[Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future.

Wed May 16 04:14:32 EDT 2007

It's pretty sad that Antioch College is not doing better in this market.

Mark P. '71

May 16, 2007
Ivy League Admissions Crunch Brings New Cachet to Next Tier 
By ALAN FINDER
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh University has never been as sought after as
Stanford, Yale or Harvard. But this year, awash in applications, it churned
out rejection letters and may break more hearts when it comes to its waiting
list.
Call them second-tier colleges (a phrase some administrators despise) or
call them the new Ivies (this, they can live with). Twenty-five to 40
universities like Lehigh, traditionally perceived as being a notch below the
most elite, have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing
competitive crush at the top. 
"It's harder to get into Bowdoin now than it was to get into Princeton when
I worked there," said William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid
at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me., who worked at Princeton in the 1970s,
which is one of those benefiting from the spillover as the country's most
prestigious colleges turn away nearly 9 out of 10 applicants.
At Lehigh, known for its strength in engineering and business, about 12,000
students applied this year. That is a whopping 50 percent increase in
applications over seven years ago and more than 10 times the seats available
in a freshman class of 1,150. The median SAT score of admitted students has
climbed about 10 points a year in recent years, officials said. 
Students have generally been quicker to adapt to the new realities than
parents have been, many guidance counselors said. 
"My sense is that parents are a lot more concerned with how the name is
going to look to neighbors and family members, and there is a real sense
among parents that it's almost embarrassing if your child has to settle for
a lower-level school," said Carolyn Lawrence, a private college counselor
and the author of a blog, AdmissionsAdvice.com.
Some students who might have readily won admission to Lehigh, Middlebury
College, Colgate University, Pomona College, Emory University or New York
University just a few years ago are now relegated to waiting lists, left to
confront the long odds that an offer of admission might materialize over the
next month.
John Dunham, a senior at the private Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J.,
had trained his sights on Bucknell University and Lafayette College. He was
rejected by Bucknell and put on the waiting list at Lafayette. His college
counselor pushed him toward Kenyon College in Ohio, or as the counselor put
it "the Williams of the Midwest."
But Mr. Dunham, a solid student who played football and baseball in high
school, decided to play baseball on an athletic scholarship at Central
Connecticut State.
"People are definitely broadening their horizons, because it's gotten so
competitive," Mr. Dunham said.
The logjam is the result of supply and demand. The number of students
graduating from high school has been increasing, and the preoccupation with
the top universities, once primarily a Northeastern phenomenon, has become a
more national obsession. High-achieving students are also applying to more
colleges than they used to, primarily because of uncertainty over where they
will be admitted.
Supply, however, has remained constant. Most of the sought-after
universities have not expanded their freshman classes. The result, said
Jonathan Miller, a senior at Mamaroneck High School in suburban Westchester
County, N.Y., is that many classmates perceive institutions like Tufts
University, Bowdoin, the University of Rochester and Lehigh in a new light.
"I would say that high school students are looking more and more at these
schools," he said, "the way they used to look at the Ivies."
An A student with good SAT scores, Mr. Miller said that he considered
applying to Brown University, among others, but that his guidance counselor
discouraged him, emphasizing the tough odds. Mr. Miller decided instead to
apply early admission to Tufts, and by December, had been accepted. He said
he was delighted. 
Some students who have accepted offers from these colleges were rejected by
the most prestigious universities. Others, keenly aware of the extreme
competition at the top, decided at the outset to focus on colleges more
likely to admit them.
"I'm sure part of what we're seeing is people are saying, 'Well, if the
Ivies and Duke are inaccessible, where do I go to get a similar academic
experience?' " said Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid
at Rochester.
There are other reasons, too, why these colleges and universities find their
stock climbing. To position themselves in the fiercely competitive market,
they have hired stronger faculty; built new libraries, science complexes,
dining halls, fitness centers and dormitories; and created international
programs and interdisciplinary majors. Many have also sought to transform
themselves from regional institutions to national ones, recruiting across
the country.
At Middlebury, applications have increased by 1,000 in each of the last two
years; nearly 7,200 students applied this year, compared with 5,200 in 2005.
At Kenyon, about 4,600 students applied this year, while 2,000 did six years
ago. Colgate received 8,752 applications this year, compared with 5,852 a
decade ago. 
And at the University of Vermont, a state institution, nearly 19,000
applications poured in this year, compared with 7,400 seven years ago. Many
of the most prestigious public universities like Michigan and Virginia have
also become much more selective, especially for out-of-state applicants.
The academic profile of students enrolling at these colleges is improving,
based on average SAT scores and other data.
"We're getting a remarkably gifted group of students," said Gerard P.
Lennon, associate dean in the college of engineering and applied sciences at
Lehigh, who has taught at the university for 27 years. The median SAT score
in the combined verbal and math parts of the test is now 1,320 out of 1,600.
(That is not counting the writing section of the test.)
But the spillover at the second level has also created its own spillover;
some students who not long ago would have won admission to these colleges no
longer are.
The admission rate at Pomona, in Claremont, Calif., was about 15 percent
this spring; it was 38 percent 20 years ago. Bowdoin's rate was 18.5 percent
this year and 32 percent eight years ago. At Lehigh, 31 percent were
accepted this spring, compared with 47 percent in 2001.
High school guidance counselors have become the reality instructors,
encouraging students and parents to think more broadly about colleges.
"Now a kid who is applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton is also applying to
the Lehighs and Lafayettes," said Brett Levine, director of guidance at
Madison High School in New Jersey. "It's the same tier, basically."

