On-site admissions programs let applicants know immediately whether they have been accepted
For many high-school seniors, the winter-long wait to hear back from colleges
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Colloquy: Join an online discussion on the pros and cons of programs that give students “instant,” face-to-face admission to college.
can feel like a nightmare round of Magic 8-Ball, in which the answer is always the same: “Ask Again Later.” But some institutions are taking the suspense out of admissions by telling applicants their fates in person.
A small but growing number of colleges and universities have adopted on-site, or “instant,” admissions programs to attract students in the fall, just before the traditional rush of applications. The practice combines instant gratification with face-to-face intimacy: In some cases, admissions officials meet one-on-one with applicants, review their transcripts on the spot, and offer acceptance (or rejection) letters in about as much time as it takes to get to the front of a cafeteria lunch line. Some students say the programs humanize the process of applying to college.
“It was a great stress relief,” says Matthew Box, a senior at Christiansburg High School, in Virginia, who learned he had been admitted to Virginia Tech last December during a visit to the guidance office in between classes. “I knew where I wanted to go to college, and this took the pressure off early.”
Mr. Box decided not to apply anywhere else, but students who earn spaces through instant admissions have until spring to make their final decisions. That arrangement gives applicants the comfort of early-decision programs, without the binding obligation. Colleges, in turn, win points from students and guidance counselors for convenience.
“It’s a no-lose situation,” Mr. Box says. “If you get in, awesome, but you’re not tied down to that school. If you’re deferred, you can still apply again, for regular admission.”
‘Positive PR’
On-site admissions is a new twist on an old practice. While many of the most competitive colleges have intensive applications, with essay requirements that take more time for admissions officials to evaluate, admissions at a great number of institutions has always been “instant” -- a matter of colleges checking applicants’ grades or standardized test scores, or both, and mailing out the appropriate letter.
But the in-person approach, previously practiced at only a handful of colleges, has been gaining popularity over the last five years among institutions with more clear-cut admissions criteria. Some admissions officials say that concerns about the increasing competitiveness of college admissions inspired them to develop ways of personalizing the stamp-and-send process of applying to college, especially for applicants in their own backyards.
“Instant admission is a way to create good will among those schools around us,” says Karen E. Torgersen, director of undergraduate admissions at Virginia Tech, which began its program in 1997. “As we became increasingly popular and selective, we also became concerned that we were seeming more and more remote to students in local high schools.”
Now, each November, Tech admissions officials visit about 10 high schools within a 30-mile radius of its Blacksburg, Va., campus, reviewing applications on-site. Students know whether they have been accepted by the end of the day.
Despite the manpower required and the fact that only about 220 of Tech’s applicants last fall were reviewed in this way, Ms. Torgersen writes in an e-mail message that “the positive PR we are building among our local schools is worth it.”
In other words, the quick-hit strategy is both a service to students and a savvy marketing tool.
“This is a way for colleges to take a customer-oriented approach,” says Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “One should never underestimate the impact of speedy service, especially where there’s so much anxiety about getting into college.”
One advantage for colleges is that students who apply for instant admission tend to be higher-achieving. Generally, most students who apply this way know they stand a good chance of getting in. Another is that a greater percentage of students admitted this way go on to attend the institution. Virginia’s Radford University, which began its program in 1997, typically offers spots to roughly 75 percent of instant applicants. Approximately 60 percent of those students go on to enroll at Radford, compared with the university’s overall yield rate of 40 percent.
“Personalizing the process, making students realize there’s a real person on the other side, that builds excitement among our applicants,” says David W. Kraus, director of admissions at Radford.
An Admissions ‘Luxury?’
It is not known exactly how many colleges are practicing “snap-apps,” as some call them, but a variety of institutions below the elite tier now admit anywhere from a handful to a couple of hundred students through the programs each fall. Many of the California State University System’s campuses have “instant admissions days” at select high schools that aim to take “the hassle and the traffic jams out of applying for college,” as a news release from Cal State Northridge described it.
In the Midwest, Big Ten colleges, including Michigan State Univer-sity and the University of Iowa, and smaller institutions like Knox College and Lake Forest College, admit a number of students after face-to-face interviews in the fall. In the East, a range of institutions, including West Virginia University and the University of South Florida, have similar programs. On-site admissions days are also popular for many community colleges throughout the United States.
The pioneer of the programs was Bard College, a small liberal-arts college in New York, which developed its “immediate-decision plan” in the late 1970s. Each fall, as many as 300 Bard applicants who wish to apply under that plan sign up for a date to visit and submit their applications in advance. During the visit, applicants attend seminars where they discuss assigned readings with professors, and sit for individual interviews with admissions officials. Students find out if they have earned a spot before they leave.
“The crux for us is that there’s nothing in the normal application process that assures that the applicants know anything about the college they’re applying to,” says Mary Backlund, Bard’s admissions director. “Our policy’s designed to address that, to have candidates experience us. It’s more meaningful, and allows them more immediate gratification.”
Many larger colleges vary their approaches. Although some institutions review applications for the first time upon meeting students at their high schools, or at college fairs, the University of Wisconsin at Madison is among a number of institutions that try to save time by reviewing instant applications weeks in advance, but still deliver acceptance or rejection letters during individual sessions with applicants.
The programs are drawing praise from some high schools. Scott White, a guidance counselor at Montclair High School, in New Jersey, says on-site admissions benefits students by enabling college and high-school officials to communicate more easily.
“So many times there are unanswered questions in the regular admissions process,” Mr. White says. “To have the ability to immediately follow up on questions or concerns with the applicant, or the applicants’ counselors, on-site -- that’s truly a luxury.”
When first reviewing Mr. Box’s transcript, for example, admissions officials at Virginia Tech noticed that he had not taken a physics class, which seemed odd given that he wanted to enroll in Tech’s engineering program.
But after inquiring on their visit to Mr. Box’s high school in December, Tech officials learned that he had not yet taken the class because it was only offered during the second semester -- information that did not appear on his application.
More Pressure
Despite the widespread praise, skeptics say the programs are no more than a recruiting gimmick that, like early decision, allows colleges to compete for more students sooner. Their worry is that instant admissions, like instant coffee, is a poor substitute for the real thing.
Although instant acceptances may not be binding, they provide incentives for students to apply to college months before regular-decision deadlines.
Depending on whom you ask, accelerating the application process, regardless of the circumstances, puts unnecessary pressure on high-school students and distorts the process of finding the “right” college. Some guidance counselors fear that applicants may feel less inclined to apply to other colleges once they receive an instant offer from one.
And then there’s the flip side of the personal touch: It’s easier to receive bad news in the comfort of home.
“Every year, we have a young person who breaks down in tears in front of us, and that’s hard,” says Mr. Kraus of Radford. “But you work through that, you talk about the student’s options. Certainly, when you’re separated from people by the U.S. mail, you don’t have that opportunity.”
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