Considerations while applying to college

By Kevin Stump
The flutter of excitement, the anxiety of not knowing, the confidence in your maturity, the stress of completing the application, and the relief of getting the acceptance letter and room assignment. Remember how it felt to apply to college?
Students are still applying and enrolling in colleges, however, because of the global, national, and state economy, colleges are being more selective and more competitive.
“As you increase your applicant pool, you start not accepting students you would normally accept, meaning we can require more and choose from a larger group of students” said Richard Higgins, Director of SUNY Plattsburgh Admissions office.
SUNY Plattsburgh admitted 1,074 new students this fall semester. The school went over its target rate of 975 students. Overloading the incoming class does put a burden on teachers, class sizes, residence halls, and other facilities and resources. However, the overload of students can help to off set the 4 million dollar deficit the SUNY Plattsburgh has.
Although the economy is currently not a positive aspect of college and life in general students are still applying to public and private colleges. “Students are considering finances, now more than ever, but are just finding creative ways to get colleges to notice their uniqueness and potential contributions to their institution” said June Pernice, Plattsburgh High School counselor. “Our students always look at SUNY as an option,” said Pernice
“I relied on the fact that I am an Eagle Scout to get into college,” said SUNY Plattsburgh freshman Mathew Amidon.
Although Amidon is currently happy at SUNY Plattsburgh, he would have gone to Hobart and Williams Smith College if he had the money to do so. However, one of the reasons why Amidon choose SUNY Plattsburgh was because of the Education and Geography programs offered. Still, the biggest factor for him and his family was money. Hobart and Williams Smith College offered him a decent scholarship, but still wasn’t as affordable as SUNY.
“He doesn’t have any idea the cost of education today,” said Henry Dodd who was referring to his grandson, Nick Dodd. Dodd also said that the economy is going to be the biggest factor in his grandson’s education.
“The economy might play a role in the choice of where I go” said Plattsburgh High school senior Kenney McCarty who is thinking about studying at SUNY Plattsburgh and Paul Smiths.
Although many feel that the economy is going to play a role in the choices made by prospective students, people are still going to college. “I haven’t noticed hardly any change of the number of students applying to colleges,” said Plattsburgh High School senior English teacher Chris Beaudin.
“However, students who would normally go to private schools are going to public schools, while students who would normally go to public schools are now going to community colleges, again the biggest factor for many is money,” said Beaudin. Money is making people more cautious about where they go and for how long. “Students need to go into college and have a focused path to graduation, its too expensive to stay an extra year,” said Beaudin.
Public schools are at an advantage when it comes to selecting quality students, but are students at the advantage when it comes to selecting colleges? “For colleges to admit a strong academic freshman class, they are to naturally become more selective,” said Pernice.