Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Nov. 30, 2000, edition 1 / Page 16
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Page 16 •News* Nov. 30, 2000 Staff at the Admissions office tadde everyday problems with new applicants Summer Shaikh Contributing Reporter John Smith has a 3.0 GPA, is a solid B student, his math teacher thinks he is a hard worker and he wants to be the first one in his family to go to college. Should Smith be accepted to the college or university of his choice? The admissions staff at schools like Elon College tackle this question every day. A student’s application goes through many important steps in the admissions office of Elon College. The application is first reviewed in the records office, where staff mem bers make sure it has everything it needs. After their information has been keyed in to the data system, it can then either end up being re viewed by various people such as admissions counselors or the direc tor of admission records, Staci Powell. “Academics are very impor tant to the selection process,” said Powell when describing the judg ment of a student’s work in high school. She said the order of the application review process is to look at a student’s high school grades. then check the competitiveness of that school, analyze his or her aca demic curriculum, gauge the stan dardized test scores and finally evaluate the essay. The SAT is vital in the review, though his or her words can help us to know this per son on a better level than before.” Powell said she sees these myths play out every day in student applications. Her attention is not devoted to students who simply list every activity and club they joined. The essays that jump out at her are the ones with significant learning experiences and stories about what makes that person who they are. High school teacher recom mendations can often beat around the bush with descriptions of stu dents. Powell said red flags go up very quickly when she reads sugar- coated evaluations. The real em phasis is placed on the counselor recommendations from people who know the student quite well. These kinds of evaluations give an accu rate picture of what this person is really like. Many universities have struggled with the question of whether they can take race into ac count when admitting students. Schools that have used a form of affirmative action in the selection process argue that they are using it as a plus factor. These schools attest that preference is not only given in regard to race, but also monetary need and athletic prow ess. The exclusion of affirmative action is one of the similarities be tween Elon and other universities in North Carolina. Affirmative action is an issue that does not come into play at Elon College, Duke Univer sity and North Carolina State Uni versity. This is because they gener ally don’t make judgments on the basis of race, color and ethnic ori gin. Powell said Elon College is more similar to N.C.S.U. academi cally, but it differs from both schools in many of its admissions statistics. Duke and N.C. State both have a “highly selective” entrance level, whereas Elon has a “selective’’ sta tus. N.C. State gives a lot of prefer ence to in-state students, making its out-of-state percentage only eight percent. Duke and Elon have much higher percentages of out-of-state students with 88 and 75. The admissions staffs at Duke love prompts beatihg of an 18-year-old high school boy Lauren Vills The Pendulum A 15-year-old high school student pleaded guilty to beating her 18-year-old prom date. She will be sentenced before the end of the month in juvenile court. Pros ecutors said the Skokie, III. girl beat her ex-boyfriend at an after prom party at his house last May because he refused to kiss her. She initially claimed he had tried to rape her. After the inves tigating police found no evidence of any sexual assault, she retracted her charge and admitted the truth. The girl, whose name was not released because she is a juve nile, said she made up the sexual assault allegation because the boy rejected her advances. She was doink at teUgi^/jfihe ^a^ynter. With the White Ribbon Cam paign going on this week many is sues of violence towards women are being dealt with, but this girl’s case raises comments and con cerns of just the opposite: women abusing men. “If a girl or woman beat[s] up her boyfriend or hus band, then I think she is opening the door for violence,” says Lin Nelson of Chicago, Illinois. As far as the rights of men go in the event that they are attacked by a female, Elon College sopho more Annie Chalmers says “ [The man] has the same right to say ‘no’ just as the woman does, regardless of the situation.” In thiscase of unrequited love, the girl’s ex-boyfriend received two black eyes from the incident. He says he did not try and defend . himself t>eyayse he was taught never to hit a girl. Many students on campus feel he did the right thing by not hitting the girl back. Sophomore, Joe Preli, said that the ex-boyfriend “was being upright and righteous about not taking advantage of her.” He added, “a guy should not hit a girl, period.” Bryan McFarland, an Elon College student, echoed Preli’s statement but adds a little more to it saying, “A guy should defend himself in a non-physical way, like hold her back or restrain her in some sort of way.” This case gives students at both the high school and college a new concept to ponder, men can be victims of physical abuse too. The girl has since apologized for her behavior said she needs to learn to control her temper. and N.C. State are looking for stu dents with average GPAs of 3.8. Powell said Elon accepts solid B+ students with an average GPAs 3.4. The number of admitted stu dents varies in the three schools. Duke and Elon have similar accep tance rates of 3,777 and 3,300 stu dents this year. N.C. State is a much bigger school; so its acceptance rate for this year is 7,555 students. “The number of admitted students each year at Elon is decided by many people, such as the board of trust ees, and the president,” said Powell. “It is based on class size, the school ’ s financial needs, the number of fac ulty and facilities.” Powell said Elon works on a rolling scale, where many things in a student’s application can deter mine his or her acceptance, rejec tion or wait-list status. Contrary to popular belief, SAT scores do not always make or break a student’s future. She said it is better to earn a good GPA than a good SAT score, because it says more about the con sistent work ethic of a student. To differentiate between stu dents, a formula called the “Elon GPA” is used to measure the quality of applicants as well. The Elon GPA is an adjusted GPA figure that assesses honors and advanced place ment classes that students have taken. This number can sometimes be very different than a person ’ s high school scores. Classifying yourself as early decisions -meaning Elon is your choice, is another factor that can enhance a student’s chance of ac ceptance at Elon. Counselors want to see that students have a lot of interest in their school, and applying early decision does just that. An 18-year-old might not want to have the same professors and live in the same dorm that his or her parents did, but that legacy can cer tainly help them on the path to ac ceptance. Legacy stands out on a student’s application at Elon. Powell said it does not give a specified advantage, but Elon likes to see gen eration after generation come to this school. Application assessment is a process of six to eight weeks of careful consideration and question ing by the admissions staff, but the only question hovering in every high school senior’s mind is always: Is the envelope going to be thick or thin? Kickboxing D»rT MESS WITH GII?LS WHO IflOf BUTTS. Tbb Ad. to Receive *1 Free Boxing Otoves IB ^Fi^e Wrist Wrap Wto Ym Joitt 3 « 6 Mcdis. Limited Offer. Join Now! Across Fmni WestEnl Ckema. to Kids Sport 1. Tb» target M. 2.20KiekBoxjiig!^^ 3. .SoftC«stof»e*t 4. Musk, 5* Worifcoirt* 6, Grm lii^lrwetors. 7. iS:afc Lccatio-a, Come arid Ctieck it Out Now ■ For Arts EnH^uilasIs We Also OrTer Mew Olymjiic Tae Kwon Do Clasps wiith ¥oy Fleadisfc Sehedaks. Mo®ag, and #/ Tae Or*
Elon University Student Newspaper
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Nov. 30, 2000, edition 1
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