For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's our initial update of Class of 2027 waitlist notification dates and status where available.  

To get a sense for what's happening at the macro level, we took a look at recently released Fall 2022 waitlist statistics from 101 private and public institutions.  Our analysis paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist declined 3 percent year over year from 26,000 for the Class of 2025 to 20,000 for the Class of 2026

• On average, 19 percent of Fall 2022 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, unchanged from the previous year

• Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 8 percent of Fall 2022 enrollments, down slightly from 9 percent for Fall 2021

• 62 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for Fall 2022 (vs. 57 percent for the Fall 2021)

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

QUESTION: what happens when a college wants a balanced class but has a much smaller female applicant pool to draw on?

ANSWER: higher admission rates for females!

Like our previous post, we looked at several popular coed institutions and searched for places where there was a 20% or greater admission rate advantage, this time for women.  The result: a list of 51 schools for qualified applicants to consider.

The list is dominated by institutions strong in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), but you'll also find some unexpected names like Grinnell College and Kenyon College.    

To help you categorize schools into likelies, targets and reaches, we've included admission rates, mid-50th percentile SAT and ACT scores.  We've also provided links to each school's website to help you explore fit.  

Click on Continue Reading for the details. 

Did you know it's possible to be guaranteed admission to certain public universities based solely on your academic credentials?  

While institutions like the University of California won’t guarantee you admission to a specific campus, the good news is that most will based on some combination of class rank, GPA and test scores.

For example, if you’re a Texas resident interested in the University of Texas at Austin, a top 6% class rank will grant you automatic admission.

Better yet, assured admission often extends to non-residents as well. A 3.0+ GPA or Top 25% rank will assure admission to the University of Arizona, or a 3.25+ GPA will assure admission to the University of Kansas.

Of course, you’ll still need to complete an application and sweat the details, like making sure you’ve satisfied curriculum requirements and that your GPA is calculated appropriately. To help you understand the specifics, we’ve included links to program criteria for the public institutions listed.

If that’s still too much work, consider checking out College Kickstart. We track assured admission criteria for over 50 programs across the nation and will automatically flag situations where your academic credentials appear to meet assured admission criteria for schools on your list.  It's a great way to take some of the stress out of the process!  

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of selected institutions with assured admission programs.

As you evaluate whether or not to submit test scores with your application, consider not only the strength of your score(s), but also the degree to which colleges of interest have embraced students without test scores.

While the colleges themselves have not been particularly forthcoming about the impact of test score submission on admission rate, the latest version of the Common Data Set (CDS) does make it possible to get a sense for the mix of the Fall 2021 entering class that submitted test scores. If 90% of the entering class submitted test scores, applying test-optional may be risky. On the flip side, if 10% of the entering class submitted test scores, you can feel pretty comfortable that applying test-optional won't put your application at risk.

This post focuses on selective, test-optional institutions where a high percentage of the Fall 2021 entering class submitted test scores. In other words, places where you may need to think twice about applying test-optional.

Note: because the Common Data Set reports the percentage submitting SAT and percentage submitting ACT but NOT the percentage submitting both, we report the results in the form of a range and an index that represents the midpoint of that range. Each school listed has an admit rate of 50 percent or less and an index of 67 percent or greater.

Click on Continue Reading to see the list.

U.S. News & World Report released their 2023 college rankings earlier today.  1,500 schools were covered nationwide and evaluated on up to 17 measures of academic quality.

This year's methodology adjusts for the decline in SAT/ACT test takers, introduces a more comprehensive measure of faculty resources and reflects changes to Carenegie Classifications made in 2021.

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

Honors programs are a terrific way for academically talented students to reap the benefits of a liberal arts education within the context of a large research institution.

To give you a better sense for how this can enrich your college experience, we’ve compiled a list of undergraduate honors programs from top public and private universities across the nation. We've included admission profiles where available, program benefits, whether an extra application is required and a link to each institution's offering for more details.

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of top undergraduate honors programs now.

For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's our initial update of Class of 2026 waitlist notification dates and status where available.  

To get a sense for what's happening at the macro level, we took a look at recently released Class of 2025 waitlist statistics from 120 private and public institutions.  Our analysis paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist declined 46 percent year over year from 61,000 for the Class of 2024 to 33,000 for the Class of 2025

• On average, 15 percent of Class of 2025 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, down from 32 percent in for the Class of 2024

• Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 13 percent of Class of 2025 enrollments, down from 27 percent for the Class of 2024

• 61 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for the Class of 2025 (vs. 28 percent for the Class of 2024)

As expected, surge in waitlist activity brought on by the pandemic to more normal levels with the Class of 2025, as institutions worked through a surge in gap year deferrals, vaccinations kicked into gear and students were finally able to return to campus. We anticipate waitlist activity to continue to moderate for the Class of 2026.

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Are you a first generation/low income applicant looking for a great place to get a college education?

While the natural tendency may be to simply look at your local public university, it might in fact not be the most affordable choice or the one that gives you the best chance to graduate on time. On the flip side, there may be private schools worth considering with great financial aid and high graduation rates, but if these institutions lack socioeconomic diversity and the critical support services and community to help you adjust, they may be poor fits as well.

