My New Year’s wishes for college admissions are increased transparency and simplified applications.
I would like to see increased transparency in both acceptance rates and financial aid. For example:
- Colleges should provide readily available per cent acceptance data including:
- In-state vs. out-of-state applicants applicant acceptance rates at public universities
- Acceptance rates by college within a university or by major, when the acceptance rates are not uniform.
- Better visibility of net cost before application and after acceptance:
- Families should be able to get a good cost estimate of what they will pay before a student applies. Only a few schools like the College of Wooster and Whitman provide this. The Net Price Calculator is not good enough.
- The financial aid letters from different colleges should be uniform so families can easily compare the out-of-pocket costs of these colleges.
I’d like to see the application process simplified. For example, I wish there were only one form for self-reported grades across colleges. I have had students who had to fill out three different forms to self-report grades: the SRAR, the Common App Grades section, and the section of University of California application. Each of these forms is tricky and prone to error.
