NACAC Ethics Code Modified

The National Association for College Admission Counseling, at its annual conference last week in Louisville, altered its Code of Ethics and Professional Practice. It removed provisions that governed student recruitment, including:

• "Colleges must not offer incentives exclusive to students applying or admitted under an early decision application plan. Examples of incentives include the promise of special housing, enhanced financial aid packages, and special scholarships for early decision admits.”

The deletion of this text paves the way for colleges to ramp up the pressure on ED applicants by offering them money or better housing if they commit early – often before they receive the full financial aid package.

• "Colleges will not knowingly recruit or offer enrollment incentives to students who are already enrolled, registered, have declared their intent, or submitted contractual deposits to other institutions. May 1 is the point at which commitments to enroll become final, and colleges must respect that…Once students have committed themselves to a college, other colleges must respect that choice and cease recruiting them."

By removing this wording, it appears that colleges can now continue to recruit students even after they have decided and deposited at another institution. The removal of a third section of the CEPP allows colleges to more actively recruit transfer students. The Chronicle of Higher Education (9/29/19) fears that this could lead to “bidding wars and poaching of students.”

The changes were a result of a Department of Justice inquiry into whether the policies inhibited competition among colleges for students.

One concern is that these changes could make the college admission process longer and more stressful for students. Insidehighered.com predicts a sharp rise in deposit fees, as colleges try to protect their yield from aggressive competitors. Students now have a more complicated process to navigate. Changing the rules changes the game.

HSCA member Sheryl Kavanagh found this resource to help explain how these changes will affect school counselors: https://hscw-counselorscorner.blogspot.com/2019/10/changes-in-college-admissions-deadlines.html

NACAC will continue to offer more info on this development.

Source: http://mailview.bulletinmedia.com/mailview.aspx?m=2019100101nacac&r=7119089-47b7&render=y