Arlington, Va.—Samuel Beckett told us that “words are all we have”—a strong statement about the power of language. The words we choose matter, which is why politicians and bureaucrats so often choose vague or empty ones.

The admissions world has its own language, full of poetic terms, such as “demonstrated interest,” “need-based aid,” and “holistic review.” Don’t forget the beauty of “binding early decision” and “single-choice early action.” But how do the words admissions officers and college counselors use affect the admissions process? What can they do to reform the ills of admissionsese?

On Monday afternoon, I listened to an intriguing discussion of these questions here at the joint conference of the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling and the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling. The consensus: some words in the “admissions …

Read More

Arlington, Va. — Ken Kesey once gave us this thought: “To hell with facts! We need stories!”

He wasn’t talking about college admissions, but his message applies. When I go on campus tours, I often marvel at all the facts that flow from the mouths of student tour guides—names, numbers, statistics, and obligatory tallies of the library’s books. The personal stories I hear from students are often more memorable than all of that data, however. In other words, a good story can help those facts go down easier.

On Monday morning, I spoke on a panel here at a joint conference of the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling and the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling. I was joined by two admissions officers who’ve thought a lot about the importance of storytelling during the admissions process. Our message: Telling good stories can help…

Read More

Ohio State University at Columbus and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville will start using the Common Application this August, the organization has announced. The two state flagships are among 37 new members, raising the total to 490.

The Common Application’s membership, once dominated by private colleges, continues to grow more diverse. New members include nine public institutions, five overseas colleges, and two historically black colleges. The full list is here.

A former admissions chief who falsified admissions statistics at Claremont McKenna College felt pressure to “maintain or increase” the SAT scores of freshman classes, but that pressure “did not exceed the norm” for senior-level administrators, according to findings of an external investigation released on Tuesday.

Richard C. Vos, the official who manipulated the data, acted alone, and none of the college’s other leaders knew of his actions, the report says. A disagreement over “admission priorities,” the report’s authors conclude, may explain his motivation for altering the numbers he presented to the college and the public. Mr. Vos could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

In late January, Mr. Vos, then the vice president and dean of admission and financial aid, resigned after admitting that he had reported inaccurate SAT statistics for each freshman class going back to 2005….

Read More

Easton, Pa. — Demand for higher education is up, but so, too, are college costs. The returns on investing in a bachelor’s degree have grown, yet net prices, for many families, have increased relative to their incomes. Put another way, it’s both an exciting and nerve-racking time to lead a postsecondary institution, especially a residential liberal-arts college with a big price tag.

On Tuesday morning, Catharine Bond Hill, president of Vassar College, shared her view of the economic challenges that face public and private colleges, and the students they serve, during an era of dwindling financial support from states. “Whether we like it or not, families are going to have to bear more of the costs of higher education,” she said. “We have now entered a second-best world, and I think we’re going to be there quite a while.”

Ms. Hill spoke here on the second day of a conference…

Read More

Easton, Pa.—On Monday morning, a group of accepted applicants heard Daniel H. Weiss, president of Lafayette College, describe the virtues of residential liberal-arts institutions. He spoke of his college’s commitment to teaching, of its power to prepare students for both work and life.

Hours later, in the same auditorium, dozens of college presidents and provosts heard Mr. Weiss deliver a sobering talk about the challenges facing institutions like Lafayette. “We are surrounded by changes whether we embrace them or not,” he said. “The market is happening to us.”

Mr. Weiss’s remarks came during a wide-ranging speech that opened a three-day conference—called “The Future of the Liberal Arts College in America and Its Leadership Role in Education Around the World”—sponsored by Lafayette and Swarthmore Colleges. The conference, which has attracted institutional…

Read More

A savvy enrollment manager once told me that a crucial part of his job was getting his college’s name in newspapers and magazines. After all, he said, the more people see an institution’s name, the more familiar it becomes, and the more attractive it seems to prospective students.

He was describing “buzz,” something most colleges crave. In case you didn’t know, the Global Language Monitor will measure it for you.

A media analytics company based in Austin, Global Language Monitor tracks the frequency of words and phrases on the Internet. The company’s “TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings,” according to a news release, “measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity,’ using the same techniques used to measure the appeal of any other branded product, such as luxury automobiles, or consumer electronics.”

So if your alma mater’s name appears in a news…

Read More

High-school students will soon have to upload photos of themselves when they register for ACT and SAT exams. The image will be printed on each test taker’s admissions ticket, which will then be checked against the photo IDs they present at testing centers.

The new policy is just one of several “test security” enhancements that ACT Inc. and the College Board announced on Tuesday. The changes arose from last year’s cheating scandal in Nassau County, N.Y., where more than 50 students were found to have either impersonated someone else and taken the ACT or SAT for that person, or paid another student to take the test for them. An investigation of the cheating led by Nassau County’s district attorney, Kathleen M. Rice, led to the arrest of 20 teenagers.

“These reforms close a gaping hole in standardized-test security that allowed students to cheat and steal admissions offers and…

Read More

The College Board is best known for a standardized test that promises to quantify college applicants’ potential. Last week, the organization introduced a Web site that’s long on the qualitative elements that also define the college-search process, so often reduced to numbers—grades, test scores, and rankings.

The Web site, called Big Future, was designed with this fact in mind: Some applicants know a lot about applying to college and some applicants know little. The site includes a college-search function, information about majors and scholarships, and an “action plan” that guides students through the many phases of the admissions journey. Under the “Get Started” menu, the first button is “Know Yourself,” which links to big-picture advice.

Big Future’s certainly not the first Web site of its kind, but it’s heavier on counseling content than others. Heavy enough? You can check…

Read More

You know what the oh-so-earnest world of admissions marketing needs? More rhymes!

Like these: “This is 20 percent clusters/limitless core/dedicated to campus sports/and clubs galore/80 percent research/global acclaim/100 percent reason/you remember our name!”

The lyrics above come from a new music video created by the University of Rochester’s admissions office. This original rap song, “Remember oUR Name,” delivers the usual facts and figures, along with pop culture references and plenty of cheekiness. You may love it, you may hate it, but either way you’ve got to hand it to the Midnight Ramblers, an all-male a cappella group at Rochester, for their straight-faced deliveries.

Although I’m not sure that Flavor Flav would approve, there are several memorably ridiculous lines in this song. This couplet is my favorite: “Surrounded by a river/got Docs across the walk/our backyard’s…

Read More