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Admissions anxiety reaches new regions
2006-10-22
SAT tutors. High-priced essay coaches. Over-the-top parents who make selecting a college feel like a matter of life and death. Muzi.com News 10024251-0 (muzi.com)They have become commonplace in admissions "hot spots," largely in the Northeast and on the West Coast -- places where the college application process is palpably more intense than elsewhere. Muzi.com News 10024251-1 (muzi.com) But admissions anxiety is creeping into other parts of the country. Muzi.com News 10024251-2 (muzi.com) It shows up in this fast-growing region, where counselors at the public North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics are hearing more from pushy parents and seeing more pressure on students to apply to college early. Ravenscroft, a college prep school in nearby Raleigh, recently dropped an advanced placement class from the senior curriculum because students were already taking on too much. Muzi.com News 10024251-3 (muzi.com) A recent college fair in Chapel Hill attracted several parents researching colleges -- without their children. At Durham School of the Arts, senior Caitlin Millward says homework usually keeps her up past midnight, and she can hardly remember when she last read for fun. Muzi.com News 10024251-4 (muzi.com) "The colleges want to see kids who aren't just cogs in a wheel, but nobody has time to be anything else but a cog," says her frustrated mother, Cathy Millward. "I'm not really happy with the whole game." Muzi.com News 10024251-5 (muzi.com) The increasingly feverish pressure for slots in selective colleges has attracted widespread attention lately -- and several attempts to relieve it. Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia recently dropped their early admissions rounds. A national admissions group voted earlier this month to prohibit the growing practice of admitting some students even before the start of their senior year. Muzi.com News 10024251-6 (muzi.com) The attention focuses mainly on places such as New York, New England and California, and scattered pockets elsewhere -- Chicago, Houston -- which have long traditions of sending students to competitive private colleges. In those areas, Ivy League bumper stickers are coveted, and a child at a big-name school is especially valuable social currency. Students are more likely to take SAT prep courses, apply early, and apply to many schools -- and also to be literally losing sleep over the process. Muzi.com News 10024251-7 (muzi.com) But these days, regions that had been relatively sheltered from such pressure, such as the Sun Belt and Midwest, are seeing more and more of it. Muzi.com News 10024251-8 (muzi.com) "The Northeast and California and the mid-Atlantic are certainly the areas with the highest anxiety and hype," says Bill Dingledine, an educational consultant in Greenville, S.C. "It's not quite like that here. But it's moving in that direction." Muzi.com News 10024251-9 (muzi.com) Some blame the media for fueling admissions anxiety, but they point to other factors, too. Families who move from the hot spots may bring their high-intensity outlook with them. And there really is more competition because of population and economic growth. Many colleges in North Carolina are becoming significantly more selective, for example. Muzi.com News 10024251-10 (muzi.com) It's a trend measured in both anecdotes and some telling statistics. Muzi.com News 10024251-11 (muzi.com) • In states below the Mason-Dixon line, enrollment in Kaplan SAT/ACT prep classes has grown at more than seven times the company's overall national growth rate over the last five years. Muzi.com News 10024251-12 (muzi.com) "I've got to do what I've got to do," says Lauren Grochocki, a senior at Rockwall High School outside Dallas, who took an SAT prep course last year and an ACT one this summer. Muzi.com News 10024251-13 (muzi.com) "It's a little stressful, but if I can get a 29, it'll be so much better in the long run," she said of a score that would put her in the 95th percentile nationally. Muzi.com News 10024251-14 (muzi.com) • In North Carolina, the number of AP exams taken has increased from about 28,000 in 1998 to more than 70,000 in 2005. In Texas it has increased from 74,000 to more than 200,000. Students such as Millward say coursework demands are taking a toll. She's dropped out of the anime club and Venturing, and decided not to try out for soccer, just to keep up with work. Muzi.com News 10024251-15 (muzi.com) • The number of private college counselors, often seen as a symptom of anxiety, is rising. Five years ago, a national organization of private college advisers had just one qualified member in Minnesota; today it has 11. Kentucky has gone from none to three, Virginia two to 13. Muzi.com News 10024251-16 (muzi.com) Bev Taylor's New York counseling service, The Ivy Coach, charges up to $21,000 for college advising and flies personal SAT tutors around the country. She says most of her students now come from outside New York, from places like Florida, Omaha, Neb., and Minneapolis. Muzi.com News 10024251-17 (muzi.com) College admissions officers say they can still usually tell where they are in the country simply from the questions they get. Tom Parker, Amherst College's dean of admissions, says in the hot spots he's usually asked about strategizing, while students elsewhere "are more interested in 'What's the difference between Amherst and Dartmouth?'" Muzi.com News 10024251-18 (muzi.com) But Parker notices the "hot spots" are moving into