College access, admissions, inequality in education. Senior writer
@chronicle
. Believer in baseball, underdogs, long narratives. eric.hoover
@chronicle
.com
Radio producer asked me to talk about “elite colleges, the very best colleges.”
And I said, “Ah, you mean innovative and supportive community colleges?”
Awkwardness ensued.
The real admissions scandal: So many students don’t get the help they need to figure out how to apply, where to apply, what they can afford, and how to make sense of their future options.
First-gen student: “I didn’t have the luxury of saying I could be happy at any college on my list. I could only be happy at a college I could afford, which was kind of a shorter list.”
Per the
@chronicle
’s updated style guide: Reporters are encouraged to think twice before using the term “elite colleges,” and to ask ourselves instead if we mean to emphasize their wealth or selectivity. I applaud the scrutiny of this lame, catch-all term.
It's sad that the got-rejected-by-a-super-selective college is held up as some sort of tragic narrative in a country where many students don't have an affordable 2nd-, 3rd-, or 9th-choice option available to them.
What if every major news outlet made a vow that for each story they publish about students at wealthy private colleges and flagship universities, they would publish a story about students at community colleges, technical colleges, and regional publics?
Each time I hear from a frustrated HS counselor/college adviser whose students are hung up by the
#FAFSA
, I can’t help but think about all the teenagers who DON’T have a HS counselor/college adviser to help them.
Thing I’m tired of hearing: “If a student can’t figure out how to [complete some complex part of the admissions and financial-aid process], how are they going to be ready for college?”
College counselor: "First-gen students are so used to solving problems on their own, they often forget there might be somebody who could help them navigate the admissions process. Sometimes they don’t know the questions to even ask."
Lawsuit challenging Yale’s admissions practices excludes “favored” Southeast Asian subgroups from its definition of Asian Americans, as
@spamfriedrice
notes.
After covering higher ed for 20+ years, I’m more blown away than ever by the divide between folks in the field who are truly committed to students and folks who are in this for … prestigerywealthstatusnonsense.
You don't have to send test scores, but if you want to, we would totally welcome them oh so much. But you don't have to. Up to you. Go ahead and send them if you want. Or not. No pressure at all. Totally up to you.
Also, the
@chronicle
now discourages the use of “needy students,” a phrase many folks find demeaning. Reporters are encouraged to ask poor/low-income/working-class students how they describe themselves. Words matter, and I’m proud to work at a place that thinks hard about them.
That's right, soon all the HS students who don't have enough to eat, who don't have a stable home, and who don't have anyone to help them apply to college will take a digital exam instead of a paper exam.
Rising college freshman: "If I'm honest, my college choice had a lot more to do with the quality of the ice cream on campus than it probably should have."
Admissions dean: 'A third of the colleges saying they're test-optional for one year are gonna be test-optional forever. They just haven't announced it yet.'
UNC-Chapel Hill will cover tuition + fees for in-state students whose families make less than $80K/year.
It has also hired “outreach officers” to recruit in under-resourced communities throughout NC.
.
@NACAC
just threw down in a way I haven’t ever seen, calling out ACT and College Board, talking up equity in testing. I talked w its president abt why:
College counselor: “A college that requires its financial-aid staff to complete the entire aid application process themselves each year is, for sure, going to be a more empathetic college than it would be otherwise.”
In my experience, the students who tend to sound the most impressed with themselves have overcome far less than the students who tend not to sound that way at all.
First-gen college applicant: “Hearing a campus tour guide say ‘Back when your parents were in college...’ is kind of weird when your parents didn’t go to college.”
Once again I’m sitting in admissions conference hearing lots of great ideas abt what colleges could/should do to improve socioeconomic diversity, but not hearing much abt what college are willing to give up to actually do it.
The best part of my job is talking with students, the true experts in this whole deal, who often amaze me with their candor, courage, and resolve — and their many insights into this mess we call higher education.
Just a reminder that the 2021-22 admissions process isn’t over for everyone. Just spoke w 2 low-income students who are still trying to find an affordable option despite many barriers. Their stories matter, too.
3 emails so far this morning from financial-aid officers who insist that students parsing financial-aid offers “should be able to do simple math” and “figure out how to get to the bottom line themselves.”
College counselor on switching jobs: “I couldn’t keep working at a school where a kid not getting into Penn and ending up at Johns Hopkins or Penn State or wherever was seen as this lamentable outcome. It was aging me prematurely.”
Thanks
@EdWriters
! And thank you to the many brave people, especially
@nhialgdeng
, who allowed me to tell these true stories about marginalized people trying to get to college.
HS counselor: "I don't actually care who's in charge of the FAFSA this month or next year. What I care about is when is it going to finally work for all of my kids?"
While reporting my next feature, I've been amazed by how many admins, faculty, and staff can vividly recall an informal mentor in college saving them from doubt + despair, from giving up + dropping out, decades ago.
Colleges that want to promote character among applicants are going to ask themselves what their admission and aid practices reveal about the character of their own institutions, right?
HS senior who still can’t complete the FAFSA just told me: “If a different population of students — students who don’t look like me — were having this much of a problem just trying to get to college, you can bet there would be parents protesting outside Congress.”
College president: “Many people ... do not realize how unselective many colleges are.”
And some of those people are editors at newspapers and magazines.
I interviewed 23 admissions and enrollment officials about their work.
Adjectives they shared most often:
1- Stressful
2- Lonely
3- Unreasonable
4- Intense
9- Cray-cray
Today’s a big Chroniversary for me. I’m grateful for the many fine reporters and editors here who’ve made this quirky place a good home for nerd-writers.