Colleges Amplify Enrollment Incentives

The Washington Post: "Free classes! Free parking! Prime dorm rooms! More cash! The more they worry about whether students in this year of the coronavirus will show up in the fall, the more admissions officers responsible for filling seats at colleges and universities" sweeten the pot. “The gloves have come off ... You’re talking about a scenario where colleges need to enroll students at any cost,” says Angel Pérez, vice president for enrollment and student success at Trinity College in Connecticut. "All of this is driven, of course, by the existential danger that too few students will sign on for college this fall because of the pandemic, which is wrecking family finances and raising fears that campuses will not reopen anyway, forcing a continuation of online teaching." "In a twist of timing, some of the inducements are a consequence of a Justice Department action that forced college admissions officers to drop key parts of their professional code of ethics, which prohibited many of these kinds of appeals and banned colleges from pursuing each other’s students ... The ethics rules had blocked colleges from offering inducements to anyone who had committed to another institution or from trying to get students already enrolled at one to transfer." "About a quarter of high school seniors who already picked colleges are reconsidering where to enroll, a survey by the higher education research firm SimpsonScarborough has found; 20 percent say it is likely or highly likely that they won’t go at all ... Even before this year, institutions were collectively handing back more than half of the tuition they collected from their full-time freshmen in the form of discounts or financial aid, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers ... Many colleges are already making overtures to students who had applied in earlier years but went elsewhere, asking them whether they would like to transfer and offering much more generous financial aid and no loss of credits."

College & Careers in the Arts

Vanderbilt: "What you do in college has a surprising impact on your ability to sustain a career in the arts long-term, according to a new report coauthored by Alexandre Frenette, assistant professor of sociology and associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy ... He comments: “While many arts majors said they wished they’d gotten more training in business and entrepreneurship in school, those with a second major outside the arts were much less likely to remain in an arts career later on overall. On the other hand, participating in arts-related clubs, paid internships and other related co-curricular activities makes you much more likely to stay in the arts, thanks to the networks they help you develop when you’re just starting out.” "The report noted that choice of field also mattered: Architecture and design students were most likely to have durable careers in the arts, while theater, dance and arts management majors had the lowest odds. There is also no escaping the social inequality that pervades the broader economy, either." Frenette explains: “The odds of women staying in the arts after starting a career in a creative field were about 15 percent lower than they are for men. The odds of a person of color staying in the arts after starting such a career is 24 percent lower than they are for whites." "Many artists have 'day' jobs as well. Frenette found that having a second job outside the arts reduces an artist’s odds of remaining in the arts in the long run ... Overall, Frenette said, the report’s findings highlight the importance of cultivating artistic networks while still in school and reinforcing artistic goals with complementary artistic work."

More Schools Drop Standardized Tests

The New York Times: "They are a rite of passage as well as anxiety-inducing letters for millions of students: the SAT and ACT. But with many high schools closed or teaching remotely for the rest of the academic year, a growing number of colleges and universities are waiving standardized test requirements amid the coronavirus pandemic ... More than two dozen — from highly selective liberal arts colleges like Williams and Amherst, both in Massachusetts, to California’s public universities — announced this spring that the tests would be optional for applicants seeking to enroll in 2021." "In the Boston area, Tufts, Northeastern and Boston University have all adopted an optional-testing policy. Both Vassar and Pomona Colleges have waived standardized tests in their admission requirement. Davidson College in North Carolina, Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Rhodes College in Tennessee will move to optional testing for three years as part of a pilot program and then re-evaluate their testing requirements. The University of California system announced on March 31 that it was suspending the standardized test requirement for first-year applicants in the fall 2021 admission cycle." "In Washington State, where the outbreak struck early, the University of Washington took similar steps. The University of Oregon, Oregon State University and Scripps College in Southern California all recently announced that they would no longer require standardized tests. Texas Christian University and Trinity University in San Antonio made testing optional for next year’s applicants, with Trinity adopting the policy for a three-year period. Both Tulane University in New Orleans and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland have waived the testing requirement for next year’s applicants."