This Week in College Admissions – 3/13/26

This week in college admissions, Columbia scales back expansion plans, Ohio State’s president resigns, Indiana public colleges will be required to accept the Classic Learning Test, Harvard cuts non-tenure-track faculty budgets, and net tuition costs trend downwards. 

Columbia University has scaled back plans for an undergraduate student expansion after facing criticism from students, faculty, and staff. Columbia was originally considering expanding the size of its undergraduate student body by up to 20 percent. Critics believed the increase would strain the university’s capacities in terms of physical space and ability to deliver a positive student experience.

Ohio State president Ted Carter abruptly resigned this week, after admitting to the university’s board of trustees that he engaged in an “inappropriate relationship with someone seeking state resources to support her personal business.” Carter had been in his position since early 2024.

Indiana has passed a law requiring public colleges and universities to accept a standardized test known as the Classic Learning Test, in addition to the SAT and ACT. The CLT tests math and English skills, and is popular with Christian colleges and conservative lawmakers. Most public colleges in Indiana are test-optional, so the new law is unlikely to cause major changes. 

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences is reducing its non-tenure-track faculty budget by 25% as part of a series of cost-cutting measures across the university. The budgets of the Division of Science, the Division of Arts and Humanities, and the Division of Social Science will all be reduced equally, and departments that rely heavily on non-tenure-track faculty may face a significant decrease in the number of classes offered.

According to recent research, the net cost of four-year college tuition is trending downward for most students. When costs are adjusted for inflation, students across all income brackets are paying less for college than they did six years ago, and sticker prices (adjusted for inflation) have also declined.