On April 10 The New York Times reported that some colleges are offering “deferred admission” to candidates willing to wait a semester or a year to matriculate (Admission to College, With Catch: Year’s Wait, Lisa W. Foderaro http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/education/11accept.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp ). I don’t recall this being an option when I applied to college, albeit that was quite some time ago. The reason for the new trend? Beds.
Colleges seeking to keep the beds warm in the dorms throughout the year are finding that “deferred admission” is an effective way to combat declines due to drop-outs and transfers. When the beds are full, colleges close their doors. As the beds begin to grow cold, the door creeps open to allow a few deferred students to sneak through.
Rejected students should take comfort that this practice, like so much of admissions, is governed by limited space on campus. When I sought advice for this blog from a Harvard admissions counselor, she responded that students must remember Harvard is limited by the number of beds in Harvard Yard. I question this assumption. In the age of online courses and satellite campuses, why should any college be limited by its real estate portfolio? I believe Harvard could find space for more students. That is, if it wanted to.
The second notable aspect of this article is how “deferred admission” is also a tool to boost a college’s U.S. News ranking. U.S. News statistics are only drawn from the class of freshmen entering in the fall. Students with lower test scores can be hidden from U.S. News if they matriculate at a later date. Furthermore, deferred students are not counted in the total number of admitted students, thereby lowering the admission rate and creating the illusion that the college is more selective than it truly is. Just further evidence of the gamesmanship behind the U.S. News rankings.
Would you accept a “deferred admission”?
No comments:
Post a Comment