The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), August 12, 2007, Sunday

Copyright 2007 Post-Standard

All Rights Reserved

All Rights Reserved.

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

August 12, 2007 Sunday

FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1

HEADLINE: CONFIDENT ABOUT YOUR COLLEGE OF CHOICE? THINK AGAIN

BYLINE: By Rebecca James Staff writer

BODY:

Trista Wesley sent her application to the State University of New York at Binghamton in early December, thinking it was a pretty sure bet.

At Jamesville-DeWitt High School, she was an honor student with a 92 average, a clarinet player in the band and president of the Key Club. But Binghamton admissions officials told her they were swamped with applicants and had no place for her before the spring 2008 semester.

"I don't know if I was fooling myself, but I really didn't think it was going to be that competitive," Wesley said. "I was upset and shocked."

Standards are rising rapidly at many SUNY cam

puses, as competition for freshman classes has become more intense, particularly in the last two years.

The State University at Binghamton led the SUNY system in applications this year with more than 25,000, up more than 2,000 from 2006. Out-of-state applications were up 70 percent, a likely reflection of Binghamton's accolades in national rankings. Its acceptance rate dropped to a record low 40 percent.

Other campuses, including Oswego, Cortland, Geneseo and Oneonta, also reported rising application numbers and higher standards. For students, especially those with grades in the 80s, the result is that rejection is more common than it used to be.

"The fact of the matter is that, yes, it's true: Some students who would have been admitted several years ago, aren't being admitted now," said Joseph Grant, dean of admissions at the State University College at Oswego.

Wesley said now she wishes she had applied to more SUNY schools, besides Binghamton and Geneseo, both of which didn't accept her for the fall. She is going to Keuka College, a private school that gave her a substantial scholarship.

Here are signs of the times at SUNY:

SUNY Geneseo accepted half of its applicants five years ago. This year, with a record 10,527 applicants, about 35 percent were accepted.

SUNY Delhi filled up its dorms June 22, earlier than ever before, and began reaching capacity in some of its most popular programs in February. By midsummer it was no longer taking applications for associate degree programs.

Onondaga Community College expects applications to be up 42 percent this year compared to five years ago. Its dorms also were full by the end of June.

Unlike many SUNY campuses, community colleges will admit larger freshman classes when they have more applicants. This year's freshman class at OCC is expected to be 27 percent bigger than the one in 2002.

Tonjia Droczak, of Auburn, will be part of it.

Droczak graduated from Union Springs High School with a GPA in the high 80s. She played varsity tennis and was in the National Honor Society and Amnesty International.

Her first choice was SUNY Albany, where she wanted to study Russian, but she didn't get in. She hopes to transfer there after a year.

As more of the state's high school graduates find themselves in Droczak's shoes - starting at a community college - the state should do more to help them make the transition, said Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute.

That issue - and the desire to improve SUNY's profile - is on Gov. Eliot Spitzer's mind.

Spitzer said in May that he wants SUNY to have internationally renowned campuses, with reputations similar to schools in the University of California system.

But a better reputation draws more out-of-state applicants, which can further increase competitiveness, as Binghamton experienced this fall. At this point, SUNY's out-of-state enrollments are still relatively small compared to other states' public college systems, Ehrenberg said.

When Spitzer created a commission in May to improve higher education, he made one of its goals to help in-state community college graduates make a smooth transition to four-year schools.

Getting into SUNY colleges as a transfer student is the easy part. Most accept all students who earn a B average in community college.

Both Droczak and Wesley said they were caught by surprise this year because older friends who were already in college or had just graduated filled them in on what it took to get into Binghamton, Albany or Geneseo.

"I didn't realize how much the competitiveness has changed," Droczak said.

At alumni weekends, Grant said, he frequently hears from parents whose children can't follow in their footsteps at SUNY Oswego.

"That's the hard thing," he said. "Those parents are the teachers and lawyers. They are part of our society and are paying taxes and productive. Their sons and daughters are certainly capable.

"When we deny, it's not because we don't think they are capable. We're just simply taking the best students applying."