Why wait? Colleges try 'instant admission'

When Angie Douglass decided to apply to college two weeks ago, she wanted to know right away if she was admitted. So instead of mailing her application, she walked down the hall of her high school to the guidance counselor's office.

There, a visiting admissions officer from Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo greeted her, took her application, and began checking grades and test scores. Minutes later, the woman looked up, smiling.

"You're in," Ms. Douglass recalls her saying. Instantly, she felt relieved and excited, the load of college-hunting lifted from her senior-year shoulders.

Some call it "instant admission," while others dub it "immediate" or "on-site" admissions. Whatever you call it, a trend toward rendering speedy decisions in person is turning on its head the long wait for a "fat envelope" in the mail.

Public universities, community colleges, and even a selective college or two are adding this approach to their repertoire.

Some charge that it "manipulates" the process. But high-schoolers say they like the speedy decision, personal service, and ability to weigh various scholarship offers and shop around even after being admitted.

On the downside, it can be a wrenching experience. And students might tend to limit their search once they've been admitted somewhere.

Nobody knows exactly how many schools practice instant admissions. Fewer than a dozen institutions responded to an e-mail survey by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. But about three dozen references to instant or immediate admissions programs appear at different university websites.

Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the association, says many colleges now wield speed and personal service as a competitive weapon.

"What is driving this is a customer-oriented approach, which began in the 1980s," he says.

Most of California's 27 state universities now offer "instant admission days" on selected high school campuses, says Selma Mayhew, supervisor of admissions and records at the Northridge campus. On the East Coast, William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., began doing so about three years ago.

Advocates concede that the fast-answer system may not work for highly selective institutions, and probably works best for universities with clear-cut admissions criteria based mainly on grades and test scores.

The advantage for such schools is that those who apply this way are generally better students. And, because of the personal touch, a higher percentage of these applicants go on to attend that university after being admitted.

"If a student comes to an on-site interview, it's an indication that student is very interested in us," says John Fraire, dean of admissions at Western Michigan.

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