|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Ted Cohen
Vermont’s ranking state university is facing pushback over plans to stop requiring hopeful freshmen to submit essays with their applications.
“We’ve removed the optional supplemental essay from our application process,” announced Jay Jacobs, vice president for enrollment at the University of Vermont.
Though it’s described as “optional,” high-school seniors traditionally have considered the essay effectively mandatory to making the grade as applicants.
Dropping the essay requirement is designed to “reduce barriers and stress for students,” Jacobs said.
Abolishing the essay comes in the wake of an alarming report of an enrollment drop that is costing the school literally millions of dollars.
UVM President Marlene Tromp recently told state legislators UVM is facing a $12 million annual deficit due to a projected enrollment decline.
The university said it expects to see a 15 percent drop in freshmen this fall compared to last year.
Tuition accounts for two-thirds of the university’s general fund.
In the view of some critics, making the application process easier simply dumbs down the minimum academics needed to get admitted to college.
Mark Hampson, an engineering team leader at BETA Technologies in South Burlington, was shocked at the decision to make the application process easier.
“Are you kidding me?” Hampson asked on a LinkedIn reaction to Jacobs. “Show me a job where written communication is not paramount.”
He argues that dropping the essay is “a symptom of a failing high-school education system, not of having an admission bar that’s too high.”
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: Education
Declining enrollment? …hmm. Maybe anyone with intelligence is busy promoting Life On Earth? What person in their right mind would attend a university that actively promotes death to all life on Earth? (carbon capture and so many other faulty ideologies).
This is crazy. I graduated from a great and competitive UVM in 1984. Difficult to get in. A BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. I went to work in Boston at a Big Eight accounting firm, and am back in Vermont. With UVM’s weak and DEI focus, I have asked to be removed from their Alum newsletters. Naming a research boat for a politician was the icing on the cake driving me away. It’s sad, but UVM, Burlington, and Vermont all need a turnaround big time.
Give UVM’s endowm anything more than a dollar and they’ll name a tree after you.
So heck yah.
I guess that AI would be used to write these essays. Then, everybody would get admitted, because AI is the greatest and never makes mistakes. Right?
Yes, Chris,
You’re onto us. Have a pill. Red, or blue?
“Dropping the essay requirement is designed to “reduce barriers and stress for students,” Jacobs said.”
What does that have anything to do with getting into college? That’s like saying, “It’s not fair that those who don’t qualify aren’t getting in.”
This is why I really hate going to a doctor and I dread ever needing to use the ER.
But the world is much getter off knowing that the doctor graduated medical school and passed the boards only because they tried.
Dumbing things down is always a good answer………
Well, what will happen when the professors will see how badly the Freshmen write after they arrive! Long,long ago in a galaxy far away there was a highly competitive state university especially for out of staters. Where is it??
“Higher eduction” should definitely not be called that anymore. Send your kid to trade school instead.
Heard a report yesterday that licensed electricians working in data centers are making up to $300,000 a year. Wonder how much one can make with a trans study degree
Probably for the best in sure the essay’s were written by AI anyway
This sounds like the opening line of a bad joke, but educational institutions can get an program that uses AI to determine if a paper was written by AI
This question is not doing away with the essay but what will replace it, if anything. AI certainly is a factor that is hard to judge in essays so is there an alternative. The decline in enrollment is real but does it have anything to do with the essay? Maybe not. What are the factors most influencing declining enrollment and what can be done about them?
Do knife-wielding transients affect enrollment?
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/firefighter-motorist-restrain-knife-wielding-transient/