How the Recession Changes College Admissions — from your Dallas SAT tutor

By admin

In June 2009, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling published the result of a survey. Here is a summary:

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“High School Survey

• Nearly three-fourths of high schools reported an increase in the number of students foregoing their “dream schools” in favor of more affordable options
• Overall, around one-third of all high schools reported budget cuts in the 2008-09 school year
• Nearly 60 percent of respondents indicated an increase in the number of students planning to enroll in public versus private colleges in Fall 2009

College Survey

• A majority of institutions reported increases for each of the following: inquiries (62 percent); total applications (62 percent); Early Decision applications (51 percent); Early Action applications (68 percent).
• Forty-five percent of respondents reported a decrease in their 2009 May 1 yield rates as compared to 2008
• About 35 percent of postsecondary institutions experienced budget cuts and 15 percent experienced staff cuts to the admission department during the 2008-09 academic year”

What will be interesting to me is what happens this year. Last year, lots of people has college plans in place by the time the market tumbled. This year, people are applying to colleges in a recession (though Bernanke has said we’re at the end of the recession, the recovery hasn’t yet picked up). I expect more Dallas students will be applying to state schools and will think longer and harder about full scholarships at schools they might not have thought about in flusher times. In either of these scenarios, test scores are going to matter. Higher test scores can help students get better scholarships, and if state schools do have an increase in applicants, well, the higher your test score, the better.

What I don’t know is if, conversely, it will be a smidge easier to get into upper tier private, expensive schools. Will they see a dropoff in applications overall?  Will they see an increase in applications from students who really really want to go there — in other words, will students who once might have considered sending out twenty applications now reign themselves in to more affordable schools and the one expensive school they desperately want to attend?

I’ve talked with a lot of people and no one is sure what is going to happen. I’ll be very interested to see how this application cycle turns out…