Admission Secrets Colleges Don't Want You to Know

Summary

The video discusses strategies colleges may use to improve rankings and admissions rates, including guaranteed transfer programs, large waitlists, and emphasizing transfer student programs. It also mentions using test scores as a proxy for family wealth. The speaker aims to make students aware of these potential college admissions 'games' when applying.

Takeaways

• 😊 大学录取程序就像一个游戏,大学也在竞争申请
• 😮 通过保证转学计划来增加排名和申请率
• 🤔 通过大量的候补名单录取来提高录取率
• 😃 转学计划为非主流学生创造了机会
• 😕 通过转学计划来提高排名
• 🧐 通过测试分数来判断家庭财富
• 😢 测试分数有时候被用来作为财富的代理
• 😠 一些学校利用候补名单来增加收入
• 😥 一些学校利用不合理的方法来提高排名
• 🙂 了解这些内幕可以帮助学生更好地应对过程

Q & A

What are some strategies colleges use related to admission rates and rankings?

The video discusses guaranteed transfer programs, large waitlists, and expanded transfer programs as ways colleges try to manage admission rates and rankings.

How do guaranteed transfer programs allow colleges to improve statistics?

By deferring some admitted students, colleges don't have to count them in the initial freshman admission rate statistics.

What is the dual purpose of expanded transfer programs?

They provide opportunities for non-traditional students but also allow padding of admission rate statistics.

How can large waitlists help colleges?

Students who are admitted from waitlists are more likely to attend, helping a college's yield rate statistic.

What is an example of using test scores to identify wealthier applicants?

Applicants with higher test scores but lower GPAs may come from more affluent backgrounds.

Why do colleges care about rankings and admission statistics?

Higher rankings attract more applicants and top faculty, impacting a college's resources and reputation.

What disclaimer does the video provide about its analysis?

The analysis is based on observations, not interviews, and other motivations may also be factors.

What resources does the presenter offer for test prep?

Online courses, books, mailing list, and social media pages related to SAT and ACT prep.

What does the presenter encourage viewers to do?

Share their own experiences with college admissions tricks and tactics.

Who is the target audience for this video?

Students in the college application process and their parents.

Outlines

00:00

📚 大学录取过程的秘密

本视频由Brooke主讲，她拥有超过十年的SAT和ACT备考指导经验，并分享了一些大学录取办公室可能不希望你知道的关于录取过程的秘密。她解释了大学录取过程像一场游戏，不仅是学生试图加入系统，大学也在争取更高的排名和声誉。大学排名，如US News和Forbes发布的，对大学的申请量、声誉、吸引师资力量及其生存发展能力有重大影响。Brooke还提到了她通过SuperTutorTV.com提供的在线课程，以及专门为ACT数学部分准备的书籍，旨在帮助学生充分准备考试。

05:02

🎓 录取策略及其背后的逻辑

Brooke讨论了大学使用的一些录取策略，如保证转学计划、大量等候名单录取和大规模转学项目，这些策略有助于大学在保持或提高排名的同时，管理录取率和新生班级的统计数据。例如，通过保证转学计划，大学可以在不影响新生录取率的情况下接纳学生。等候名单的使用可以提高学生接受录取邀请的可能性，从而提高大学的录取收益率。大规模的转学计划可以为非传统学生提供机会，同时帮助大学维持对新生录取的严格控制。此外，她还提到了大学如何使用标准化考试成绩作为财富的代理指标，通过选择高分低GPA的学生来确保有足够的学生能够支付学费，这是为了保持财政稳定。

10:02

🤔 大学游戏规则的影响

在这一部分，Brooke分享了关于大学录取过程可能存在的一些不那么光彩的策略，强调了大学为了维持或提高排名、确保财务稳定而采取的各种措施可能对学生产生的影响。她指出，尽管这些策略可能有助于大学在竞争激烈的高等教育市场中保持竞争力，但它们也可能对学生造成不公平的影响，特别是那些期望能够直接被录取为新生的学生。最后，Brooke鼓励观众分享他们可能遇到的任何类似经验，并提供了她的网络平台和书籍资源，以帮助学生更好地准备大学申请过程。

Keywords

💡college admissions process

The college admissions process refers to the procedures and policies that colleges and universities use to select which students to admit. This is a central theme of the video, as the host shares insider perspectives on how admissions offices make strategic decisions to meet enrollment targets and rankings goals. For example, guaranteed transfer programs allow colleges to pad their freshman admission statistics.

💡guaranteed transfer programs

Guaranteed transfer programs allow students who were not initially admitted as freshmen to be guaranteed admission in the future after completing coursework at another institution. The video explains how these programs benefit colleges by allowing them to protect and inflate admission rates and rankings.

