Some Advice for Handling Admission Decisions

A college's decision letter does not define, validate or negate who you know yourself to be as a young person.  Seniors would do well to remind themselves, especially this week, that you're no better or worse than anyone else because of where you go to college. 

A colleague I admire puts it this way: "college admission decisions aren't character indictments."  And he's right.  Colleges make admission decisions based on all sorts of reasons.  These institutions' priorities are complex, changing, and largely out of your control.  Having a strong academic resume may only get you through the first part of the review.  Maybe the school needs a goalie for the women's soccer team this year; maybe they need the seemingly always-in-demand bassoon player (seriously, why doesn't anyone play the bassoon?); maybe the school is trying to grow the profile of their theater department; or maybe the basketball team just had a killer year, putting the school on the national radar and bringing in more applications, thus increasing the competition for admission.  Not being offered admission to a college simply means they didn't think your application fit in that particular entering class, based on the qualities the admission office was trying to recruit that year - it's not an indictment of your character. 

Rationally, that all makes sense.  But people tend to be emotional before they're rational.  So if you aren't admitted, come back to what's above when you're ready.  On an emotional level, the reality is that rejection feels awful.  Plain and simple.  It stings.  It hurts.  That's all normal.  But if you let the pain of rejection linger too long, it can turn to bitterness.  Once you've acknowledged the natural sadness you might feel, you have to do your best to let it go and move on.  Among all the complex emotions you feel about graduating and going to college, this really is a time for celebration.  Try and embrace all the positive things happening to mark your completion of high school.  If you feel yourself losing perspective on the other positive things happening as you conclude this chapter of your life, you're always welcome to see your college counselor to talk through it. 

Likewise, celebrate your good news with grace and humility.  You likely weren't the only person who applied to that school that admitted you, and some of your friends may have received different decisions.  Support them in the ways you can.  Be compassionate to how sensitive a time this is for many seniors.  And no matter how excited you might be to take that next step, don't allow yourself to get so wrapped up in what's beyond graduation that you forget to pause and enjoy your last few weeks as a student at HIES.

In short, remember that no college admission decision defines who you are now or the person you might become.  Whether admitted, denied, or waitlisted, support the people around you and take time to enjoy these last moments of high school.  Keep things in perspective and aim to close this chapter of your life the right way; you can't go back and do it over. 

I got waitlisted. Now what?

As we near the end of March, regular decision applicants are beginning to hear the results of their applications.  Some will be told to wait even longer for a definitive answer; they'll be placed on waitlists.  So what do you do if you find yourself invited to a college's waitlist?

First, understand why the waitlist exists and you'll have a better idea of what to expect.  Selective colleges admit a group of students knowing that not all of those admits will choose to enroll.  The number of total students to be offered admission is carefully scrutinized, planned, and set based on previous years' data and fairly complex projections - all in an effort to forecast how many admitted students you need to have in order to make the class.  This is the idea of "yield."  Let's say you want to enroll a freshman class of 900 students, and you typically yield about 30% of those you admit.  Then you need to admit 3000 students to enroll your 900.  But it's nearly impossible to be that exact, and most schools don't want to over-enroll.  If you're shooting for 900 because that's how many freshmen your campus can hold, and 1100 enroll into the freshman class, you have to figure out where to put those extra kids.  Rooms that are meant for two get turned into triples or suites.  Study rooms are sometimes partitioned off into makeshift dorm rooms.  Additional sections are added to classes, sometimes with additional instructors hired to teach them.  Over-enrolling creates a campus-wide problem. 

So if most colleges don't want to over-enroll, they have to be a bit conservative in their projections.  They hope to hit the target enrollment right on the numbers.  But if they're a few dozen students short, they can go to the waitlist to fill the rest of those spots.  And that, dear waitlisted students, is where you come in.  You're a valuable piece of the enrollment management work these admission offices do.  It's a rare year that a college doesn't have to go to their waitlist for at least a few students.  Here's what's important for you to remember:

• Don't expect to be called from the waitlist until after May 1.  You're there to complete the class after the school has an idea of how many admits they've yielded.  Since enrollment deposits aren't due until May 1, a school usually doesn't know how many students have committed to the freshman class until then.  

