명문대 부유층 지원자에 우선권 부여
불황 여파로 재정보조 신청적은 대기자 우대
에모리대는 학교 애정도 높은 학생 우선 합격
불경기 여파가 대학 입시에도 영향을 미쳐 올 봄 합격 통지를 기다리는 대기자 숫자를 크게 늘린 것으로 나타났다.
최근 보도에 따르면, 이번 입학사정에서 각 대학은 심각한 재정위기로 인한 대량 미등록사태에 대비하기 위해 종전보다 더 많은 합격 대기자 명단을 확보한 것으로 조사됐다.
각 대학의 일반적인 대기자 관련 입학사정 정책은 텍사스 오스틴대학 등의 경우처럼 미달된 학과를 중심으로 합격통지서를 보내는 경우에 해당되나 이번 입시의 경우, 상당수의 사립대학들이 재정보조 신청이 적은 대기자들에게 우선권을 내줄 예정이어서 가뜩이나 합격을 기다리는 수험생들을 초조하게 만들고 있다.
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특히 올해 재정보조 규모를 확대한 예일, MIT 등의 명문사립대학의 경우, 이미 정규입학생들에 의해 재정보조 한도액이 모두 소진돼버려 대기자들에게는 지난 학기보다 훨씬 적은 혜택이 돌아갈 것으로 전망되고 있다. 그러나 에모리대학 등의 일부 사립대의 경우에는 대기 중인 학생들의 재정조건 보다는 수험생들이 학교에 보여준 애정 및 헌신도에 따라 합격에 대한 우선권을 부여할 계획이다.
한편, 이러한 사립대학과 달리 상당수의 주립대학들은 사립학교보다 저렴한 학비에도 불구하고 보다 학비가 싼 커뮤니티 칼리지를 선택하는 학생들에 대비해 이번 학기 종전보다 많은 대기자 명단을 확보했다.
토마스 그리핀 노스캐롤라이나 주립대학 입학처장은 “커뮤니티칼리지는 수업료도 일반 대학보다 저렴하지만 수험생들의 집에서 가까워 생활비를 줄일 수 있다는 점에서도 수험생들에게 큰 매력으로 작용할 것”이라며 “노스캐롤라니아 주립대학은 수업료가 비교적 낮은 5300달러 수준이지만 보다 저렴한 커뮤니티칼리지를 선택할 학생들에 대비해 예년보다 많은 300명 수준의 대기자 명단을 작성했다”고 말했다.
전국 대학입학상담연합회 통계에 따르면, 지난 해 전국 각 대학의 합격 대기자 명단 중 불과 30% 만이 합격 통지서를 받은 것으로 나타났다.
What to Expect if You Were Wait-Listed
Many colleges expect to admit more wait-
listed students this year, but that news is
bittersweet
The recession is causing many colleges to put record numbers of applicants on wait lists this spring. Admissions officers say they need a pool of students ready to fill seats if admitted students change their minds for financial reasons or get accepted off wait lists for schools they like more.
That news is bittersweet for the tens of thousands of students still stuck in college limbo.
The sweet: A wait-list spot this year could mean better hopes than ever. Many admissions officers say they expect to eventually make admissions offers to more wait-listed students than in previous years.
But there's no escaping the bitter: In many cases, schools are wait-listing students they would have admitted last year. Those who choose to remain on wait lists could be dangling through midsummer. And getting accepted off the wait list this year could be especially tricky and expensive.
Some schools, such as the University of Texas-Austin, will simply try to fill surprise gaps in underenrolled majors. Others, such as Emory University in Atlanta, are more likely to admit wait-listed students who make special efforts to show their commitment to the school. But especially this year, after losing endowment funds to the stock market decline, many private colleges plan to offer less financial aid to wait-listed students than to regular admits and so will give preference to wealthier applicants. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, for example, says that if regularly admitted students use up the aid budget in April, only students who can pay the full freight will be accepted off the wait list.
Historically, the odds for wait-listed students have been discouraging. The National Association for College Admission Counseling says only about 30 percent of students who chose to remain on a wait list eventually got accepted last year. And a recent survey of students by Lucie Lapovsky, an economist at Mercy College, found that only 1 percent of students got accepted from the waiting list to their first-choice school.
The recession is, if anything, worsening the odds for those hoping for a classroom seat at the most prestigious schools. Yale, MIT, and several other highly selective colleges with very generous financial aid policies were so swamped by record numbers of highly motivated applicants that they accepted fewer students and put fewer on their waiting lists this spring than last year.
But colleges that don't have the luxury of guaranteeing that needy students will get scholarships, or that serve as second choices on students' wish lists, say they have to protect themselves with bigger wait lists. Even North Carolina State University, where annual tuition is a comparatively affordable $5,300, padded its waiting list by 300 students this year, bringing the total to 1,500. "Community colleges are much less expensive, so people who might be coming to us may be staying home," says Thomas Griffin, N.C. State's director of undergraduate admissions. That fear of having students "melt" away to cheaper schools is also a key reason the University of Texas established its first-ever wait list this year.
As a highly ranked public university, the University of Washington was so concerned that bargain-seeking applicants would choose it this year that the school accepted about 1,000 fewer students this spring. Instead, it beefed up its wait list by 1,000 to a total of about 2,500 students, says UW Director of Admissions Philip Ballinger. The only way he'll be able to admit many of those students—who would most likely have been admitted last year—is if a significant number of the regularly admitted students opt for some other school. "We can't predict the future," he says.
The uncertainty is even greater at more expensive schools. Robert Massa, vice president for enrollment at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., where annual tuition runs about $40,000, says one reason he increased the number of wait-listed students by about 10 percent to around 500 this spring is that surveys showed more than a quarter of all admitted students planned to send deposits to at least two colleges this year.
