Wait Lists- Nancy Federspiel, Director, College Consulting Services
As predicted, this year's applicant pools at colleges across the nation were larger than ever. We thought this would happen because there is a bubble in the population - there are more people that are seventeen and eighteen than there used to be (and will be next year also). And, each student is applying to more schools at once than ever before. The relative ease of applying through the Common Application and the rise in competitiveness has prompted students to apply to 10 or more colleges which is considerably higher than the number of applications submitted a decade ago. Interestingly enough, the fall-out from this has impacted the wait lists.
The colleges and universities are at a loss for knowing how many of their accepted students will actually matriculate. Clearly, the yields are going down because each accepted student has many choices to select from. As a way to "hedge their bets," schools are putting a larger number of applicants on their wait-lists. And as it turns out, more students than ever are being accepted from those wait-lists.
In addition to the increased number of applications, colleges face other changes this year that make predicting the size of their entering class particularly challenging. Several elite colleges, notably Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia, did away with their early admissions plans. According to a New York Times article printed earlier this month all three of those schools have increased the size of their waitlists, and have dug deeper into those lists than in years past. They want to make sure that they come up with the right number of students for their entering class. This kind of "wait and see" activity puts many colleges in limbo as the ripple effect of these actions work their way through the schools that the wait-listed students are taken from - effects that extend well beyond the universal deadline of May 1st.
I have to say that I have seen the effects with the students that I work with. In my unofficial anecdotal way, I have observed more students get put on waitlists and more students than normal getting notification that they are being accepted from the waitlist. I still advise students not to get their hopes up if they are on a wait list and instead to focus their energy on carefully weighing the decision of which of their "yes" schools to say "yes" back to - but the chances are improving.
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Decisions Are In- Nancy Federspiel, Director, College Consulting Services
Most of the college decision letters are in and it has been a brutal couple of weeks for many of the nation's seniors in high school. Students have been rejected from the elite colleges in record high numbers. There are several reasons for this, the most obvious being that the number of students in this segment of the population is up, and the number of applications submitted per student is up. Despite rational thinking and a realization of the statistics, it still just hurts to get rejected. I have several suggestions for those families who are feeling the pain from college rejection letters.
One, remember that the decision maker doesn't really know you (or your student). They are forced to make admissions decisions on academic statistics, a list of activities, recommendations, an essay or two and, if you are lucky, an interview. They are not rejecting you, but rather a pile of papers that are supposed to represent you. Do not take it too personally.
Two, focus on the acceptances. Hopefully, if you did your homework and you had good advice, you have received an acceptance letter or two or three. Focus your energy on visiting these places, weighing your options and getting excited about the possibilities that these places hold for you. Research the types of clubs and activities and living situations available to you - opportunities abound at all types of campuses.
Three, remember that the college that you attend doesn't make or break your opportunities for success in life - you do! You can succeed at any college as long as you have the desire.
Four, talk to friends and read the papers. You will quickly discover that you are not alone in this plight. As I mentioned, rejections were big this year - if misery loves company, then find solace in the fact that you have lots of company.
Five, keep your focus on the next step. Think through the decision deliberately and thoroughly and then act on it. You need to have your deposit in to your chosen college by May 1st. Be sure to get that in on time and then enjoy the remaining couple of months of high school.
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While You Wait- Nancy Federspiel, Director, College Consulting Services
Most high school seniors have submitted their college applications by now. Most "regular decision" schools had application deadlines in January or early February. The notable exceptions are those applying to Rolling Admissions schools whose deadlines are still open. So, for all those seniors who are done with their applications, what should they be doing now and for the next month and a half? One option is to put all of the college stuff out of sight and out of mind and just enjoy senior year for awhile. Even I think that is not such a bad idea.
But what if you (or your student) are one of those people who can't just wait idly when so much indecision looms in front of you? What can be done now to keep the momentum moving forward for the big decision that has to be made by the end of April? Here are a few ideas.
One, revisit any school(s) that you received an acceptance letter from through either an Early Action plan or through Rolling Admissions. It is one thing to follow the tour guides numbly around campus after campus when you are shopping for possible apply-to schools and entirely another thing to visit a campus with an acceptance letter in hand. In the latter case your senses are totally tuned in to all that is around you. Every group of people you see, every conversation you overhear, every flyer posted raises questions. Can I see myself fitting in here? Would I get along with these people? Would I like to participate in that activity? This is the time to take the look to that next level.
Two, spend some time now researching scholarship opportunities. Above and beyond the financial aid that is available to you at the institution of your choice there are many merit-based or specialty scholarships out there. Three good places to look for scholarships are your high school guidance office, your local chamber of commerce office and your (or your parents') professional associations. Often times there are scholarships available for very specific ethnic and/or professional groups that you may not have known existed. For these types of scholarships it is not necessary to know which institution you will actually choose to attend.
Three, check the websites of your top-choice schools one more time and you may find tid-bits of information you hadn't noticed before. Some schools have merit based scholarships that you have to apply for separately. You may also find recent "in the news" articles about events or new features at the school that may in some way influence (either positively or negatively) your feelings toward the institution.
