What's behind the surge in applications to some schools?

[Anonymous]

These are all large, relatively prestigious, urban schools (except for UVA). Might also reflect a turn away from rural and the ongoing turn towards large private and public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Texas saw a massive increase, from 72,000 to 90,000. USC got more than 42,000 EA applications. UVA saw a huge spike. Northeastern went from 98,000 applications to over 107,000. Overall, applications in the Common App increased from 6.3 million to 6.7 million.

I thought that the demographic cliff would be kicking in, but it looks like it is harder than ever.

Two of those are a great educational value
Northeastern likely up from marketing and fee waivers

Northeastern is actually better performing school than the orter two

Northeastern gives merit aid. USC gives merit aid also (though a smaller proportion). Texas is cheap both in-state and out of state. The only school here lacking educational value, to some, is UVA oos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Northeastern still TO and No Essay?

Yes.

And they spam students with free apps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[color=red]What's behind the surge in applications to some schools?

Three reasons:
1) The Common App: Once you get a few apps in via the Common App, it doesn't take as much heavy lifting as it used to to add another school or three. And often, its possible to re-purpose the base of essays used for other schools. So it's not much to simply tack on more schools this way...

2) The Vicious Cycle: Per #1 above, the Common App makes it easier to add more applications than it used to be. So applications go up while the schools' capacity for how many applications they accept remain the same... so admit rates decline... kids then see this spike in applications and declination in admit rates, get scared that their initial list of 5-8 schools isn't broad enough... so what do they do? They react by applying to more schools since the Common App makes it easy.... it's a vicious cycle.

3) Test Optional: Adding to all of this, we are now several years into Test Optional and kids look at reaches and say "I'll just take a flyer on this and will go test optional"... so Test Optional encourages more applications too.

All of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Texas saw a massive increase, from 72,000 to 90,000. USC got more than 42,000 EA applications. UVA saw a huge spike. Northeastern went from 98,000 applications to over 107,000. Overall, applications in the Common App increased from 6.3 million to 6.7 million.

I thought that the demographic cliff would be kicking in, but it looks like it is harder than ever.

Two of those are a great educational value
Northeastern likely up from marketing and fee waivers

Northeastern is actually better performing school than the orter two

Northeastern gives merit aid. USC gives merit aid also (though a smaller proportion). Texas is cheap both in-state and out of state. The only school here lacking educational value, to some, is UVA oos.

Yes. And the uncertainty of merit at schools like Northeastern and USC also increases apps to that class of schools, because merit-hunters can’t know until after they’ve applied whether they will be able to afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[color=red]What's behind the surge in applications to some schools?

Three reasons:
1) The Common App: Once you get a few apps in via the Common App, it doesn't take as much heavy lifting as it used to to add another school or three. And often, its possible to re-purpose the base of essays used for other schools. So it's not much to simply tack on more schools this way...

2) The Vicious Cycle: Per #1 above, the Common App makes it easier to add more applications than it used to be. So applications go up while the schools' capacity for how many applications they accept remain the same... so admit rates decline... kids then see this spike in applications and declination in admit rates, get scared that their initial list of 5-8 schools isn't broad enough... so what do they do? They react by applying to more schools since the Common App makes it easy.... it's a vicious cycle.

3) Test Optional: Adding to all of this, we are now several years into Test Optional and kids look at reaches and say "I'll just take a flyer on this and will go test optional"... so Test Optional encourages more applications too.

All of this.

Agree this plus the cost effect: privates have hit $80k+ and (UVA, CA, Mich OOS). A lot of UMC kids used to be able to afford these schools. Now they apply to their flagship so those have become more competitive and need more safeties for the flagship but you don't know if you can afford a safety in many cases unless you apply. If pricing was completely transparent, kid would have applied to 3 schools instead of 10.

[Anonymous]

It's the Co-op program and the location at NEU that makes it attractive to high stats kids among others. Having 2-3 six-month jobs, learning, making connections and figuring out what you want to do is unlike any other program (although Drexel comes close, Philly can't compare to Boston).

The cost is nuts, over $90k for old, crowded dorms, and when you come back from co-op you aren't guaranteed housing. And Boston housing proces are no joke - our child has friends paying close to $2k per month (they lucked out with roommates and location and a great apartment)

[Anonymous]

FOMO

Common app

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Northeastern still TO and No Essay?

Yes.

And they spam students with free apps.

When?
Three of my kids applied for the past 3-4 years and none got the offer.
One is attending.

I think the school rather enjoys revenue from the app fees.
100,000 x $75 = $75M every year.

Got free app offers from schools like WashU, UChicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are all large, relatively prestigious, urban schools (except for UVA). Might also reflect a turn away from rural and the ongoing turn towards large private and public.

This has been the trend for the past 3-4 decades.
The 4 most applied private schools this year are NYU, Northeastern, Boston Univ. USC.
All 4 are in the popular urban setting. Three of them don't even have football teams.
5th is Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Test required at top schools. And cost.

Less applying to places that require scores—or schools with high score profiles- so lower tier TO apps are up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the highest point before the “cliff”. Drops next year.

Plus Ivy apps are falling.

nope most are up.

They predicted requiring scores would drop numbers slightly. It just weeds out the junk apps that can’t apply anymore since the scores are too low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Test required at top schools. And cost.

Less applying to places that require scores—or schools with high score profiles- so lower tier TO apps are up.

Not sure about this. UT went back to test-mandatory and apps are way up.

[Anonymous]

I know so many high stats kids who are applying to rolling EAs like Pitt and publics like Wisconsin and MN, when they have no intention of going. These are not their real safeties.

They're kids who just always do the most, so why not apply august before senior year begins to a bunch of EA publics because "I want to get my safeties in early, and I can apply to these schools and also do SCEA to Yale". Oh, okay!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Northeastern still TO and No Essay?

Yes.

And they spam students with free apps.

When?
Three of my kids applied for the past 3-4 years and none got the offer.
One is attending.

I think the school rather enjoys revenue from the app fees.
100,000 x $75 = $75M every year.

Got free app offers from schools like WashU, UChicago

Not that it’s still not a chunk of change, but 100,000 x $75 = $7.5 million