{"id":2903,"date":"2016-02-11T19:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T03:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=2903"},"modified":"2016-02-11T19:05:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T03:05:22","slug":"turning-the-tide-on-college-admissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/turning-the-tide-on-college-admissions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTurning the Tide\u201d on college admissions"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Katrina Penaflor \r\nManaging Editor<\/pre>\n
The expectation levels for college admissions varies across the field. Typically, schools take a balance of GPA, SAT or ACT scores, and an accumulation of extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n
In a recent New York Times article, OP-ED writer Frank Bruni addressed a study titled \u201cTurning the Tide,\u201d which discussed the flaws in the college admission process, primarily at the Ivy-League level. He went on to say how a university\u2019s expectations and approval process may not benefit students at every income level.<\/p>\n
Western\u2019s application process, in comparison to non-Ivy-League or private universities, is primarily standard, meaning that when a student applies, Western takes into account their transcript, SAT or ACT scores, and a completed application.<\/p>\n
SAT and ACT scores are not required for the WOU admissions process if the universities GPA requirement of 2.75 is met, but they are beneficial for scholarship purposes.<\/p>\n
Like Western, \u201ca growing number of colleges have made the SAT or ACT optional,\u201d said Bruni in his article.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of those alterations would simultaneously level the playing field for kids applying to college from less advantaged backgrounds,\u201d said Bruni, who continued to point out the correlation between household income and standardized test scores.<\/p>\n
An additional point \u201cTurning the Tide\u201d made was the negative effects college admissions have on high school students.<\/p>\n
Not only can they cause a heavy workload with additional Advanced Placement (A.P.) courses\u2014which are not available in all high schools\u2014and extracurricular activities, but the pressure of becoming an ideal candidate can bring increased anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoorer high schools aren\u2019t as likely to offer A.P. courses, and a heavy load of them is often cited as a culprit in sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression among students at richer schools,\u201d said Bruni.<\/p>\n
Western has tried to combat the stressful application process by heading directly to high schools and having students apply in an environment familiar to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething that we do to make it more convenient, and reduce that stress and make it more WOU focused, is we do instant Wolf onsite,\u201d said Luanne Carrillo, admissions counselor and multicultural recruitment coordinator.<\/p>\n
This means the university will work with the students\u2019 counselors and faculty to ensure the necessary paperwork is acquired and the students only worry about their application and application fee.<\/p>\n
This provides the opportunity for any questions about the processes to be directly answered and students will receive an admissions decision the same day.<\/p>\n
Possible changes or reassessments can even go back to what is acceptable on a high school level.<\/p>\n
Carrillo suggests, \u201clooking back at the high school concept and saying \u2018should you all still offer D\u2019s?\u2019 because D\u2019s are not passing for a university.\u201d<\/p>\n
As \u201cTurning the Tide\u201d suggests, finding well-rounded students goes beyond the number of club activities and SAT scores. It is a university\u2019s job to see how their admissions requirements can shape the behavior of potential students, and if that is happening in a positive or negative fashion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The expectation levels for college admissions varies across the field. Typically, schools take a balance of GPA, SAT or ACT scores, and an accumulation of extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}