Comments on "Elite Colleges Reporting Record Lows in Admission"

By Greg Walsh

Read with interest your article http://newsblaze.com/story/20080610083929tsop.nb/topstory.html on elite college admissions numbers being down, while other colleges were putting a lot of students on waiting lists.

I believe Nathan Allen, founder of Andover College Prep and former college admission consultant, would have interesting comments for you on the reasons why.

Nathan and I had just discussed how many schools have moved to an SAT-optional requirement on applications. According to Nathan, this greatly increases the number of applications to those schools, while also broadening their ability to recruit athletes, fine arts talents, etc. With more recruiting there are fewer spots open for the rest.

For a school like Harvard that you mention has lower numbers so far. They do require the SAT numbers and are not able to recruit as heavily.

Brief bio on Nathan for your reference:
Nathan Allen has been published or profiled in many magazines including Seventeen, Beautiful Girl, Teen People, Today's Parent, PREP, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. His best-selling book, College Admissions Trade Secrets, was published in 2001 and his book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acing the GRE was published in 2007. For many years, Nathan was a leading consultant to college admissions and marketing departments (including 22 of the US News Top 25 national universities).

A popular speaker, Nathan has lectured on higher education, college admissions and education policy in schools, colleges and town meetings from New York City and San Francisco to Kolkata, India. Nathan has worked in the testing industry with Research & Development for a diverse group of standardized tests including the PSAT, SAT, SAT Subject Tests, APs, ACT, GRE, SAT, and GMAT. He has helped more than 12,000 students conquer standardized tests and navigate the college admissions process

Greg Walsh
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