 Photo by Robert Hubner
Raising academic criteria for incoming WSU students has met with
some criticism, especially from alumni families who hope to send
their children to their alma mater, but fear they can’t, because
their grades aren’t up to the new standards.
Lindsay Fiker recently had a student whose brother was admitted
to WSU a few years ago with a 2.70 GPA. He thought he could do the
same and didn’t heed her advice to work on his GPA. “He didn’t get
in,” she says. “At my last meeting with him, he was still working
with the appeals process. The world has changed.”
But it’s not just about grades and test scores anymore, say the
admissions counselors. WSU is more selective, but not as hard to
get into as many people think, says Vicki McCracken. About 75
percent of the students who apply to WSU get accepted, she says.
And the remaining 25 percent aren’t necessarily denied. Many start
an application, but never complete it, often because they have been
accepted somewhere else.
Last year, WSU started using a comprehensive application, which
included room for teacher references and a personal essay.
Sometimes when the grades are the problem, those references
vouching for the student’s ability to thrive in a university
environment will tip the scales. Before a student is turned away,
her file is very carefully reviewed. The Office of Admissions looks
for patterns, for example if the grades started out low and
improved during the junior and senior years, says McCracken.
Admissions officers also look at whether the student took
challenging classes in high school.
Next year the application will offer even more variables, with a
six-question resume instead of a single essay. The idea is to get a
more complete picture of the student, including any personal or
economic difficulties and whether he has the skills to seek help
and find a solution. In short, the answers will tell whether a
student has the skills to succeed at WSU, says Wendy Peterson,
director of WSU admissions.
Knowing how important an essay can be, Julia Pasztor started
early and wrote several versions. Last September, when many high
school seniors were just starting to think about college, Pasztor
had already started applications to her top three. “Once school
starts, it’s really hard to do your homework and apply for
college,” she says.
Randolph-Macon really tempted her, being so different and so far
away, but after her visit, she realized it didn’t suit her. The
University of Washington was a good option, but maybe was too large
and too close to home.
And Washington State University, the school with which she had
the most contact thanks to Kris Baier, intrigued her, especially
with the courses she could take to prepare for vet school.
"It's much more
than saying, 'Here's the school'. . . WSU is about relationship
building."
Julia took their recruitment posters and
those from other colleges, and tacked them to her bedroom ceiling.
Her top choices lived in a file above the computer she shares with
her brothers in the all-purpose room that once was the family
garage. There she would take breaks from the paperwork to play with
her three younger brothers or to organize her riding gear.
Sometimes she would call Baier with questions about her application
to WSU’s Honors College, about whom to ask for letters of
recommendation.
The whole effort of planning and applying for college was driven
by Julia herself. Her parents, who own a landscaping business, just
watched and encouraged.
She has always been an independent child with a penchant for
animals and the outdoors, says her mother Szofia Pasztor. She
remembers a day when toddler Julia vanished from their apartment.
After tearing through the complex calling her name and then
summoning the police, the Pasztors found their first-born back home
and hungry after several hours of watching fish in a nearby
pond.
It’s no wonder she wants to go away for college and be on her
own, says Szofia; she’s been doing that all her life.
In making her choice, Julia didn’t look much at college
rankings. And she didn’t look to her peers. In fact, her friends
discouraged her from applying to WSU, saying that any student would
choose the UW over WSU. Julia said she applied to both schools to
prove her friends wrong.
Instead, she looked at graduation rates and at where students
who attended WSU went for postgraduate studies. And she spent a lot
of time asking questions of Kris. She was interested in the student
experience, one of living on a campus away from home, one of
independence in a college town. In August, she packed her bags and
headed to Pullman, eager to find her new home in Stephenson East,
wondering what the next four years will bring.
“I want to really get on my feet,” she says. “I want to get
away. Be with friends. And really experience college.”
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