Princeton University - The Ivy Coach

Harvard University Admissions

According to the UK newspaper “The Guardian,” Harvard University is in record territory this year with its admissions statistics as they relate to minority applicants – specifically African American and Latino students. ”While Oxford draws criticism for the racial profile of its intake, Harvard’s latest admissions figures show that 11.8% of its new students for this autumn will be African-American and 12.1% Latino – thought to be record proportions of the two minority groups. Among the 2009 intake, 10.8% of students at Harvard were African-American, compared with 8.2% at Princeton, and 7% at Yale. To put the data in some context, African-American students made up 14% of US college enrolments in 2008.” The article also states that over 60% of students who received acceptance letters to Harvard University are eligible to receive need-based financial aid that averages over $40,000.

^{Vasagar, Jeevan. “Harvard admits record numbers of African-American and Latino students.” The Guardian. 12 April 2011. Web. 14 April 2011.}

Check out our related blogs: A Harvard Admit, Harvard Admissions, Harvard and Princeton early programs, and Harvard and Princeton admissions spin.

Legacy Applicants

There is a book that has come out this year featuring a compilation of research articles by scholars and journalists on the topic of legacy admission to colleges. The book is entitled Affirmative Action for the Rich and this title fittingly reflects the author’s, Richard Kahlenberg’s, viewpoint on the subject. Let’s just say Mr. Kahlenberg is no fan of legacy admission.

According to Mr. Kahlenberg as articulated in “The Daily Princetonian,” “Research by Princeton professor Thomas Espenshade GS ’72 suggests that legacy candidates are getting 160 SAT points added to their scores on a scale of 400–1600. Research by former University President William Bowen GS ’58 finds your chances of admission increase by almost 20 percent, so that a student whose academic record suggests she has a 20 percent chance of getting in then has a 40 percent chance just based on who her parents are.”

Many believe that colleges admit legacy applicants because they believe this will have a positive impact on their endowment. They are rewarding the alumni who donate money to their alma maters. But is this true? According to Mr. Kahlenberg, the answer is a definitive no: “No evidence has ever been presented to suggest that the existence of a legacy preference increases giving. It’s always just been assumed, which is kind of ironic, given that we’re talking about universities where research is conducted every day on various topics. When you control for the wealth of the alumni and institutions, there is no evidence that the existence of alumni preferences increases the donations of alumni [to the top 100 national universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report]. Furthermore, there was no substantial drop in alumni giving at seven institutions that dropped legacy preferences.”

Mr. Kahlenberg believes that legacy admission will soon no longer exist. He believes a constitutional lawyer will take up the fight, deeming it in violation of the 1866 Civil Rights Act that bans discrimination based on race and ancestry. We at The Ivy Coach are unconvinced that admitting legacy applicants does not benefit the university’s endowment. We would first need to see some figures to be convinced. But the notion of legacy admission being eliminated one day doesn’t seem too farfetched. Time will tell but for now, it’s a major benefit to college applicants.

Check out “The Daily Princetonian” article “Richard Kahlenberg on Legacy Admissions” here.

And check out our related blog, A Harvard Admit, and newsletter, Playing the Admission Card.

Ivy League Sports

It may come as a surprise that Sydney Johnson, head coach of the men’s basketball team at Princeton University, has left Princeton to take the post of head coach of men’s basketball at Fairfield University. Why would Johnson leave his alma mater, a university he led to a share of the Ivy League title this year as well as a berth in the NCAA tournament (before falling 59-57 to an eventual Final Four team in the University of Kentucky)?

The answer is twofold. Johnson was making between $200,000 to $250,000 and the new job could pay him double that figure but speculation is he also left because while Harvard University has lowered its admissions standards for its men’s basketball team, Princeton University has failed to follow suit. Will Johnson’s departure inspire Princeton to lower its admissions standards for its men’s basketball recruits? Only time will tell.

Check out our posts on applicants to Princeton, college admissions and March Madness, and Princeton’s tournament berth.

Ivy League Rejection

Did you or your child receive a rejection letter from an Ivy League college yesterday? As you know, you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of applicants received these very letters. So now that your dreams of studying poetry under a tree at the same college that Robert Frost and Dr. Seuss once attended or where Woodrow Wilson once presided as university president prior to his inauguration as President of the United States have been crushed, you’re at a crossroads. But to (loosely) paraphrase Robert Frost, when two roads diverge in a wood, just get on a road and take it. You’ll find you can reach great heights in life with or without an Ivy League education.

