Top Choice, but Spring Start Freshman

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it! Your child has been admitted to this program to hide their stats so if not in this program, not admitted at all. Because of this smoke and mirrors approach in admissions, more of the colleges are offering it and strengthening their programs.

More colleges are doing this, but it's not to hide anything. It's just practical to have people waiting to take the place of those they know will leave after the first semester for whatever reason, and they're pretty good at predicting how many students that will be each year. They lose loads of money otherwise.

You are right and wrong. They intentionally choose some applicants to place in the spring start programs. However, it also does help them balance their open beds in dorms during spring semester.

It is 100% so they don't have to include the students' stats in their reported numbers for the incoming first years. I would guess most of them are full-pay as well. But so what? If the kids loves that school, do it.

You’re so wrong but that doesn’t keep you from piping up to show your ignorance. You must be salty that your kid needs financial aid and an acceptance to go to their top choice.

At Northeastern, it was started to "hide the stats". Currently suspect that with 90K applications, everyone in the NUIn/NUBound are similar high stats. In fact, I suspect NEU actually puts a lot of Full pay candidates in these programs simply because who else can afford it? It does largely end up being FULL Pay students. Since most of the financial aid cannot be used for the semester/year abroad, and who can afford $75K plus meals (NUBound London for fall 2022) without financial aid if not full pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it! Your child has been admitted to this program to hide their stats so if not in this program, not admitted at all. Because of this smoke and mirrors approach in admissions, more of the colleges are offering it and strengthening their programs.

More colleges are doing this, but it's not to hide anything. It's just practical to have people waiting to take the place of those they know will leave after the first semester for whatever reason, and they're pretty good at predicting how many students that will be each year. They lose loads of money otherwise.

You are right and wrong. They intentionally choose some applicants to place in the spring start programs. However, it also does help them balance their open beds in dorms during spring semester.

It is 100% so they don't have to include the students' stats in their reported numbers for the incoming first years. I would guess most of them are full-pay as well. But so what? If the kids loves that school, do it.

You’re so wrong but that doesn’t keep you from piping up to show your ignorance. You must be salty that your kid needs financial aid and an acceptance to go to their top choice.

Actually you are wrong. This spring access practice did start so they schools didn’t have to report low stat kids. No matter the insults you hurl -that is common knowledge

So say there's a university that wants 5000 students in its freshman class. And say they admit 4800 with an average SAT of 1300 in the fall and defer 200 with an average SAT of 1100 to the spring. Those 200 students would bring the average SAT down to 1292 if they were included in the Common Data Set info. So the cost to the college is 8 points if they admit them in the fall. But the cost of not admitting them in the fall is conservatively $5000 for a $50K/year school, so they're losing $1 million in revenue to gain 8 points on their SAT average, which is only 5% of the USNWR calculation.

Do you really believe this is something colleges are doing? It makes no sense.

Another point to consider is this: If colleges are starting students in the spring in order to avoid having them counted in the data, why do they still do it at schools where test scores are optional? This was pretty much every school in the country last year, and will continue to be true for many schools for the foreseeable future. Why would they need to hide scores of those who don't need to (and thus probably don't) report them anyway?

That pp is wrong and stupidly insisting that just ONE reason exists why schools fill their dorm rooms in the spring - with very committed and full pay students! such a mystery!

People who cannot afford the spring admit option love to malign it.

We can afford it, but my DC will not be taking NUBound (NEU program that sends your DC abroad for the entire first year, you are then a transfer student in fall 2nd year and as such are never allowed to live on campus). My DC wants a more traditional experience of entering campus in the fall to find their tribe/friends. My DC also plans to study abroad, but would prefer to do that sometime after sophomore year, not for freshman year. My DC also doesn't want to be searching for off campus housing in Nov/Dec of freshman year when they haven't yet set foot on campus and only know ~200 students in their overseas group, especially given that housing in Boston is not cheap and not easy to find(think paying broker fees and being asked to sign leases before even seeing the actual apartment, or you loose the apartment---then again, how would you even see the apartment because you are overseas for 9 months, not in Boston). But I can see if a school is your DC's dream school/absolute top choice that these programs could be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What T20 schools even do this?

USC and Northeastern

Those are not not T20 schools

Cornell 100% does this and has been doing it for a long time. They offered it to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What T20 schools even do this?

USC and Northeastern

Northeastern is NOT T20, but yes they do it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have one kid who couldn’t do this. Socially, she isn’t bold enough to find her way into an established group. My other kid could do this, but probably would decide against it.

Things I would consider…is this common at the school. Are there efforts and programming to integrate the spring start students? Do they have the same sort of welcome and orientation as the fall start students or do they just move in and get going?

At most schools it is only~200-300 students, as the goal is to fill dorm spaces from students who drop out after fall semester. Schools are very good at knowing their numbers and use spring admission/fall 2nd year admission to fill these spots. Considering dorms/dining are the real money makers at most schools, it behooves them to keep these filled to capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it! Your child has been admitted to this program to hide their stats so if not in this program, not admitted at all. Because of this smoke and mirrors approach in admissions, more of the colleges are offering it and strengthening their programs.

More colleges are doing this, but it's not to hide anything. It's just practical to have people waiting to take the place of those they know will leave after the first semester for whatever reason, and they're pretty good at predicting how many students that will be each year. They lose loads of money otherwise.

Yes, it is to hide the lower stats so they don’t have to report those stats with other admitted students.

Take it! In the covid era its about space on campus. My DD with a 1580 SAT and a 3.9UW GPA from top VA public was a spring admit. Her stats were not lower. I'd highly recommend doing this if the school is your DD's top choice.

Totally agree with PP. My DS is a Spring admit with 3.9UW GPA and 1500 SAT. In no way does this or PPs scores bring their stats down. You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My D did it and excelled academically. Took general electives in the fall at another college as a non degree student so she is on track with the rest of her class.

The down side is that socially it is a little harder. They go in everyone else already has friends. They have to be willing to join everything and figure out where they belong. My D was a little shy, so this was the hardest part for her.

Also, it was hard in the fall when all of her friends where having new experiences. We found out about some study abroad programs after the fact, but if we had know about that for the fall it would have been a much better option.

This really depends. Spring semester at a lot of schools students are looking to make new friends after the sheen has worn off of their freshman hall group--this is when clubs kick into action more etc. So, yes, it's a touch harder, but often not too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why must “T20” irrelevantly interject on every thread and then feed irrelevant “T20” pissing contests?

we don't do that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it! Your child has been admitted to this program to hide their stats so if not in this program, not admitted at all. Because of this smoke and mirrors approach in admissions, more of the colleges are offering it and strengthening their programs.

More colleges are doing this, but it's not to hide anything. It's just practical to have people waiting to take the place of those they know will leave after the first semester for whatever reason, and they're pretty good at predicting how many students that will be each year. They lose loads of money otherwise.

Yes, it is to hide the lower stats so they don’t have to report those stats with other admitted students.

Take it! In the covid era its about space on campus. My DD with a 1580 SAT and a 3.9UW GPA from top VA public was a spring admit. Her stats were not lower. I'd highly recommend doing this if the school is your DD's top choice.

Totally agree with PP. My DS is a Spring admit with 3.9UW GPA and 1500 SAT. In no way does this or PPs scores bring their stats down. You have no idea what you are talking about.

anonymous nobodies whose high point in life was being accepted to a college 20 years ago, that they could never get into today, still desperately trying to be superior and relevant. It makes them feel better to somehow belittle others' accomplishments. So they make sh*t up.