-----Original Message-----
From: alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu
[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Pomerantz
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 12:10 AM
To: 'Alumni Chat List'
Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future.

Maybe this idea should be revived!!

Mark P. '71

      "In 1919, two major episodes fateful for the future of Antioch
occurred in rather close sequence.  On February 7th, the trustees met with
representatives of the national Young Men's Christian Association to
consider the proposal for making Antioch the National College of the YMCA.
The project was to be financed and controlled by the YMCA, and the college
was to remain co-educational and non-sectarian.  The curriculum was
generally to remain the same as before, with an additional division for
special training for YMCA and YWCA workers.  It was estimated that an
additional endowment of $500,000 would be needed, and this the YMCA
volunteered to raise.  The YMCA representatives specified that there should
be twelve vacancies in the Board of Trustees to be filled with
representatives for the YMCA.  All local trustees offered to resign.  This
alluring project must have bowled over the whole Board of Trustees, for they
agreed unanimously to accept the proposal.  The only dissenting voice came
from Prof. William M. Dawson (attending the meeting by invitation) who
counseled delay and investigation.  But the trustees elected Dr. Grant
Perkins, the chief YMCA representative, president of Antioch to serve
without salary ad interim and to take office in June. 
      At a special meeting of the trustees on May 20th, Dr. Perkins reported
that he was not prepared to undertake the $500,000 endowment and resigned --
and the whole project came to an end." 
Robert L. Straker- "A Brief Sketch of Antioch College 1853-1921"

-----Original Message-----
From: alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu
[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Mark Pomerantz
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 12:04 AM
To: 'Alumni Chat List'
Subject: RE: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future.

Take a look at Berea College in Kentucky and their Entrepreneurship for the
Public Good Program (EPG). Their college endowment is a BILLION dollars and
they have only 1500 students. The EPG Program alone has an endowment of $8
million (probably a quarter of Antioch's total endowment) They don't even
charge tuition but all students must do 10 hours weekly work for the
College. They grew their endowment from 150 million to a billion in 20
years. A primary focus is empowering the people of Appalachia through
community and economic development.

Mark P. '71

-----Original Message-----
From: alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu
[mailto:alumni-chat-bounces at w3.antioch.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Brower
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2007 6:14 PM
To: alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu
Cc: Michael Brower
Subject: [Alumni-chat] Student Speeches; My Dream for Antioch's Future.

Christian Skotte posted a note urging us to read the student  
commencement speeches.  Thanks Christian for this suggestion.  I just  
took your advice, and I am very impressed.  Back in the 50's we used  
to talk about "Re-evaluating our basic assumptions."  And it is clear  
that in different language, Antioch is still encouraging and teaching  
students to do that.  My hat is off to the current faculty.  They are  
obviously continuing in the Antioch tradition of being extra-ordinary  
teachers, in the best meaning of encouraging learning and full-person  
development.

Here are my dreams-wishes for Antioch.  That all students plus new  
grads plus older Alums all put our dreams and shoulders to helping to:

1)  Get the Gates and Buffett and a dozen foundations, plus a  
thousand and then ten thousand other donors to build an Antioch  
endowment to rival that of Oberlin at 3/4 of a BILLION dollars!  This  
means building our present endowment to about 20 times its present size!

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