The key to feeling good about the ultimate college choice is knowing that you approached the decision in a thorough and thoughtful way. Any additional information that you can gather during this waiting period will help move you closer to the goal.
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College Rankings- Nancy Federspiel, Director, College Consulting Services
The US News and World Report College Rankings are as much a part of every fall as the arrival of the first frost. Some things just keep happening whether we want them to or not. Every fall the College Rankings stir up quite a controversy in the world of higher education - the issue is complicated and there is no doubt that those rankings wreak havoc for many reasons. People often ask me what I think of them ... of course I could go on and on but I will try to be brief for the purposes of this article.
First, I will start off by saying that the publishers of US News do quite a service by providing an inexpensive clearing house of information for American families to access. Having access to information is a necessary ingredient to making good choices in the college selection process. Kudos to US News for making that information available to the American public. Too bad they have to mess up a good thing by actually ranking the Colleges and Universities.
It seems a little crazy to me that something as subjective as an evaluation of the quality of an education can be reduced to a single numerical expression. What about all the "color"? What about all the factors that contribute to the idea of a college being a good "fit" for a student? I spend my days trying to understand what makes each college unique and what makes my students unique so that we can come up with schools that will be a good match - schools at which the student will be happy and thrive. And then along comes a numerical ranking that is supposed to say that one school is better than another - it begs the question - for whom?
The rankings are complicated. For the National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges categories they are weighing seven factors which include peer assessment, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving. The most heavily weighted factor of those seven is peer assessment. This is where they ask the presidents and deans of one college to rate their competition. It is the only truly subjective piece in the methodology and it relies on hearsay ... what people think of somebody else's college. Can this be at all accurate or reliable? Before we go off in a huff because our alma mater is not as high on the list as we think it should be, consider the limitations of the methodology.
To add to the complications, there are many categories into which the colleges across the nation are divided. There are different rankings for "National Universities" and "Liberal Arts Colleges," then there are the "Master's Universities" which are subdivided yet again by region (Northern, Southern, Midwestern and Western) and the same is true for the category of "Baccalaureate Colleges." The number of lists is mind-numbing. I had one client ask me why his "first choice school did not make the list." As it turned out, his first choice school was number one on a list ... he just didn't know which list to find it on.
There is an uprising by some colleges against the rankings. Some college presidents are boycotting (or considering doing so) the peer assessments that are sent to them. It is a difficult situation for the administrators. It is hard to shy away from supporting the rankings if you want to tout how well your institution did in those rankings!
The rankings are changing the landscape of the admissions process in particular as the enrollment management teams keep tabs on the "student selectivity" factor in the rankings. (Sending out more denial letters means higher selectivity scores.) The implications here are far-reaching and are much too involved to discuss here.
Suffice it to say that if your son or daughter is looking into prospective colleges, don't jump to the top of the rankings list to find the best school for him or her. There are many factors involved in making a good choice that reach beyond the seven used in the rankings and the most important factors should actually involve your son or daughter.
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All I Want for Christmas- Nancy Federspiel, Director, College Consulting Services
"All I want for Christmas is a decision letter." Indeed all of the early application options at colleges are popular and understandably so. Who wouldn't like to shorten that anxiety-ridden waiting period? Early Decision and Early Action application options abound and are being utilized by many students. Just make sure you think through very carefully that Early Decision option. As you may know, Early Decision plans are binding agreements where applicants promise to enroll at the college if they are accepted. Early Action plans, on the other hand, are non-binding options where the applicant is free to enroll or choose another school if s/he wishes. In either case, if you get your application in by the November deadline, you can have a decision letter in hand by Christmas.
Last year, a few heavy-hitting institutions in the selectivity department eliminated their Early Decision plans: namely, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia. They eliminated the option because it was considered to be discriminatory against candidates with financial constraints. In other words, those without financial hardships were given an unfair advantage because they could apply Early Decision. Those with money concerns could not take advantage of the Early Decision option because it does not allow them to choose based on which school offers the best financial aid package . . . they would be locked into the Early Decision school whether the aid was generous or not.
Now that the early application deadlines have passed for the first time since the three bold institutions have changed their policies, it is time to see the effects they have had on the admissions scene. Some predicted that many other institutions would be inspired by the leading institutions' altruistic motives and follow suit by eliminating their Early Decision plans. So far, this has not happened.
We have seen, however, changes in the number of Early Decision candidates applying to other schools in the competitive tier of colleges. According to a Chicago Tribune report by Jodi Cohen, ED applications were up significantly last month at the University of Chicago (+45%), Notre Dame (+18%), Northwestern (+17), and Brown (+6%).
What does this tell us? People want an answer by Christmas! Perhaps people are choosing their first choice school for some inappropriate reasons? I'm thinking there must be a little, "I'll commit to college A if college B won't let me commit," going on. I can see the temptation but ideally our students should have more conviction about their college choices based on issues of "fit" rather than application options. There are so many factors to consider in this difficult choice. Please, let's promote responsible decisions.
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