The following questions were submitted during NACAC's State of College Admission 2009 Webinar held on October 20, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
Q: What is FRPL?
A: FRPL is the acronym for the free and reduced price lunch, under the National School Lunch Program. On the annual Counseling Trends Survey, NACAC asks respondents to report on the percentage of students eligible for this program as a proxy for the income profile of the student body.
Q: The College Board also released a report today (October 20, 2009) that showed that college tuition and fees continue to outpace inflation. And yet your report shows that more students are still applying to college. Is there any evidence that rising costs have deterred students from going to college? If not, why not?
A: Many studies have shown that both the real and perceived costs of college and the prospect of post-graduation debt burden can discourage students—low-income and first-generation students, in particular—from attending college. In fact, a report from the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance showed that as many as 500,000 students each year do not achieve college-going goals because of a lack of financial aid.
In recent years, much of the increase in the number of students applying to college has been fueled by the increase in the number of high school graduates. The percentage of high school graduates that go immediately on to college has not changed much in the recent past (see Chapter 1 of the 2009 State of College Admission report). For the last decade, the percentage has fluctuated from the low- to mid-60 percent range.
It is also important to note that student financial aid continues to be available, and the net price that most students pay is considerably lower than the “sticker price” of college. Evidence from the recent NACAC member surveys show that colleges increased the institutional financial aid awarded for 2009-10, and more federal money also has become available in the form of an increased Pell maximum award and higher loan limits. The price of attendance also varies widely across individual colleges and types of colleges.
See the following sources for more information on college costs and student financial aid: College Board Trends in Student Aid and Trends in College Cost; Reports from the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance; The Institute for College Access and Success; the National Association of State Student Grant & Aid Programs; and the US Department of Education’s Student Aid Web Portal.
Q: Within the cost to recruit calculations, does the definition of "Admission budget" include salary of employees?
A: On the Admission Trends Survey, NACAC asks colleges to report the “total admission budget” and to indicate which of the following expense categories are included: staff salaries, staff benefits, travel expenses, participation in college fairs and other events, publications, third-party contractors. The figures that were presented during the Webinar include only those colleges that included all of the expense categories in the total budget. The State of College Admission report also includes cost-to-recruit figures for those institutions that included all expense categories except for staff salaries and benefits.
Q: In the section labeled "importance of factors in decision process," how did you define "students’ demonstrated interest?"
A: NACAC did not specifically define “students’ demonstrated interest” on the 2008 Admission Trends Survey. Likely methods that colleges and universities could use to ascertain a student’s interest include campus visits, interviews, content of open-ended essays, contact with the admission office, letters of recommendation, and early application through either Early Action or Early Decision. It also is likely that the quality and nature of the contact with the admission office is more influential than the quantity of contact.
Q: What trends are you seeing now with college application numbers? Are you seeing changes in student behavior in terms of filing application for admission in this cycle?
A: College applications continue to increase, according to the most recent data NACAC has available. In each year from 2005 through 2008, approximately three-quarters of colleges responding to the Admission Trends Survey indicated receiving more applications than in the previous year. There also has been an upward trend for the past decade in the average number of applications submitted per student. More students also are submitting applications electronically. For the Fall 2008 admission cycle, colleges received an average of 72 percent of applications online, up from 68 percent in Fall 2007 and 58 percent in Fall 2006.
Q: But what are the trends that colleges are reporting - mostly up, down, or the same, in number of applicants right now.
A: The most recent data we have is from the NACAC “effects of the economy” surveys. Sixty-two percent of colleges indicated an increase in the number of applications received for the Fall 2009 admission cycle, as compared to Fall 2008. Thirty-nine percent of counselors reported an increase in the number of applications per student. Only 15 percent reported a decrease. Given recent trends, application numbers are likely to continue increasing for Fall 2010, but we won’t know for sure until the cycle is complete.
Q: How do you think that admissions offices will be able to deal with the greater number of applications being accepted to increase enrollments?
A: Our data indicate that the increased number of acceptances reflects a strategy to counteract declining yield rates rather than an interest in dramatically increasing enrollments. Data presented in the Appendix of the 2009 State of College Admission report show trends in acceptances, enrollments, and yield for individual colleges, and can shed light on the extent to which increased acceptances have translated into larger enrollments at different colleges.
Q: Is anyone researching the environmental impact as a result of recruitment practices - i.e. printed materials, carbon footprint from travel, etc.?
A: NACAC is not aware of any research on this topic, but it is possible that individual colleges and admission offices are conducting this research and making efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their activities. There does seem to be a movement toward electronic transmission of application materials.
Q: Did the tip question ask why only 5 percent of colleges verify applicants’ essays?
A: The Admission Trends Survey asked college admission officers if they take systematic extra steps to verify applicant essays and what, if any, extra steps are taken. Although we didn’t ask colleges why they don’t take extra steps, our best guess would be the amount of time it would require given the large number of applications that many colleges receive. However, college admission officers’ intuition and professional judgment does come in to play here. After reading thousands of essays during their careers, admission officers develop a good sense of essays that may not be authentic.
Q: Can you discuss what college application or admission trends, if any, are available about students who have learning disabilities?
A: NACAC has not collected any information about students with disabilities. The National Center for Education Statistics has collected and published some data related to educational progress and outcomes for students with disabilities.
Q: The NACAC Report shows the number of high school graduates in Florida increasing by 15 percent or more over the next seven years. Yet WICHE and FLDOE projections project a decline until 2020, when we return to 2008 numbers. Why is there a discrepancy?
A: The state projections for the number of public high school graduates published in Figure 2 of the 2009 State of College Admission report are from the US Department of Education, and cover the time period from 2004–05 to 2017–18. They also include only high school diploma recipients and not other high school completers or high school equivalency recipients.
There are small discrepancies in the year to year projection numbers among the US Department of Education, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, and the Florida Department of Education, which may be attributable to slight differences in the definition of high school graduate or in methodology. However, the general trend is similar across these sources. The percent increase/decrease that is calculated depends on the time period under consideration. If you look at the most recent US Department of Education figures for Florida beginning with 2008–09, the number fluctuates from year to year before returning to the 2008–09 level in 2017–18.
Q: Will a copy of the PowerPoint be posted so it can be printed?
A: The Webinar presentation that is available online cannot be downloaded. If you would like a downloadable copy of the PowerPoint, please email research@nacacnet.org to receive a copy by email.
Q: Did the colleges that responded to your survey report that they were confident that the increase in financial aid positively affected their enrollment and to what extent?
A: The NACAC member surveys did not ask colleges to report on the effectiveness of various strategies they used to try to meet enrollment goals.
Q: Why is the consideration to high school attended so low? I would think some weight would be given to curriculum strength as it varies from school to school?
A: Strength of curriculum is rated by colleges as the second most important factor in admission decisions, behind grades in college prep courses. The students’ transcript, in combination with the high school profile, would give colleges the information they need to assess the strength of an individual student’s curriculum against what was available to him/her. Some colleges also may factor in the high school attended for other reasons related to mission, such as a desire for geographic or urban/rural diversity or a desire to serve the college’s immediate local area.