In last week’s Professional Forum, I learned that many of my colleagues across the US are full to capacity with 8th and 9th graders. Each year, more 8th graders and and first year high school students sign on for my support. How does that fit into my goal to manage stress and expectations, to "De-Stress the College Process?" A healthy high school>college journey for every student and family matters most to me.
Starting early can help high school freshmen and their families:
Think about students' academic interests/strengths (which shift through high school) and recommend ways to develop them.
Discuss extracurricular activities/strengths (what they love now, being open to broadening interests, and understanding what matters later).
Get reliable answers about the evolving college landscape rather than depending on the "buzz," which is generally misleading and incorrect. If I don't know the answer, I'll get it through my professional networks.
Open my LCS system to access a wide range of educational resources, including the Fiske Guide.
When the time is right:
Learn the most recent data on ED/EA/RD admit rates to help us build a smart college list.
Make informed choices about the SAT and ACT that suit your student best.
Stretch out four payments, beginning with the contract signing until the fall of senior year.
Reduce stress later by having a clear and realistic 3 or 4 year plan.
Is starting early necessary for every student? Of course not. But having professional educational support throughout high school can offer a sense of structure and control throughout those busy years.
January 19, 2024
Dear ______,
The Committee on Admission has completed a holistic review of your application to Villanova University under Early Action. After carefully considering your application and all of your supporting materials, we have decided to defer your candidacy to Regular Decision. Your application will be given another thorough review during the Regular Decision process. Once that review is completed in late March, we will make a final decision and notify you of that decision by April 1. This deferral in no way reflects upon your achievements to this point, but rather is related to one of the largest and most competitive pools of Early Action candidates that we have ever received. The only further action that you need to take, if you haven't already, is to submit grades from your senior year. Please ask your school counselor to submit grades from your first semester or first trimester of senior year when they are available. You may also upload this directly to your Applicant Status Page. This should be sent by February 8 or as soon as possible thereafter.
If you have identified Villanova University as your first choice and wish to change your application plan to the binding Early Decision II (link provided) program, you can email this request along with your signed Early Decision Agreement (link provided) by January 31.
Many Villanova applicants received the above decision this past Friday night. Many others were also denied. The email offers two options. Now what? By the way, these questions work for any college, not just Villanova.
Switch to ED II? This makes sense if:
First–and most importantly–attending an $83K+ yearly tuition college works for your family financially.
You revisit and absolutely confirm that Nova is your first choice school.
You were reaching…you really love Villanova…and your family can make it work.
Still interested in joining the RD pool, but your heart’s not set on Villanova?
Send (or have your school counselor send) grades as directed.
Write a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI) aka a Deferral Letter. While they are not asking for one, why not enhance your chances anyway possible?
Before making your decision, consider these questions:
Do you already have other admissions offers that you prefer?
Will you receive decisions from other colleges you may prefer before January 31st and February 8th?
If you are in this last category, be honest about what you really want. Withdrawing your application may be the way to reduce stress and move on. Take control by waiting for fewer decisions! You will be fine.
When Jeff Selingo published this landmark book reflecting the pre-pandemic college landscape, admissions officers had fewer applications to review as well as standardized test scores to use as variables. Today, this space is tougher: far more applications, grade inflation, and fewer test scores. Selingo presented the complicated process of reviewing applications and making decisions that application readers, admissions officers, and enrollment managers had to manage within tight deadlines. It was, and remains, an overwhelming task.
The book follows a few students through their stressful application processes. One, Nicole, was a stereotypical “high flyer” with perfect grades, test scores, and impressive extracurriculars. Her high school journey was laser-focused on being admitted to an Ivy League college, and she certainly had the credentials to be admitted. Nicole was devastated to be denied from the University of Pennsylvania early decision, then from her second choice, Dartmouth, in regular decision. The most selective colleges cannot admit every qualified student because there are far too many superlative applicants.
Nicole was not happy about committing to Northeastern, which was considerably less selective in 2019, though still a highly-rated university. She believed she was “settling.” Today, Northeastern has an admit rate similar to the Ivies Nicole wanted to attend.
She graduated from Northeastern last May. “I ended up where I should have in the end,” Nicole told me. “I’m really happy. I wish that I had chilled out more, panicked less. I wish I had done more fun stuff in high school.”
At Northeastern, she had multiple co-ops that allowed her to cycle in and out of school to go to work. Two of them were at brand-name consulting firms. One of them offered her a job and she accepted the first week of her senior year of college.
“It’s a dream job,” she told me. “I’m working with people from Dartmouth, and those schools I thought I wanted to go to. But here I am and it’s because of Northeastern.”