If you haven't yet committed to a college/university...

[Anonymous]

Assuming class of 2017... Why not? What are the considerations at this point and what, if anything, could a school do to encourage you to make your deposit?

Signed,

Weary admission officer

[Anonymous]

give more grant money/free aid.

[Anonymous]

Get rid of majors that are competitive -- i.e., require an application and admission once the student has already been accepted to the university. This is the only thing holding my daughter back from committing to a particular Ivy League institution. She (and I) feel that if she's qualified to attend the school, she should be able to major in whatever she wants, assuming she completes the prerequisites successfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of majors that are competitive -- i.e., require an application and admission once the student has already been accepted to the university. This is the only thing holding my daughter back from committing to a particular Ivy League institution. She (and I) feel that if she's qualified to attend the school, she should be able to major in whatever she wants, assuming she completes the prerequisites successfully.

True. That is such a 'large school' thing to do and not becoming of a smaller school like an ivy and it fosters poor intra-university relations among the UG student body.

Case in point: Wharton UG's vs the rest of Penn (yes, I know that you apply to the college/program before you matriculate but i'm not a fan of having kids apply to a particular school within a university).

PP, is your daughter the one who got into Yale but is having second thoughts because she's interested in IR and Global Affairs is a program that sophomores must apply to get into?

If so, go to princeton since WW stopped doing apps for it and anyone can concentrate there if they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of majors that are competitive -- i.e., require an application and admission once the student has already been accepted to the university. This is the only thing holding my daughter back from committing to a particular Ivy League institution. She (and I) feel that if she's qualified to attend the school, she should be able to major in whatever she wants, assuming she completes the prerequisites successfully.

True. That is such a 'large school' thing to do and not becoming of a smaller school like an ivy and it fosters poor intra-university relations among the UG student body.

Case in point: Wharton UG's vs the rest of Penn (yes, I know that you apply to the college/program before you matriculate but i'm not a fan of having kids apply to a particular school within a university).

PP, is your daughter the one who got into Yale but is having second thoughts because she's interested in IR and Global Affairs is a program that sophomores must apply to get into?

If so, go to princeton since WW stopped doing apps for it and anyone can concentrate there if they want.

I would be interested in whether or not the apps to the WW have gone down. It was competitive in my day and I felt like there were folks applying for that reason alone, they thought it brought some kind of prestige.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of majors that are competitive -- i.e., require an application and admission once the student has already been accepted to the university. This is the only thing holding my daughter back from committing to a particular Ivy League institution. She (and I) feel that if she's qualified to attend the school, she should be able to major in whatever she wants, assuming she completes the prerequisites successfully.

True. That is such a 'large school' thing to do and not becoming of a smaller school like an ivy and it fosters poor intra-university relations among the UG student body.

Case in point: Wharton UG's vs the rest of Penn (yes, I know that you apply to the college/program before you matriculate but i'm not a fan of having kids apply to a particular school within a university).

PP, is your daughter the one who got into Yale but is having second thoughts because she's interested in IR and Global Affairs is a program that sophomores must apply to get into?

If so, go to princeton since WW stopped doing apps for it and anyone can concentrate there if they want.

I would be interested in whether or not the apps to the WW have gone down. It was competitive in my day and I felt like there were folks applying for that reason alone, they thought it brought some kind of prestige.

No clue, I just know WW stopped apps for it very recently...like last year or this year.

I feel that Yale is making apps for it because they want to keep the Global Affairs program quite small and it seems more structured than WW so perhaps that's why they are doing that.

I dislike how penn does wharton because then you get the whole 'wharton vs. rest of the school'....you ask a wharton UG where they go to UG and they almost always say 'wharton'...you ask the rest of the penn student body and they say 'penn'.

i think the wharton/penn divide is greater than the other 2 ivies that make you apply directly to the various schools..cornell and columbia.

[Anonymous]

O.K., here's another quibble. Don't have exams after the holidays, and don't adopt an intentional "grade deflation" policy. And really, really make your students feel supported and valued.

[Anonymous]

There are pluses to exams after holidays-if the student can compartmentalize and not obsess about exams over the winter break, it makes late November and December a lot more humane and less frantic, can relax over the actual winter break or at least most of it if not completely goofing off during semester, and then come back to quite a prolonged reading and exam period. Grade deflation really doesn't seem to be as significant as it is cracked up to be and it is being reconsidered. Besides that issue the place is far more focused on undergraduates and rich in undergraduate opportunities than any other Ivy or peer school.

[Anonymous]

I think the whole problem of students waiting to decide is traceable back to how many apps they send in. They get more acceptances and more waitlists than back in the day, when they used to apply to just 5-7 schools.