Highlights

大学录取过程像是一个游戏,学校需要通过各种策略来提高自己的排名和声誉。

有保证转学计划可以帮助学校填满课堂,同时不会立即影响他们的录取数据。

使用考试成绩来判断家庭财富状况,以确保学校的财政收入。

Transcripts

how do you just finished applying to

college are you applying to college soon

and wondering more about the college

admissions process if so in this video

I'm going to share with you some secrets

that college admissions offices may not

want you to know about the admissions

process now college admissions like it

or not is something of a game right it's

not only a game for the students who are

trying to game the system and get into

it but it's also a game for the colleges

because colleges have to compete for

business ie applications in the

marketplace there are rankings that come

out and publications like US News and

World Report is the most famous Forbes

there are other lists the world's top

100 colleges there are these other lists

that are out there that ranked schools

and these rankings really impact how

many applicants a college gets how much

prestige that college has its ability to

attract the faculty and just overall its

ability to thrive and survive as a

university if that ranking drops or if

it rises that really can affect a

school's overall kind of situation so if

colleges need to protect that ranking

and in order to do so they sometimes

create particular strategies and I'm

going to talk about some of what I think

those strategies are today if you're

wondering who I am my name's Brooke I've

been coaching SAT and a CT prep for over

a decade and a half

I've squirted perfectly on both these

names as an adult more importantly I've

coached people to perfect scores and you

can find out all my secrets of test prep

in our online courses at super tutor

tv.com the best a CT prep course ever

the best SAT prep course ever you can

check those out we also have two books

for the ACC math section the best a CT

math books ever so if you're looking for

some math help they are the most

comprehensive books I know of on the

market that cover a CT math is really

going to totally crush that test that

could be your ticket so definitely go

check those out if you're leaving for

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to connect with us cool okay let's talk

