Saturday, April 26, 2008
College Admissions Process Gets Longer, More Complicated
AACRAO Transcript: "Mike Steidel, director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon University said demonstrated interest “is a huge piece of what we look at.” The university gives students an option to be on a priority waiting list or the regular list. If priority students get an offer in early May, they have just 24 hours to make their deposit or they’re out. The school shows students a financial aid package in advance."
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11 comments:
i am so thankful to already be in. but i remember that process being painful. and as many nights as i woke up freaking out i know that my mother had twice as many and probably is still having them.
I hated applying to colleges. I ended up having to apply to eleven. I think colleges should find a better way to evaluate applicants. It is also really stressful being on the CMU wait list since you don't know where you are going until early may.
No one enjoys the college process, but I don't think anyone is really thinking of ways to make it better. Although I don't know if it really takes as long as it seems for the schools to make the decisions (after being in school this year, it appears it doesn't really take that long), I do think that the way that the applicants are looked at overall is fair, and the priority wait list is definitely a good idea in terms of getting a student's name out there.
I am just so happy that I am done with it. I feel like it is going to get so much harder each year to go to college. I don't know why I thought applying for college was such a hard thing. I don't think I would be able to do this ever again. It was not as hard as I remembered but it surely was a long and painful process.
I certainly understand what the CMU director calls a "demonstrated interest". I remember doing all I could to show the school that I was interested. Surprisingly, they were quite welcoming to my eagerness, which I thought would just be taken as an exhaustive plea for help. That should be very apparent to future applicants.
It's good to see that schools are starting to wisen up. Why accept someone who is obviously using your school as a super safety, and not allow other kids in? Kids apply to way too many schools, many of which are ultra safeties.
I applied to 6-7 schools and I thought I was overdoing it..
I think that it gets a little more complicated when being considered for a conservatory program such as ours because of the fact that we are trying to meet the criteria of two separate entities: The School of Drama, and the CMU Admissions office. I remember distinctly that one of the frequent questions asked by Drama faculty was, "What other schools did you apply for?" It was very obvious that they were trying to feel me out and see if I would accept one of their positions, and so they wait-listed me, "just in case." I preferred the interviewing process more than the application process because of the personal connection that was able to be made. The problem of course is that this is only available in small schools/departments.
The college admissions process I think creates way too much stress on students. Granted that I did not feel any pressure or stress in getting into college as my other classemates have (which I am thankful for). But from the stories I have heard there needs to be something done to get done fast so that people will know at the righ time what college they are going to. That might mean starting the admission process earlier, but it will be benefical for the students and for the college to not wait around to off the wait lists.
I know it was this complicated, but I think I have repressed the memory. Again though, it all goes back to making a strong impression of interest, but like one would for a job application etc. However, the idea of entering summer still waiting to find out where I would attend seems horrifyingly stressful, and I am very glad that I am not in that position right now. Seems like things will only get increasingly harder as time goes on.
The application process was probably one of the worst things ever for me. It was the most stressful few months of my life, and I don't really see the need to put students through that. I get that it takes a long time to get everything processed, but I think there should at least be an effort to stop putting so much pressure on students to go to ivy league schools and jump through dozens of hoops just to apply to schools that their parents want them to. Drawing out the application process doesn't help. And I also really hated being on the waitlist, especially since most of my friends knew where they were going to end up several months before me.
Yes, demonstrated interest is important because freshmen year is though and it definitely challenges that. I feel i am hanging on but there are those who have simply given up. I mean looking back on all the things each student had to go through to get here, it is just to sad to give up, but I guess thats life. You experiment and learn.
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