Applying to College is a Changing Game!

Home

Weekly Column

Patrick OConnor

2009.11.09 22:03:18

Patrick OConnor

Applying to College is a Changing Game!

October seemed to be the month of surprises for college-bound students, at least as far as the state of Michigan was concerned. The first surprise came on October 16th, when the University of Michigan announced they were going to change the way they recomputed the GPAs of their applicants. For years and years, U-M only counted grades in the five academic areas (English math, science social studies, and foreign language) earned in 10th and 11th grade. Right—they didn’t use any grades used in 9th grade at all. Now, U-M is not going to recompute GPA — they will use whatever GPA appears on the high school transcript.

While this is a huge surprise—admission reps at U-M were still talking about recomputing GPA as late as October 14th—the bigger surprise is that this change will go into effect immediately, including applicants for the Fall of 2010. It’s uncertain if this change will impact admissions decisions—U-M says it studied GPAs for two years and concluded this change had little impact on applications—but the news that the change would begin this year was most unexpected.

The second surprise came two weeks later, when the budget for the State of Michigan was passed. One of the programs axed by the state was the Michigan Promise Scholarship, where students who scored well on a state exam could receive up to $4,000 to attend a Michigan college. The test is given in junior year, meaning this year’s seniors took the test last March, thinking they were aiming to get some college cash. It turns out their labors were literally for nothing…

…but it gets worse, I’m afraid. The Promise Scholarship has been in existence for three years, and the entire program was cut. As a result, students in some Michigan colleges have been sent letters saying “So, the state was supposed to pay $1000 of your tuition this semester, but they really aren’t. Here’s your bill.”

U-M’s decision on the Ides of October and the Devil’s Night Diss from the state legislature emphasize three important points when it comes to applying to colleges:

1. Make sure you apply to a wide variety of colleges. Most students apply to 6-8 colleges; that list should include at least 2 colleges you can afford with little, if any, financial help. You might not have many choices for those 2 slots, but as you can see, those options may come into play for any number of unexpected reasons.

2. Make sure you stay current with a college’s admission requirements. From testing to transcript to deadlines, colleges change their requirements each year—and sometimes even more often than that. While the U-M change is a very late exception, it’s still important to use the latest information when making your college choices—so stay in touch.

3. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bDHaJERpmI Yes, their hair is big, and so is the flare on their jeans, but REO Speedwagon wrote the anthem for applying to college—Roll with the Changes. It would be nice if the application process and paying for college had fewer changes than the stock market, but part of life is learning how to keep your cool when today isn’t quite the same as yesterday. Uncertainty is part of the fun of going to college, even though it makes the application process much less fun. Keep an eye on the college Web sites, and all should go well.