The University of Southern California announced today that it admitted 8,920 students to the Class of 2020.  

54,100 applications were received, up 4.5 percent from last year, resulting in an overall admission rate of 16.5 percent.

Click here for the news release.

Northwestern University admitted 2,690 regular decision applicants to the Class of 2020.  

In total, 3,761 students were admitted through early or regular decision from a pool of 35,099 applicants, resulting in an overall admission rate of 10.7 percent. 

Click here for the news release.

Middlebury College announced over the weekend that it admitted 1,042 applicants under regular decision to the Class of 2020.  

After factoring in an additional. 373 early admission admits, applicants admitted for the year totaled 1,415.  A total of 8,820 applications were received, resulting in an overall admission rate of 16 percent.

Click here for the news release.

Pomona College announced on Friday that it admitted 743 students to the Class of 2020.

In total, 8,104 applications were received, resulting in an overall admission rate of 9.1 percent.   

Click here for the news release.

Johns Hopkins admitted 2,539 applicants to the Class of 2020 under regular decision.  

In total, 3,098 students were admitted from 27,095 applicants, resulting in an overall admission rate of 11 percent.  The early decision admission rate for the year was 29 percent, compared to a regular decision admission rate of 10 percent.  

Click here for the news release.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced today that it admitted a total of 1,485 applicants to the Class of 2020.  

A total of 19,020 applications were submitted this year, resulting in an overall admission rate of 7.8 percent.  

Of the 1,485 students admitted, 656 were from early action and 829 were from regular decision.  The early action admit rate was 8.4 percent for the year, while the regular decision rate was 7.4 percent.

Click here for the news release.

So, your student has gotten those hard-earned (and highly coveted) acceptance letters. (CONGRATS!) You’ve gotten the screaming/dancing/calling everyone you know out of your system, and now it’s time to start preparing for the next step: paying for college.

Everyone knows that tuition is the primary cost of college, but there are a variety of others that can add up significantly.

It’s important that these costs are understood by the entire family —from those who are able to fully finance their student’s education to those on financial aid. Actually, it’s especially important for the latter, since you can’t get grant, scholarship, or loan money to cover many of these expenses.

An update to College Kickstart has just been posted! 

This release features the addition of several regional colleges and universities, updated admissions data and a change in terminology—"safety" schools are now "likely" schools.

Click on Continue Reading for the details. 

In search of colleges and universities with strong undergraduate business programs?

Here's a list of 100+ schools to get you started.  To make the list, we looked for public and private institutions that granted business/marketing degrees to 10% or more of its graduates last year and/or were consistently ranked highly by third party sources (US News, Bloomberg, etc.).

Apart from the brand name institutions you'd expect to be on the list, there are also several lesser known but intriguing options to consider.  If you're 100% certain about majoring in business, check out Babson College or Bentley University, where nearly everyone is a business major.  Or schools like Notre Dame, Boston College, University of Richmond or Villanova if you're looking to study business in a liberal arts setting.  And if you're an aspiring engineer looking for some business savvy, consider schools like MIT or Carnegie Mellon.

To help you categorize schools into safeties, targets and reaches, we've included admission rates, mid-50th percentile SAT and ACT scores.  And since the list is large, we've broken the schools out into very selective (<25% admission rate), selective (25-50%) and less selective (>50%) buckets. Finally, we've also provided links to each school's website to help you explore fit.

Click on Continue Reading for the details. 

With admissions decisions right around the corner, here's an article from Forbes we think you'll find useful in helping you to make a final decision on where to attend.

Clickhere for the article. 

Should my safety school be an out-of-state public university?

This article from the Washington Post provides good evidence of the trend towards admitting more out-of-state applicants at many of the nation's most prominent public universities.  While some of this shift may be attributed to "increasing campus diversity," most of it is attributable to maximizing tuition revenue as state budget support for public universities wanes.

Click here for the article.

Three of the five Claremont Colleges—Pomona, Pitzer and Harvey Mudd—announced early decision results for the Class of 2020 on Friday.  

• Pomona College reported 19.4 percent of early decision (ED) applicants were admitted this year. 914 ED applications were received this year, up 24 percent from last year.  ED admittances will make up approximately 40 percent of the incoming class.

• Pitzer College reported 27.8 percent of ED applicants were admitted to the Class of 2020.  423 ED applications were received this year, up 4 percent from the previous year.

• Harvey Mudd College reported that 16.6 percent of ED applicants were admitted to the Class of 2020.  464 ED applications were received, up 6 percent from last year.  ED admittances will make up approximately 35 perent of the incoming class.

• Scripps College and Claremont McKenna College did not report early admission results in the article.

For more information, click here.

Vanderbilt University reported today that it admitted 23.6 percent of Early Decision I/II applicants to the Class of 2020.  

Click here for the news release.

Middlebury College announced today that it admitted 60 early decision II applicants to the Class of 2020.  

A total of 318 early decision II applications were received this year, resulting in an early decision II admission rate of 20 percent.

Overall, a total of 954 early decision I and II applications were received and 398 were admitted, resulting in an overall early decision admit rate of 42 percent.

Click here for the news release.

Amherst College announced today that it admitted 180 early decision applicants to the Class of 2020. 

Early decision applications fell 6 percent to 454, resulting in an early admission rate of 40 percent. Students admitted early decision will account for 38 percent of the targeted incoming class of  472 students.   

Click here for the news release.