Less selective schools should create the story

I had my little rant last week how I wished the press would write stories this month about colleges that are  accepting plenty of their applicants, instead of eagerly recycling the annual news that the nation’s most selective colleges got even more competitive this year. 

Then I learned that those less competitive schools don’t make it very easy to find those statistics.  I tried to find the class of 2016 admissions stats for over a dozen schools featured as Colleges that Change Lives, great schools that accept plenty of kids who aren’t necessarily at the top of the class, and I couldn’t find any information.  I know they’ll all eventually publish profiles of the freshman classes, but you’ll need to dig into their websites to find those.  That information is less likely to show up in a major news story. 

It’s a public badge of honor when a school claims they rejected even more qualified applicants this year—it makes the school seem more desirable.  Maybe the less selective colleges don’t want major press outlets announcing that they take B students with average test scores?

My question is, why not?  To schools that are accepting lots of applicants, why not create that story?  Tell the press and anybody who wants to listen:

We just offered admission to 52% of our applicants for the class of 2016.  We admitted two quarterbacks of state champion football teams, 24 club presidents, 2 flutists, an oboe player and 62 students who worked part time jobs after school.  We admitted one published author, a student who makes ceramic pots and sells them at flea markets, 14 students who wrote for their high school papers, four yearbook photographers and one poet who posts her work on her blog.  We admitted three debate champions, one trainer of guide dogs for the blind, a pilot, several competitive equestrians, and a student who’s going to make it his life’s mission to beat his mother at tennis.  The average high school GPA of our admits was 3.42 (we are test-optional because we don’t think SAT/ACT scores help us find the right students) and we couldn’t be more excited to see who joins us this fall. 

Start creating those stories and you’ll change the way people think about college admissions.