Today can in fact be the beginning of that very road to success. Oh stop rolling your eyes! Have you ever noticed that the sons and daughters of highly successful people often don’t amount to much? Are there exceptions? Yes. Chelsea Clinton is an overachiever just like her parents, Bill and Hillary. But Chelsea Clinton is the exception to the rule — not the rule. Similarly, your Ivy League rejection can now be your impetus, your motivation for success in life. Princeton and Dartmouth didn’t think you were good enough? They didn’t have room for you? They didn’t think you could add to their diverse and talented student body? Well, now is the time to begin getting even and achieve successes that even your Ivy League counterparts may never achieve.

In a landmark study by Alan B. Krueger of Princeton University and Stacy Dale of Mathematica Policy Research, it was discovered that those who had been rejected by Ivy League colleges actually make the same amount of money throughout their lives as Ivy League graduates. According to the Moneywatch article, ”Students, who possessed high standardized test scores, yet were rejected from Ivy League-caliber institutions, were banking the same average earnings as Ivy League graduates. A rejected Yale applicant with a high SAT score, for example, who ends up attending the University of Miami or Tulane University would earn as much, on average, as Yale grads. ’The highest ranked school that rejected a student is a much stronger predictor of that student’s subsequent earnings than the average SAT score of the school the student actually attend,’ the study observed.”

So, basically, students who have the confidence to apply to Ivy League colleges, even if they are rejected, will find success in life. Don’t believe us? Ever heard of Tom Brokaw, the respected journalist and former face of NBC news? What about Lee Bollinger, the sitting president of Columbia University? How about John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who earned a Silver Star in Vietnam? Warren Buffett? Meredith Vieira? The list goes on and on and on…

Check out the “Moneywatch” article, “Why Ivy League Rejects Earn More Money,” here or read the article in the “Wall Street Journal” entitled “When Success Follows the College Rejection Letter here.

And check out our post: There is life after being rejected.

Applicants to Princeton

A basketball game that took place today at Yale University between the Harvard Crimson and the Princeton Tigers may have repercussions on next year’s admissions process. Harvard and Princeton had already earned a share of the Ivy League title this season after both posted 12-2 records in the conference. Since the Ivy League is the only Division I league that does not have a tournament to decide the representative of the league to the NCAA Tournament, a playoff was necessary and so Harvard met Princeton on neutral turf at Yale today.

The game was epic and it looked as if Harvard was going to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1946. Up by one point with less than a second to go, Princeton’s Douglas Davis launched a 15-footer at the buzzer to secure a victory for Princeton and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, a tournament they haven’t been a part of since 2004. After officials reviewed the play to ensure the shot was released from Davis’ hands in time, Princeton was declared the victor and its fans rushed the court in celebration.

The Ivy League has never been awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament but if there were ever a year when a school deserved one, this is that year. Tommy Amaker’s Harvard squad deserves that chance. It is our hope that the committee gives it to them. But applicants to Princeton (and potentially Harvard) beware: The further the college(s) advance in March Madness, the more applications the college(s) will receive next year. So if you’re a high school junior and applying to Princeton next year, as difficult as it may be, you might want to root for their opponent in the first round. You can root for Princeton every year after that once you get admitted!

Read a related blog – College Admissions and March Madness.

More on YouTubing the College Admissions Rapids

Posting videos on YouTube in substitution for an application essay may be the latest craze in college admissions, but we at The Ivy Coach doubt that too many colleges are going to adopt this practice. While a video might have value if it actually says something about the applicant, unless access to the video is limited to only the admissions committee, we don’t see where it’s in the applicant’s best interest to have a video publicly displayed.

This reminds us of what happened in the spring of 2002 when a Dean of Admissions at Princeton University hacked into Yale University’s website of online admissions decisions and was able to hedge Princeton’s bets. If Princeton was to accept a student that Yale accepted, they had to be concerned that the student might end up going to Yale instead and this would lower their yield and ranking in “US News and World Report.”

True, that by viewing a student’s YouTube video, an admissions counselor at another college won’t be privy to the admissions decision at the college for which the video was made, but when the applicant says in the video that the college is his first choice, this is more information than admissions counselors at other colleges need to have.

Read more about YouTubing the College Admissions Rapids in our March newsletter.

Search

Categories

Newsletter Sign Up

Archive for: Princeton University