Hope those of you on vacation this week are enjoying yourselves and staying safe! It’s hard to keep all the different spring breaks straight - I know most independent schools are back at school already, the public schools are out, and the Catholic schools are still in session for a few more days!
BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK
UNIV. OF FLORIDA LAUNCHES NEW EARLY ACTION PLAN
University of Florida just announced that students who submit early action applications by November 1, 2024 will be notified of admission status by January 24, 2025. Unlike early decision, these students will have the advantage of getting an early response without having to make a commitment until the regular decision deadline on March 14. UF officials stated that their goal in this strategy is to “attract more of the nation’s very best students,” “reduce stress” and give families “more time to prepare.”
CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS MOVE TO END LEGACY AND DONOR ADMISSIONS
California is considering a bill that would prohibit colleges and universities from receiving state financial aid through the Cal Grant program if they give preferential treatment in admissions to legacy and donor family member applicants. USC, Stanford and Santa Clara are the largest providers of legacy and donor preferences in California. In 2022, 13-14% of their admitted classes were legacies and donors. The UC system, Pomona, and the Cal State system, on the other hand, do not give any preference to legacy and donor applicants.
At USC, 2,972 students received $26.6 million in Cal Grant financial aid in 2021-22. At Santa Clara, 507 students received almost $4.6 million that year. Stanford received $3.2 million in Cal Grant funds in 2022-23. Opponents of the bill have argued that disqualifying these schools from the Cal Grant program could deprive low-income students of needed financial aid. In response, Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced the bill, said that schools continuing legacy and donor admissions “have plenty of money” and can “offer those students scholarships.”
ALABAMA LAW BANS STATE FUNDING FOR DEI AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
Alabama is the next state to prohibit the use of state funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs at its public universities and schools. The new law, which goes into effect on October 1, additionally bars students, employees and contractors from being required to attend mandatory DEI “training, orientation or course work that advocates or requires assent to a divisive concept.” However, it does not prohibit students and staff from hosting DEI programs, so long as no state funds are used. The law also requires bathrooms in public universities to “designate restrooms on the basis of biological sex.” Just as we have seen in Florida in the recent weeks, we can expect to hear about the closures of all the DEI programs in state universities and schools across the state of Alabama in the coming months.
MARCH MADNESS CONTINUES
The men’s Sweet 16 begins on Thursday and all four #1 seeds are still in the running! There have been some fun highlights, including JMU beating Wisconsin and Yale beating Auburn - although the absolute best part for me was seeing the University of Idaho band stepping in for the Yale band when the Yale band couldn’t make it to the game. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t enough to get them a win against San Diego State. And on the women’s side, it seemed like the entire country was holding their breath when West Virginia briefly tied Iowa last night, but Caitlin Clark came through and led the Hawkeyes to victory. She also set (another) record last night for scoring the most points in a single season.
BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
I came across an insightful article in The Atlantic last week, reflecting on the rise of computer science in academia, its role in our society as a whole, and whether or not these phenomena are better or worse for us as human beings. The author stated that a whopping 18 percent of Stanford seniors graduated with degrees in computer science last year, more than double from what it was a decade ago. This trend is widespread. The number of CS majors in the U.S. and Canada TRIPLED in a span of just ten years from 2005 – 2015 and has been growing ever since.
The very nature of computer science as an academic field is changing. The author put it well when he said, “culture moves through computation these days.” As the younger generations seek to gain professional advantage in our technological society through CS degrees, universities are faced with the question of whether CS is its own academic field or not. Some universities have said yes, with MIT, Cornell and UC Berkeley each creating a “College of Computing” in recent years. Usually, universities house CS majors either in their electrical engineering program under a school of engineering, or in a school of liberal arts under mathematics.
But SHOULD computing be elevated to a status of “college”? In the hierarchy of academia, is CS a higher-order domain of knowledge? Is it a super-field that lords over others, or a sub-field to serve others? Waxing philosophical, the article poignantly states, “This is, by no happenstance, also the basic question about computing in our society writ large.” Our author makes the case for wisdom, drawing a distinction between what can be done vs. what should be done. The fast-moving computing industry is exciting, but it is also reckless.