northern New England and the South, often as families migrate for work. He compares it to a spreading virus. Muzi.com News 10024251-19 (muzi.com) Terry Giffen, director of college counseling at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, says the competitiveness there is still noticeably lower than at Choate Rosemary Hall, the Connecticut prep school where he spent 11 years. Muzi.com News 10024251-20 (muzi.com) "Some parents will say to me, 'I'm sorry I'm kind of a nudge,'" he said. "I'll say, 'You're not on my radar screen compared to (parents in) New England.'" But recently, a parent asked him to recommend a company to prepare her son for the PSAT, a practice test that generally isn't even used in college admissions. Muzi.com News 10024251-21 (muzi.com) Historically, the Northeast emerged as a hot spot partly because the more competitive private colleges are clustered there. Many good students in the South and Midwest have been steered to flagship public universities, where a good academic record was once enough to get in. Muzi.com News 10024251-22 (muzi.com) That's no longer necessarily true. Last year, the University of Florida turned down more than 1,300 applicants with high school GPAs over 4.0, for a freshman class of about 7,200. UNC-Chapel Hill turns away nearly two-thirds of applicants. Muzi.com News 10024251-23 (muzi.com) Less certain where they'll get in, students worry and apply to more schools. Muzi.com News 10024251-24 (muzi.com) "Fifteen years ago it was much easier," says Kathy Cleaver, head of college counseling at Durham Academy, where some students apply to as many as 15 schools. "It was a buyer's market. You had a pretty good sense of who would or would not get in somewhere. Today, it's more unpredictable." Muzi.com News 10024251-25 (muzi.com) "That puts panic in people," she said. And that uncertainty sends more scrambling to SAT prep classes. Muzi.com News 10024251-26 (muzi.com) "I've given up saying you shouldn't do it," she said, "because our kids are out competing against kids all around the country who are doing it." Muzi.com News 10024251-27 (muzi.com) In Texas, a law guaranteeing students in the top 10 percent of their high school class admission to any public university has made it significantly harder for suburban students outside the top 10 percent to gain entrance to the University of Texas' flagship Austin campus. Merit aid policies have significantly raised the bar at the University of Georgia, making it far harder for many students to get in than in their parents' day. Muzi.com News 10024251-28 (muzi.com) Many Georgia legacies at Savannah Country Day School "love Athens, they love the football of course, they love the size of the school," says director of college counseling Mary Beth Fry. But now "a family that has hoped for a generation that the ensuing generations would go to Georgia can't necessarily count on that." Muzi.com News 10024251-29 (muzi.com) Some say universities' aggressive recruiting is partly to blame for the admissions frenzy. Muzi.com News 10024251-30 (muzi.com) "Universities have been very effective at going out and shaking the trees around the country," said Steve Goodman, a veteran private college adviser. "When the University of Pennsylvania or Georgetown goes to your city and has a dog-and-pony show, that does rustle up interest among the sophisticated students." The message, he said, is "we're great, but we're also really hard to get into," which feeds anxiety. Muzi.com News 10024251-31 (muzi.com) It's not that recruiting is inherently bad, Goodman and others acknowledge; it expands horizons and increases the odds of a good match. Last year, Savannah Country Day students chose a number of small schools far off the area's usual radar screen: Pomona in California and Carleton and St. Olaf in Minnesota. Muzi.com News 10024251-32 (muzi.com) The test-prep companies -- also often criticized -- say their expanding presence is helping students, not hurting. Muzi.com News 10024251-33 (muzi.com) "I like to think we're a solution for these kids," said John Polstein, CEO of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. "We spend a lot of time in our programs trying to demystify the (SAT and ACT) exam, trying to reduce the pressure." Muzi.com News 10024251-34 (muzi.com) Several counselors who have moved from hotspots like Los Angeles and the Northeast say they found lower anxiety levels in the South. They want to keep it that way -- but they also want to shake away some of the complacency they found, too. Muzi.com News 10024251-35 (muzi.com) Family loyalties to local schools "inadvertently put blinders on students who don't necessarily realize how much else is out there," said Scott Anderson, who recently moved from a Pennsylvania prep school to St. George's, an independent school with several campuses around Memphis. Giffen, the former Choate counselor now in Nashville, sees the trend with athletes. Muzi.com News 10024251-36 (muzi.com) "They say, 'I'm done. Now I want to go to Tennessee and watch great football,' rather than go to Amherst and play football." Muzi.com News 10024251-37 (muzi.com) At the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential public magnet academy, the students are among the best in the state. There is competition, but the students insist it is still pretty friendly. Muzi.com News 10024251-38 (muzi.com) "We don't get that here," said Morgan Kearse, an aspiring biologist with at least three Ivy League schools on her wish list. Muzi.com News 10024251-39 (muzi.com)
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