College Admissions

so the first caveat that I'm going to

say is that I have not necessarily

interviewed actual colleges for why they

do what they do but I see a correlation

between these kind of behaviors and some

surprising behaviors that have arisen as

I've been working with students through

this college process that I've come to

know of through the personal experiences

and my students and it seems to me that

some of the motive is is colleges trying

to play the game that does not mean that

that is what motivated completely every

college to do all of these things I am

just saying what I see and then what the

outcome is but I also think if it caught

up their press office they're not gonna

just say oh yes we're trying to protect

our rank like that's not the response

I'm gonna get from colleges right so I'm

gonna point out some of these

correlations to you guys I will say it

with a grain of salt because there could

be other motivations that I don't know

about that are making colleges want to

do these kind of things but let's get

into it number one guaranteed transfer

programs so what are guaranteed transfer

programs and why might colleges be

invoking them I mean when you apply a

college do you think there's probably

two outcomes right you either get accept

it or you get rejected haha just kidding

you can also get kind of admitted for

something called a guaranteed transfer

program well what it is is you get a

letter from a college instead of getting

an acceptance letter you get this letter

that says we really liked you but we

don't have room in our freshman classes

fall but we have room for you either the

second semester of freshman year or we

have room for you sophomore year if you

go to some other college you get a

certain GPA at that other college hey we

will guarantee that we will let you

interaction you can come on down and

we'll have you and that'll be all fine

and dandy right why would a college do

this why wouldn't a college just let you

win I mean some people might say oh well

they want you to prove your grades

because they really liked you but you

just hadn't proved your grades like that

might be the explanation that a college

gives you but I have students that I

know and I've seen their transcripts and

I know what kind of grades they had and

they had pretty good grades and they

still are kind of shoved into these kind

of programs well what is it you if you

guarantee a transfer to a student that

admission doesn't count in your freshman

admin rate right so if you're trying to

pad yourself for the rankings and you're

trying to rank higher on US News and

World Report wouldn't it look better if

say you were USC and your admin rate

would say 12 something percent or 11

percent or something like that wouldn't

it look better if that were your admin

rate instead of say nineteen percent

when it used to be like several years

ago because then it'd be easier to climb

the ranks because you look more

exclusive and who doesn't want to look

more exclusive when it comes to being in

college so what this does is it helps

schools fill their classrooms it helps

schools graduate lots of students but

without having to take them right away

so that they can kind of pad their

statistics it also helps them protect

things like what the GPA of kids who get

in is what the test scores are kids who

get in is because they can just take the

kids who are at the top and then the

kids who they actually like and want to

admit that might be slightly lower well

they can still let them in but they can

shovel them in in this other program and

so they get them in but then they don't

reflect that at all in any of their US

News and World Report's reported

freshmen admitted class statistics right

number two and many huge numbers from

the waitlist so another tactic that I

see some schools using and it's not all

schools but I see some schools doing is

that they admit huge numbers of students

for the waitlist if you admit kids off a

waitlist where you make them wait to see

where they've gotten in everywhere else

before they then write you a letter of

continued interest right to say hey I

still want to go to your school hey I

still want to be considered for your

waitlist hey still let me it the kids

you admit off the waitlist

are already not accepted to all these

other schools so you're probably the

best thing they've got going or they

wouldn't have written that letter and so

the chances that that kid who was

wait-listed is gonna go to your school

if they write that letter and say hey I

really still want to go here are a lot

higher then if you just given an offer

of admission to everybody in that

waitlist pool right so that protects

your yield it protects how many students

decide to attend that have been accepted

and so that's another statistic that

goes into your rankings and things like

that

another thing that a waitlist does is it

protects your admin rate right if you

don't actually admit students and you

just put a bunch of them on a waitlist

you don't have to include that in your

admin rate right

number three another way that schools

can kind of leverage themselves in this

process is creating these large transfer

programs now there's like a dual

competing stories here on the transfer

end one story which is usually the most

popular story and the one that all the

you know press people from every

university are telling is the story that

transfer programs help create

opportunity for non-traditional students

and for students who may come from less

affluent backgrounds which is true

because community college is a heck of a

lot cheaper than almost every four-year

university in the country so if you go

to Community College for two years and

then you transfer into a four-year

university you're gonna save a ton of

money so it's an option that a lot of

students who want to save money do and

you know what I am actually very

thankful that there are large transfer

programs out there I'm super thankful

for it because I think there are a lot

of students who when they're playing the

game and they try to play this like test

score game they're not SAT AC T people

and that doesn't mean you're not smart

or that you don't have awesome skills or

that you shouldn't go to college right

that's one kind of metric it's one way

of thinking and this is creates a

different pathway and that's really cool

but what we find is that you look at a

school like USC and you see their

regular admin rate is is pretty small

right and then you look at their

transfer admin rate and it's more than

double their regular admin rate so you

can also see how again schools can kind

of pad they're elitist kind of

exclusivity with their freshman adamant

rate by pushing a lot of the students

into a transfer situation and that can

help them look better right number four

this is more of just something that's

sad and this is using test scores as a

proxy for wealth so again one of the

other things that I mentioned at the

beginning this video is not only your

school's playing the game to try to get

their rankings up they're also playing a

game to try to protect how much money

they have coming in my understanding of

this is actually based off of reading

articles I read an article about an

interview with a former admissions

person from Trinity College which is

liberal arts college on the East Coast

this is something that might affect

schools that maybe are not necessarily

as highly ranked as like your Harvard's

are

birds or things like that but that are

looking to try to bring in enough money

to make sure that the college budget was

balanced right some schools are neat

blind some schools are neat aware some

schools say they meet a hundred percent

of demonstrated need of the kids who are

getting in but that doesn't mean that

all these schools that are having these

wonderful programs where they're trying

to help everyone and and and pay for

everyone's way as much as possible they

have the resources easily to do so so

one way that schools try to make sure

that they can cover all their bills is

by admitting students who they think

probably have a little bit more money

and can pay their own way one way that

sometimes schools identify that is by

using test scores as a proxy for wealth

now it's true if you have high test

scores and high grades and those

correlate together you know you may be

wealthy you may not be wealthy and maybe

depend on what kind of high school you

went to and how good of an education you

got there

but when you have these schools who have

discrepant test scores who have these

higher test scores and lower GPAs those

circumstances tend to indicate wealth

more often and some colleges use those

kind of discrepant applicants and as a

pool of when they get to sort of the

last kids they're letting in to scoop

into their sort of admin tile to ensure

that they have enough kids who can pay

their own way there you go it's a dirty

trick that some colleges might play for

better or for worse to try to play the

game and play the system unfortunately

you know we all have multiple pressures

on us colleges have to pay their bills

right they've got to play the rankings

game because that's part of what you're

buying into when you apply to these

schools anyway and it's not always

pretty and the motivations are not

always pure and the policies sometimes

can I think sideswipes some students

because you didn't expect them to be

coming your way but hopefully at least

this gives you guys some insights onto

some ways that the system works so that

you're just at least a little bit more

aware of what might happen to you or how

you might be able to navigate the system

and in any case I wish you guys the best

of luck with your applications if you

are applying do you know of any secret

tricks that colleges have played on you

do you have any circumstances like they

guaranteed

program that have happened to you but

maybe you're there a little do it

different and you want to talk about

those feel free to post a comment below

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