We might be better off if ambitions were held back, even just a little, to “slow down bad ideas” when they arise, and to operate “with a deep understanding or respect of law, policy, justice, health, or cohesion.” The centralization of computing runs the risk of empowering a generation of professionals who are disengaged from consequences. Computer scientists can forget that computers are tools to help people – as a means of self-expression or achieving justice, for example – and not just a way of making new software or money. The author leaves us to ponder: Are computers a means to an end, to a greater good, or are they an end in themselves? Before doing something, should you pause and consider if it is worth doing? What do you think?
This was a fun one from The Atlantic: “Don’t Tell America the Babysitter’s Dead.” Despite its humorous title, the article brings up some serious subjects that are very relevant in raising the modern teen. A generation ago, babysitting was a step toward adulthood – a first job and a rite of passage. It gave teens an opportunity to make pocket money and to practice responsibility. It was the symbol of American girlhood, and “a reflection of the cultural emphasis on hard work, discipline, and financial independence.”
It seems that the teen babysitter, as we knew her, has all but disappeared. This is a result of both how adults perceive teens and how they are being raised. Our society no longer trusts teens, believing them to be children in need of babysitting, rather than the ones doing the babysitting. Kids are often seen as fragile and in need of constant oversight. “Intensive parenting” has been adopted as an ideal across classes. Parents prefer their younger children to participate in scheduled adult-led activities, rather than be at home with a teen babysitter, and Model UN, SAT prep and internships have filled our would-be babysitters’ every waking hour. Remember the Baby-Sitters’ Club? The recent Netflix re-boot was a total bomb, simply because the experience of babysitting isn’t relatable to teens anymore.
The article stated that Americans tend to trust people less these days. Forget asking the high-schooler on your block to babysit, because chances are you’ve never even met your neighbors down the block. It takes a village to raise a child, but there is no village. Parents are turning to professionalized child care, or at least older, more experienced caregivers, leaving teens with fewer opportunities for responsibility.
That said, caregiving IS serious work that requires skill and maturity. So where does that leave our teens? They need opportunities for growth. First jobs are extremely formative and empowering; they give teens a sense of pride in their work and earning ability. The article urges us to strike a balance. A woman at Oregon State University’s community partnership program has started a program that trains teens in caregiving and then connects them with families. We need to build our villages; meet our neighbors, trust one another more, and show more faith in our teens – they can be capable of a quite a bit!
New York Magazine published an article last week highlighting the challenges of this year’s college admissions cycle. We’ve seen so many of these this year! Last week, I wrote about how FAFSA delays and other issues have impacted college admissions. This article comes with a slightly different angle, offering some additional thoughts from the admissions officer’s point of view.
College admissions offices have seen an enormous increase in the number of college applications submitted in recent years. At Duke, the number of applications has quadrupled over the last 30 years, and is up 37 percent in the past five years. Since 2000, the number of applications to the 67 most selective colleges in the nation (including Duke), has tripled to nearly 2 million a year. This has created a stressful work load for admissions offices.
One Duke admissions officer described his method of sorting through applications and deciding – in 15 minutes – which ones will go on to the next round. He scans the overview page that shows high school attended, GPA, tests scores (if any), intended major and gender. Then he moves on to the full transcript, recommendations, essays and extracurriculars, in that order. “It all floats in the air above me…[A]s I read the application from beginning to end, it coalesces into an image of the child,” he said. Two-thirds to three-fourths of all applications are eliminated during this initial pass.
Applicants focus on showing what they have accomplished in the past, but the admissions officer’s job is to make a judgment call on their future potential, what they will do in the next four years. From the applicant’s point of view, the goal is to be accepted. But from the admissions officer’s point of view, the ultimate goal is to meet their diversity, enrollment and revenue numbers. In addition to deciding who to admit, they must strategize on how to “lock students in” and maintain “yield” – that is, the percentage of students who actually enroll.
NY Magazine said that this year “is already shaping up as the craziest ever.” But that’s what we’re here for! We’re so proud of how our students have navigated this season, and we have continued to enjoy hearing the good news as acceptances have rolled in!
OFFICE HAPPENINGS
We’re thrilled that so many of our students have been taking time over spring break to squeeze in sessions with our essay coaches, Staci, McClain, Joseph and Stephanie! It takes so much pressure off when this HUGE milestone is done!
In other news, the March SAT scores are in, and Libby has been reaching out to our juniors to remind them to submit official copies (screen shots are fine) to our office! If you are a client and took the March SAT, you can submit the score report using our multi-purpose submission form and navigating to DCCC Forms and Information -> Test Scores, Report Cards, or Transcripts.