Increase in ‘stealth Applicants’ May be Affecting Acceptance Rates

Increase in ‘Stealth Applicants’ May Be Affecting Acceptance Rates

“Stealth applicants” is the term colleges and universities use to refer to those students whose first communication with a school comes via their admissions application. An increase in these “out-of-the-blue” applicants has thrown off schools’ ability to accurately predict the number of applications they will receive and has caused some schools to adjust their traditional admissions practices.

The number of stealth applicants has increased at schools across the country; of the 461 admissions deans and enrollment managers surveyed by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 41 percent reported increases in the number of stealth applicants over the past 10 years.

The admissions office at Earlham College, for example, has seen its stealth applicant pool increase over the past four years from 17 percent to 30 percent of the total applicants each year (“ ‘Stealth Applications’ Increase Enrollment Pools, Decrease Yield Rates,” Jan. 8, 2008).

Stealth Applicants Forcing Changes in Admissions Practices

Colleges and universities often purposely track students’ campus visits and requests for information to help predict the number of applications the admissions office will receive and to gauge students’ “demonstrated interest,” which the school uses as a predictor of how many students, if admitted, will actually enroll.

The percentage of students who accept a school’s admissions offer — referred to as a yield ratio — is a critical measurement for admissions offices deciding on the number of acceptance offers they should send out and on how they should apportion their available grants, student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com/), and other limited financial aid funds.

However, as more students apply without warning, schools’ yield ratios are becoming less predictable.

“For colleges that try to bring 100-percent science to the admissions process, it is very disruptive,” said Jeff Rickey, dean of admissions and financial aid at Earlham. “It adds more art to the equation.”

An increase in stealth applicants makes it difficult for admissions officers to discern a student’s demonstrated interest in the school, which is typically measured by the extent of a student’s contact with the school.

With more students applying to a greater number of schools each year, these indicators of demonstrated interest are sometimes needed to help separate the serious candidates from the mildly interested ones.

Over a third of Chronicle survey respondents indicated that the likelihood of a student attending affects the school’s admission decision.

Online Services Contributing to Problem

Colleges and universities seeing greater numbers of in stealth applicants may be able to lay part of the blame on the increasing availability of purely Web-based school services, allowing for student-to-school interaction that can be 100-percent online.

A majority of schools now offer comprehensive websites that don’t necessarily require registration in order to navigate. Applicants can gather almost all the information they need about a school — from application requirements, deadlines, and forms, to information on classes, student life, and student loans (http://www.nextstudent.com/student-loans/student-loans.asp) — before they apply, without ever having to sign in to the school’s website, visit the physical campus, or make personal contact with an admissions officer or someone else at the school.

Internet conveniences allow students to apply to more schools with the same or less amount of effort.

“Students can find you on Google even if they can’t find you on a map,” one admissions consultant said.

Most schools offer students the option to apply online either through the school’s website, or with the Common Application — an online admissions form that students can complete once and use to apply to multiple schools — or both. Earlham, for example, now receives about 80 percent of its applications electronically.

“The most significant challenge facing admissions is the changing nature of our admissions procedures,” another admissions officer wrote in the Chronicle survey. “The recruitment funnel no longer exists and students approach institutions of higher education when they are ready.”

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