College Crunch
Even A students have to settle for their B-list schools as
the swelling ranks of
boomer kids jockey for limited spots
on campus.
By Linda Shrieves
Mia Rommel believed -- or at least strongly hoped -- she had
everything
There was her SAT score of 1,350 and a 3.7 grade-pointaverage
at Trinity
Preparatory School, known for its rigorous
academics. A long list of
extracurricular activities,
including stints as editor of the yearbook and the
school's literary magazine, and as
captain of the forensic debate and speech
team. A three-page
resume and a raft of recommendation letters.
She also had a case of nerves -- because spring is the time
when colleges
traditionally send their acceptance
and rejection letters.
Today, exploding enrollments are making it tougher than ever
for students to get
into college, leaving many dreading
the daily trek to the mailbox. With so many
high-achievers to choose from, most
colleges are growing more selective -- and
students who would have been a cinch
for admission a decade ago are falling back
on their second- and third-choice
schools.
Making the wait this spring even more agonizing for Mia was a
letter she
received from
listed," which describes the kind of
senior-year purgatory students would wish
only on their worst high-school
rivals.
"Your friends who do get in early admission are planning what
dorm they're going
to be living in," says Mia, 18, who
began visiting colleges in eighth grade.
"They're starting to plan their future, and you're still
stuck in the
high-school grind, thinking about
how much work you still have to do the second
semester so that your grades will
look even better."
So, like thousands of high-school seniors around the country,
Mia anxiously
checked the mailbox every day at her
from
hope for
them on her latest
accomplishments.
Lifelong competition
Mia is part of the "echo boom," a demographic bulge that
consists of the
children of baby boomers. For the
echo group -- which will top out with the
class of 2009, the largest
graduating class in the nation's history -- the
competition to get into college is
just the beginning.
"These are students who, if they weren't in this generation,
would have colleges
eager to take them," says Patrick
Callan, president of The National Center for
Public Policy and Higher Education.
"They're having to pick their second and
third choices for college. But
they're also going to have to compete throughout
their lives for jobs, for
promotions."
Larger than the baby boom itself, the echo boom is also
playing out regionally
in terms of education. High schools,
community colleges and four-year colleges
in Sun Belt states, such as
Meanwhile, colleges in the upper
has eroded the boomlet effect, are
looking south to recruit students.
At the nation's elite colleges and at Sun Belt schools such
as the University of
It has pushed out prospective students such as Stephanie
Cohen, 17, of Altamonte
Springs.
With her 4.1-weighted GPA and a 1,260 SAT, Stephanie
qualified for a Bright
Futures scholarship. That was an
incentive for her to stay in state, so she
applied to UF and the
UCF wanted her. A few months later, she learned she didn't
get into UF.
"I was disappointed, but I had a little bit of a feeling that
I wasn't going to
make it," says Stephanie, who thinks
she may have been turned down because she
listed only two extracurricular
activities: the National Honor Society and a
marketing club. "I knew their
qualifications had been going up every year."
Stephanie is happy to be attending UCF, where she will live
on campus. Besides,
she'll see a lot of familiar faces:
Many classmates from Lyman High are going
there too.
Staff needs pep talk
At college and university admissions offices, breaking the
bad news is never
easy.
At the
"pep talk" to prep his staff for the
rejection season.
When parents call, "all you can do is let them vent because
Johnny is a good
student. We're turning away lots of
students who could be academically
successful here," Kolb says. "I tell
my staff, 'Hey they're just being good moms
and dads. They want the best for
their kids.' "
They're getting used to bearing bad news, however. In 1995,
schools graduated 99,941 students.
The class of 2004 has 143,000 seniors. In 10
years, officials project there will
be 161,000 high-school seniors applying for
a limited number of spots on
campus.
Fat means 'yes'
Though many of her classmates applied to
who'd spent the first 13 years of
her life in
applied to six universities --
including "safety schools" such as University of
The news trickled in slowly.
own population explosion, did
not.
Then, on March 25, she opened the mailbox and discovered a
thin letter from
not to offer you admission, " it
read.
"I was not as upset as I thought I'd be," Mia
says.
A few weeks later, she and her mother opened the mailbox and
discovered a fat
envelope from
Fat means yes. Mia cried tears of joy and tore open the
envelope.
"It was like peeling an onion," says Beth Rommel, Mia's
mother. Each page bore
better news. The university offered
Mia a spot in its honors program, and a
$15,000 scholarship.
"GW was my second choice," says Mia, "and the more I thought
about it, the more
I felt I belonged there."
Mia's still burning a little about
"Technically, I was the perfect candidate" for
whatever reason, 12 letters did not
make it clear."
However, as many students have learned, rejection can have a
positive side.
that no one has yet perfected the
art of human assessment and that you can prove
by your own achievements in the
years ahead how very shortsighted our committee
was."
Linda Shrieves can be reached at lshrieves@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5433.