for next year. This will bring the total membership to 321 colleges and universities for the 2007-2008 school year. The new members are:
Augsburg College (MN)
Augustana College (IL)
Augustana College (SD)
Berry College (GA)
Colorado State University
Emerson College (MA)
Franklin Pierce College (NH)
Illinois Institute of Technology
Keystone College (PA)
List College (NY)
Meredith College (NC)
Old Dominion University (VA)
Olin College of Engineering (MA)
Pacific University (OR)
Quinnipiac University (CT)
Stanford University (CA)
Stockton College (NJ)
Thiel College (PA)
Thomas College (ME)
Westminster College (UT)
University of Albany (SUNY)
University of Dayton (OH)
University of New Haven (CT)

CLAREMONT, Calif. – Harvey Mudd College
(HMC) will begin accepting ACT test scores as part of its admission application process starting in 2007-08, ending its holdout as the lone four-year college or university in the U.S. that did not accept the test.

UNC congratulates 2,700 prospective freshmen in error
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (AP) -- An admissions department e-mail sent from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill congratulated 2,700 prospective freshmen this week on their acceptance to the school.
The problem is that none of the applicants have been admitted. They won't start finding out until March whether they've made the cut.
"We deeply regret this disappointment, which we know is compounded by the stress and anxiety that students experience as a result of the admissions process," Stephen Farmer, the school's director of undergraduate admissions, said in a news release.

In the CPS ARCHIVES:

October 2006 Newsletter
August 2006 Newsletter
May 2006 Newsletter
April 2006 Newsletter
March 2006 Newsletter
February 2006 Newsletter
January 2006 Newsletter
November 2005 Newsletter
October 2005 Newsletter
September 2005 Newsletter
August 2005 Newsletter
July 2005 Newsletter
June 2005 Newsletter

Given the nature of the admissions process and the selectivity of many educational institutions, we cannot guarantee admission to any institution.