Thanks for nothing US News. 100,000 apps to UCLA? That's crazy. I hope we have reached a tipping point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


No clue, I just know WW stopped apps for it very recently...like last year or this year.

I feel that Yale is making apps for it because they want to keep the Global Affairs program quite small and it seems more structured than WW so perhaps that's why they are doing that.

I dislike how penn does wharton because then you get the whole 'wharton vs. rest of the school'....you ask a wharton UG where they go to UG and they almost always say 'wharton'...you ask the rest of the penn student body and they say 'penn'.

i think the wharton/penn divide is greater than the other 2 ivies that make you apply directly to the various schools..cornell and columbia.

As a Wharton grad with relatives at these other two schools, I'd have to agree, unfortunately. At Wharton it's all about snobbery towards all the other schools, particularly about how you expect to have a glamorous career in international finance while those schmucks in the rest of Penn are going to be begging for jobs as barristas. Also, Wharton gets a lot of ostentatious financing from various private sources that leads to gorgeous new buildings on the edge of a campus of older buildings. At Cornell and Columbia, school choice is also determined by your major (engineering, agriculture, architecture) or your gender (Barnard). There's some rivalry and snobbery (e.g. Columbia College vs. Barnard, which is pretty unjustified when you look at it closely), but on the whole there's much less snobbery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of majors that are competitive -- i.e., require an application and admission once the student has already been accepted to the university. This is the only thing holding my daughter back from committing to a particular Ivy League institution. She (and I) feel that if she's qualified to attend the school, she should be able to major in whatever she wants, assuming she completes the prerequisites successfully.

True. That is such a 'large school' thing to do and not becoming of a smaller school like an ivy and it fosters poor intra-university relations among the UG student body.

Case in point: Wharton UG's vs the rest of Penn (yes, I know that you apply to the college/program before you matriculate but i'm not a fan of having kids apply to a particular school within a university).

PP, is your daughter the one who got into Yale but is having second thoughts because she's interested in IR and Global Affairs is a program that sophomores must apply to get into?

If so, go to princeton since WW stopped doing apps for it and anyone can concentrate there if they want.

I would be interested in whether or not the apps to the WW have gone down. It was competitive in my day and I felt like there were folks applying for that reason alone, they thought it brought some kind of prestige.

No clue, I just know WW stopped apps for it very recently...like last year or this year.

I feel that Yale is making apps for it because they want to keep the Global Affairs program quite small and it seems more structured than WW so perhaps that's why they are doing that.

I dislike how penn does wharton because then you get the whole 'wharton vs. rest of the school'....you ask a wharton UG where they go to UG and they almost always say 'wharton'...you ask the rest of the penn student body and they say 'penn'.

i think the wharton/penn divide is greater than the other 2 ivies that make you apply directly to the various schools..cornell and columbia.

I think the Wharton/Penn distincition is justified (if viewed from the Wharton side)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get rid of majors that are competitive -- i.e., require an application and admission once the student has already been accepted to the university. This is the only thing holding my daughter back from committing to a particular Ivy League institution. She (and I) feel that if she's qualified to attend the school, she should be able to major in whatever she wants, assuming she completes the prerequisites successfully.

True. That is such a 'large school' thing to do and not becoming of a smaller school like an ivy and it fosters poor intra-university relations among the UG student body.

Case in point: Wharton UG's vs the rest of Penn (yes, I know that you apply to the college/program before you matriculate but i'm not a fan of having kids apply to a particular school within a university).

PP, is your daughter the one who got into Yale but is having second thoughts because she's interested in IR and Global Affairs is a program that sophomores must apply to get into?

If so, go to princeton since WW stopped doing apps for it and anyone can concentrate there if they want.

I would be interested in whether or not the apps to the WW have gone down. It was competitive in my day and I felt like there were folks applying for that reason alone, they thought it brought some kind of prestige.

No clue, I just know WW stopped apps for it very recently...like last year or this year.

I feel that Yale is making apps for it because they want to keep the Global Affairs program quite small and it seems more structured than WW so perhaps that's why they are doing that.

I dislike how penn does wharton because then you get the whole 'wharton vs. rest of the school'....you ask a wharton UG where they go to UG and they almost always say 'wharton'...you ask the rest of the penn student body and they say 'penn'.

i think the wharton/penn divide is greater than the other 2 ivies that make you apply directly to the various schools..cornell and columbia.

I think the Wharton/Penn distincition is justified (if viewed from the Wharton side)

Nah I don't think so. It's just douchey and detracts from the atmosphere of the school. Look at what the PP that was a wharton alum said. For instance many Penn Engineering grads get just as great jobs directly on the buyside like wharton. However you won't hear them say "oh i go to seas". Even the other two ivy's that break up applications by college don't have that dynamic on campus.