This week in college admissions, first-year enrollment spiked 5.5%, Claremont McKenna College faculty voted to end test-optional admissions, Johns Hopkins and Caltech settled claims that they engaged in a price-fixing scheme, and Lafayette College faculty passed a majority no-confidence vote against their president.
Enrollment of first-year students rose 5.5% last fall compared to the previous year. This is a striking reversal from flawed data reported in October which showed a nationwide decline in first-year enrollment. The new data, corrected and released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, is promising for many colleges and universities that endured steep enrollment declines in the wake of the pandemic.
Claremont McKenna College faculty voted to end test-optional admissions and return to the school’s pre-Covid-era practice of requiring all applicants to submit standardized test scores. The final decision on ending the test-optional policy will be made by the Board of Trustees this spring.
Johns Hopkins University and the California Institute of Technology agreed to pay a combined $35.3 million to settle claims that they engaged in a price-fixing scheme with other top-ranked colleges to lower the financial aid they offered students. The list of alleged participating institutions which have already settled includes Brown, Vanderbilt, the University of Chicago, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, and Yale.
Lafayette College’s faculty passed a majority no-confidence vote against President Nicole Hurd. The cited grievances included an ongoing “crisis of leadership,” along with claims that Hurd prioritized athletics over academics and excluded her staff from decision-making.
Leave a Reply