While school officials believe the district is still within the norm when it comes to the number of applications WW-P students submit to colleges that pass first through the guidance departments, the number is increasing, and officials are thinking about introducing students and parents to the process earlier — to help stay on top of the game.
This idea was among the goals described by Nancy Icenhower, the director of guidance for the district, during her college admissions update to the WW-P school board on February 10.
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of student applications. At the same time, schools around the nation, in general, have been decreasing acceptance rates and increasing their selectivity. Despite this, Icenhower says she believes “we’re almost at the height” of the college-application bubble.
As the number of applications has increased, guidance officials are handling it well, and at least for students at WW-P schools, their own acceptance rates have not seen a drop, Icenhower says.
The district has also seen a dramatic increase in the use of the Internet as part of the college process, and the number of standardized tests taken has also increased — but not so much with regard to the SATs. “We’re trying to communicate to parents that it (the SATS) is really dropping in priority,” Icenhower says. Colleges “find that AP scores and subject tests really are better indicators” with respect to a student’s readiness for college. As a result, the number of AP exams taken has risen — from 1,”265 in 2006 to 1,”460 in 2008.
While it is not likely the SAT’s importance will go away entirely, students have been moving toward taking other standardized tests, like the ACT. “In West Windsor-Plainsboro, they’ve doubled,” said Icenhower. “To respond to that, we’ve applied to be a test center for the ACT.”
And while applications per student have risen, she said she feels the district is well within the average, although there are the occasional extreme cases. For example, one family from High School North submitted a total of 105 applications between two children.
“We’re really in the ballpark of what is recommended, and I think that all comes from the entire process of starting in ninth grade,” she said. The process helps students to make good decisions, and they will not have to file 20 applications by the time the process is over, she said. And even in doing so, WW-P students remain competitive while expanding their choices, Icenhower said.
With regard to the Ivy League schools, students at WW-P were accepted at higher rates than the national average in all cases, except for the U Penn.
For example, at Columbia, which accepts on average only 10 percent of its applicants, 24.4 percent of WW-P students who applied from high schools North and South were accepted. At Cornell, which accepts 20 percent of its applicants, 33.3 percent of WW-P students were accepted.
At other popular colleges, the same held true. At New York University, where 36.7 percent of its applicants were accepted, 40 percent of WW-P students were accepted, and at MIT, 33 percent of WW-P students were accepted, compared with the school’s average acceptance rate of 12 percent.
The only two colleges on that list which showed the contrary were the University of Michigan (where 24 percent of WW-P students were accepted, compared with the school’s acceptance rate of 50 percent) and the University of North Carolina (where 14.2 percent of WW-P students were accepted compared with the college’s 48 percent acceptance rate). At these schools, state legislation limits the number of out-of-state students accepted, and Icenhower said she has been working to explain this to parents.
“I don’t want to just focus on Ivy Leagues because all of us in the guidance department feel that wherever the students go, if it meets their needs, that is the right fit for them,” she said. “However, knowing that this is important to many of our taxpayers, and to many of our parents, I think it’s important to at least know that we do remain above the curve for the most part.”
Icenhower said an important thing for guidance department officials to do is continue to foster positive relationships, keep up-to-date on trends, and get opportunities to go to the workshops, breakfasts, and information sessions offered by colleges in which the students are interested.
“Those connections are really what allows us to make a difference for the kids and bring the professionals to our schools,” she said. “We want to broaden our focus, and I think we have been.”
So far, these efforts have been successful in that the number of different schools to which students apply has risen. Also, four years ago, the department started a “sophomore night,” where more schools have been brought in. The schools included not just Ivy Leagues and not just those in New Jersey, but various colleges from around the nation, she said. “Hopefully, it is contributing to the kids and parents accepting that there are many wonderful schools other than the same 12.”
She also discussed the online portal that allows parents and students to get a handle on the college application process. She said the district is looking for 100 percent participation, and that officials have taken the steps to give access to ninth graders and their parents.