• That means you'll have to deposit somewhere else by May 1.  Let's say you've been admitted to Duke and waitlisted at Emory, though Emory is your first choice (good choice by the way; go Eagles!).  You would have to deposit at Duke and plan on going there.  If Emory were to then call you at the end of May and offer you a spot off the waitlist, you would deposit at Emory and sacrifice that non-refundable deposit at Duke.  Of course you could always turn down the offer at Emory and stick with your plans to attend Duke (disclaimer: as an admittedly biased Emory alum, I would give you all sorts of good-natured ribbing for this).  

So there's the down side.  You most likely won't hear about waitlist offers until after May 1, and you'll have to eat the deposit you've already sent if you accept a waitlist offer elsewhere.

Here's your strategy for improving your chances of coming off the waitlist:

• If the school asks how long you are willing to stay on the waitlist, pick a date as far into the summer as you can.  You never know, they may not be able to call you until June 15.  But if you've said you're only interested in staying on the list until June 1, they'll respect that.  They'll call someone else who is still active on the waitlist.  Some schools even keep an extended waitlist into July.  At many schools, the longer you are willing to sit on the waitlist, the better your chances of being called.  

• Before May 1, demonstrate some interest in coming off the waitlist.  Many schools don't rank the waitlist.  Even if they do, they want to call students they're confident will accept their offer.  They know you have other options and have deposited somewhere else.  And perhaps you've completely moved on - that's totally fine.  But most schools don't want to call people who aren't likely to accept their offer of admission.  So if you're really hoping to come off the WL, dig out our regional rep's contact into (or ask me for it) and let them know.  Include any updates you have about your life since applying.  Be positive, be honest, and plan on staying in touch with our rep.  An email before May 1 and another couple before June to check in or say hello are plenty.  Be in touch but don't be too desperate.  Sending love notes, flowers, food, photo-shopped images of yourself on campus, or to-scale architectural models of campus buildings won't help (all true examples from my time in Emory's admission office).  Don't go overboard. 

The SAT is Changing

The College Board announced yesterday that the SAT is undergoing a facelift, with a new version of the test to be released in 2016.  The last time the SAT changed (2005), the scoring moved from a 1600-point scale to the 2400 point scale we now know and love (or don't love).  The extra 800 points came from the new, required writing section.  So perhaps the biggest change for 2016 will be that the scoring returns to a 1600-point scale and the writing section will become optional.  A number of other changes are coming to the content of the test. 

This news comes on the heels of a recently published (and well-publicized) study by test-optional schools which reaffirms what most college counselors, college admission officers, students, and parents already suspected: high school grades are a more important predictor of your success in college than a standardized test score.  Between the push for test-optional admission (there are now 800+ schools that don't require the ACT or SAT), ACT's overtaking the SAT in popularity, and the multiple reports of bias in the SAT, one can't help but wonder if the new changes to the SAT are being made an effort to stay relevant. 

I would guess that the people most interested in the College Board's announcement are the expensive test-prep providers and tutors.  One of the complaints of the current SAT format is that a student with the resources to afford test prep can get an advantage.  A good tutor can indeed help teach effective test-taking strategy, potentially advantaging the privileged students who can afford this extra help.  The new SAT hopes to mitigate those effects by partnering with Khan Academy to offer free online prep videos.  It will be interesting to see how prep providers respond and if the online prep is actually an effective replacement for private tutoring or formal prep classes. 

I'm interested to see what the new SAT will look like and how colleges will respond.  How many will require the optional writing section?  Will colleges continue to join the list of test-optional schools, regardless of the changes?  Will students continue to flock to test prep companies?  We'll see what happens come 2016.  But in the meantime, it seems the College Board has taken some proactive steps to test the type of content high school students can be expected to learn and actually apply to their college experience.