Using data gathered from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, we’ve developed a list of approximately 30 institutions where Pell-eligible students have an opportunity to thrive without compromise. Each institution features healthy socioeconomic diversity, high graduation rates, good support programs and low debt at graduation.

Click on Continue Reading to learn more about the schools that make the cut.

Wondering if it's possible to tour some campuses over spring break?  Then check out our list of popular colleges offering on-campus visits.

We've taken the top 50 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges from the latest U.S. News rankings and identified those currently open for on-campus visits.

Unsurprisingly, most of the institutions open for visits have safe practices in place, so make sure you've satisfied the requirements prior to visiting. Also take note that most tours are now limited to just a few families per tour so it's best to sign up as early as possible.  For your convenience, we've included a links to schedule your tour/information session directly.

College Kickstart subscribers: there are now over 500 schools in our coverage universe currently open for prospective student visits and they are identified in the Summary View, along with links to schedule your visit.

Bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it frequently over the next several weeks as the colleges finalize their spring campus programs.  

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Did you know it's possible to be guaranteed admission to certain public universities based solely on your academic credentials?  

While institutions like the University of California won’t guarantee you admission to a specific campus, the good news is that most will based on some combination of class rank, GPA and test scores.

For example, if you’re an Arizona resident interested in the University of Arizona, a 3.0+ GPA or top 25% class rank will assure you admission. Or if you’re a Texas resident interested in the University of Texas at Austin, a top 6% class rank will grant you automatic admission.

Better yet, assured admission often extends to non-residents as well. A top 10% class rank or 3.5+ GPA will assure admission to Washington State University, for example, or a 24+ ACT or 1160+ SAT will assure admission to the University of Missouri. 

Of course, you’ll still need to complete an application and sweat the details, like making sure you’ve satisfied curriculum requirements and that your GPA is calculated appropriately. To help you understand the specifics, we’ve included links to program criteria for the public institutions listed.

If that’s still too much work, consider checking out College Kickstart. We track assured admission criteria for over 50 programs across the nation and will automatically flag situations where your academic credentials appear to meet assured admission criteria for schools on your list.  It's a great way to take some of the stress out of the process!  

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of selected institutions with assured admission programs.

U.S. News & World Report released their 2022 college rankings yesterday.  Over 1,400 schools were covered nationwide and evaluated on multiple measures of academic excellence and outcomes to produce the final rankings.

This year's methodology adjusts for the decline in SAT/ACT test takers and continues to include test-blind institutions.

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

Wondering if it's possible to tour some campuses over the summer?  Then check out our list of top colleges offering on-campus visits.

We've taken the top 50 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges from the latest U.S. News rankings and identified those currently open for on-campus visits.  With vaccinations in full force and cases on the decline, many have resumed in-person campus tours.

Unsurprisingly, most of the institutions open for visits have safe practices in place, so make sure you've satisfied the requirements prior to visiting. Also take note that most tours are now limited to just a few families per tour so it's best to sign up as early as possible.  For your convenience, we've included a links to schedule your tour/information session directly.

College Kickstart subscribers: there are now over 500 schools in our coverage universe currently open for prospective student visits and they are now visible in the Summary View, along with links to schedule your visit.

Bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it frequently over the next several weeks as the colleges update their summer visit plans.  

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Honors programs are a terrific way for academically talented students to reap the benefits of a liberal arts education within the context of a large research institution.

To give you a better sense for how this can enrich your college experience, we’ve compiled a list of undergraduate honors programs from top public and private universities across the nation. We've included admission profiles where available, program benefits, whether an extra application is required and a link to each institution's offering for more details.

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of top undergraduate honors programs now.

For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's a list of 2020 waitlist statistics for several popular private and public schools, along with notification dates and latest status where available.  

Our sample of waitlist statistics from 100 private and public institutions paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist rose 97 percent year over year from 22,223 in 2019 to 43,867 in 2020

• On average, 29 percent of students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted in 2020, up from 18 percent in 2019

• 33 percent of the schools admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist last year (vs. 48 percent in 2019)

• 17 percent of the schools admitted 5 percent or less (vs. 29 percent in 2019)

• 3 percent admitted no one (vs. 8 percent in 2019)

These results come as no surprise given the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic last cycle. That said, we strongly caution against assuming a similar level of waitlist activity this cycle as much of this uncertainty is now behind us and most schools are resuming normal operations.

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Interested in studying “the skill of the century” and accessing a global market that is worth over $300 billion? Look no further than artificial intelligence (AI) and check out our latest list of colleges with strong undergraduate AI programs in the United States.

The term “artificial intelligence” was coined as early as 1956 and refers to the broad concept of making it possible for machines to perform human-like tasks, such as solving problems, making decisions, understanding language, and processing sounds and images. However, AI only became increasingly popular recently, and along with this rise in popularity came spikes in investment, which led to rapid growth in the AI industry.

Studying AI prepares students to solve problems across a variety of fields and introduces them to a huge job market that continues to expand today. Drawing from U.S. News, TechTarget, CSRankings, Computer Science Degree Hub, Great Value Colleges and Value Colleges, we've curated a list of some of the top undergraduate programs in artificial intelligence across the nation. This list also covers information about the overall admission rates and profiles, offered AI programs, curriculum, and research opportunities and facilities for each listed institution.

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of top undergraduate AI programs nationwide.