December 2004

News

The Chicago Tribune reports that a growing number of colleges are using spring admission offers to increase the number of freshmen they can accept each year. By having a certain number of freshman wait until spring to matriculate, they can make use of classroom seats and dormitory beds left empty by students who drop out or go abroad for spring semester. Colby College, for example, can accommodate 95 additional freshmen, provided they agree to wait until the second semester to set foot on campus.

Admissions officers concede that this approach to enrollment management can come at some cost to the student. ‘February freshmen’ start classes months after their peers have. This may make it more difficult to form friendships and join campus activities. In addition, the fact that these students graduate later in the year than students traditionally do might impact their post-college plans.

Views

Expect to see spring admission offers become more and more common. Colleges and universities are caught between rising costs and increasing pools of qualified applicants – having additional freshmen start classes in the second semester is a sensible way for them to address the problem.

What should you do if you’re on the receiving end of a spring admissions offer? Consider it carefully, especially if it’s from a school you really want to go to. You’ll be at college for four years. Is waiting half a year to start really an unacceptable compromise? By all means try to negotiate a fall start if it’s important to you, but keep in mind that the choice you’re looking at may well be spring admission to your dream school, or no admission at all.