American colleges and universities have witnessed another upsurge in early program applications this year, according to various university sources. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, has made history with its largest application pool to date (up five percent from last year). Dartmouth College saw an increase of 10 percent this year while Harvard College received close to 6,000 restrictive early action applications (up from about 4,700 from last year).

Happily for King’s seniors, more than half of whom applied to an early program this year, almost 200 early acceptance letters have been received to date from reputable universities around the world.

Members of the Class of 2015 have received early acceptances from Tufts University, Princeton University, Georgetown University, Barnard College, Purdue University, Northeastern University, Duke University, Baylor University, Northwestern University, Bates College, Bentley University, the University of Virginia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Emory University, Marymount University, Marquette University and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

Reflecting on these strong results, Headmaster John Austin said the key to a student’s success at King’s Academy is to “work hard, meet our high expectations, and take full advantage of the exceptional opportunities we offer.” Students who do that, he added, “will be well educated and well positioned for a successful college career and a fulfilling adult life.”

Acceptances have also been received from Lebanon’s American University of Beirut (AUB), Canada’s Carleton University, Trent University and Brock University, and from Switzerland’s Webster University.

Conditional acceptances – with many of the requirements already met – also came in from institutions in the United Kingdom, including Aberdeen University, King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University, Royal Holloway, the University of Sheffield, the University of Bristol, the University of Reading, Regent’s University, the University of Bath and – for the first time in King’s history – Cambridge University.

But while pleased with these results, Director of University Counseling and Testing Hala Salah said that, when working with students, what her office most focuses on was finding the right “fit.”

“When choosing a college, we want our students to look beyond the name brand,” Salah said. “We want them to base their choices on those colleges that best fit their needs and not because they are listed as the best in the rankings.” 

Student interests, strengths, weaknesses and learning styles should be main factors in the selection process, Salah explained. Meeting specific criteria – such as GPA and SAT averages – is a priority when compiling that college list, but there are many other factors to consider when selecting colleges: cost, location, class size, diversity, a challenging curriculum, safety, fields of study, retention and graduation rates, internship and co-op opportunities, travel abroad programs, career services and clubs, and sports and activities.

Competition among international applicants shows no signs of slowing as the number of international students studying the United States as of 2013-2014 was just under 900,000 (up eight percent), according to the online data portal Open Doors. In addition, the total number of international students since 2000 has increased by a staggering 72 percent, 31 percent of which are students from China, and the percentage of students from India has gone up six percent.

As a testament to their hard work, King’s seniors have earned an impressive total of US $809,607 in scholarships this year and have been offered generous financial aid packages (between US $30,000 - $65,000 each) from Tufts University, Northwestern University, Connecticut College, Union College, Barnard College, Washington College, Knox College, Lawrence University, Muhlenberg College and Bates College.

“Despite the decades-long pattern of climbing higher education costs in the United States, thankfully, so many of our deserving students are still able to obtain the funding that makes studying abroad a reality,” said Salah.