college admissions news stories on Newser

UCLA Congratulates 900 Applicants ... by Mistake

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:53:18 CDT

Several hundred applicants were thrilled to read in a much-anticipated email from UCLA that they had been accepted by the prestigious university. Except they hadn't. It was all a mistake for 894 high school seniors who got the wrong notice. In fact, they're only wait-listed, they learned in a follow-up...

The College Waitlist: You're Not Getting In

Kate Schwartz — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:56:05 CDT

"Waitlisted" is basically a synonym for "rejected," at least according to the Wall Street Journal , which today takes a look at the likelihood of college applicants actually getting off the waitlist. Among its burst-your-bubble stats: Cornell ended up accepting a grand total of zero of the 2,998 students on...

California Court Upholds Affirmative Action Ban, Again

Rob Quinn — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:29:00 CDT

California's 16-year-old ban on affirmative action in the state university system has been reaffirmed by an appeals court. Proposition 209, which was passed by the state's voters in 1996 and upheld after a court challenge in 1997, bans public school from basing admissions on race or sex. Its opponents—backed...

Vassar Accidentally Accepts 76 Students It Rejected

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:19:43 CST

This weekend, for a few hours, 76 students thought they had been accepted to Vassar College—though, in reality, they had been rejected. The early-decision applicants saw the erroneous acceptance letter when checking their application statuses online; a placeholder "test letter" was mistakenly not replaced and was seen by scores...

We Need a Match.com for College Admissions

John Johnson — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:02:02 CDT

It's time to bring the college admissions process into the modern age, writes Kevin Carey at the Atlantic . He doesn't mean the process by which elite students get into Ivy League schools—he means the real world, where the vast majority of students end up picking a school because it...

Racially Charged Bake Sale Sparks Student Outrage

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:51:53 CDT

"White/Caucasian" pastries: $2. "Black/African American" pastries: 75 cents. "Native American" pastries: only a quarter. Such is the pricing scheme for a sarcastic "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" posted on Facebook by a Republican group at UC Berkeley, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . Planned for Tuesday, the sale has sparked anger on...

Court Rejects Michigan's Affirmative Action Ban

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:11:23 CDT

A federal appeals court today struck down Michigan's ban on the consideration of race and gender in college admissions, saying it burdens minorities and violates the Constitution. The 2-1 decision upends a sweeping law that forced the University of Michigan and other public schools to change admission policies. The 6th...

Ivy League Offers False Hope to Kids It Won't Accept

Tim Karan — Sat, 14 May 2011 17:04:05 CDT

Ivy League schools cram high school students' mailboxes full with glossy recruitment packages, only to greet them weeks later with far less appealing rejection letters. Critics say elite universities like Harvard and Columbia set up potential applicants for disappointment by wooing them with pamphlets, posters, and promise, pocketing hefty application...

Students Blast 'Unfair' SAT Reality Show Question

Rob Quinn — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:23:00 CDT

High school students who studied instead of watching Jersey Shore say they've been left at a disadvantage by a question on the SAT college entrance exam. The students complain that the essay question, which deals with the nature of reality shows, assumes that all students have a television and watch...