Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘it’s quality not quantity’? Well, that goes for college admissions applications too. Though it might be impressive to show off high application numbers, it doesn’t always mean you’re better off.
A lot of organizations out there exist to help colleges get more inquiries and applications, in hope that these leads will turn into qualified applicants and eventually, enrollees. How do they do it? By encouraging colleges to offer inviting benefits, such as waiving application fees and essays, providing quick admissions decisions and even “priority” housing and scholarship consideration.
So why shouldn’t you do this? Waiving an application fee and/or essay makes applying for college as simple as clicking a button online. Wouldn’t you have been more likely to apply to more colleges if you didn’t have to pay high application fees or write the dreaded long essay? But instead of submitting 10 applications, you narrowed it down to the 3 or 4 that you were the most interested in. Why? Because you didn’t want to pay all that money for applications or spend so much time writing essays for schools you probably wouldn’t be attending anyway.
While adding these “perks” to your application process may help you receive more applications, the students that are applying are not likely to enroll. Many students are willing to fill out some questions and click a button a few times to apply. Far fewer are willing to spend money and time on applications to schools that are on their “second choice” list.
Like I said earlier, it’s quality, not quantity, which really matters.
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posted by Erica on December 14th, 2009
Posted in Admission | No Comments » |