Yes, “stay in your lane” has become a mantra (and I don’t like clichés). But as this year’s admissions decisions began dribbling out last fall, many of my deferred/waitlisted students and families have experienced pain and frustration when they heard about peers who were admitted to the colleges which had put them on hold. How can they have been waitlisted with such stellar numbers?
College admissions has never been, and can never be, a true meritocracy. This issue is not specific to 2021. While logical explanations (like the empathy I’m asking you to have here) don’t prevent emotional pain, a big picture view might help:
Imagine the stress of admissions officers and financial enrollment managers (particularly newer ones--lots of turnover in 2021) charged with meeting institutional financial goals after the huge financial hit their schools took over the past year. There might be over 100% more applications to review and admission can only be offered to students who are very, very likely to enroll. While there are many students claiming that “______University is my top choice” in their deferral letters, the thousands of high-flyer applicants from all over the US and the world are the biggest gamble.
Those responsible for building the Class of 2025 can expect their stress to continue throughout the summer. But you can take control and manage your stress:
Review your options: really review them. Visit if you can, talk to current students, talk to me. I get information from and about many colleges regularly.
Decide to not pine for a call; consider waitlists as the longshots they are. (I have data on last year’s lists for many schools, but that might be a poor predictor.)
Take responsibility for the choices you made and go forward. Was your list properly balanced? Did you choose likely schools you would be happy to attend?
Stop comparing yourself to other students: it’s irrelevant. There’s little black and white, as in most parts of life.
Acknowledge, that as a high-achieving student, your unique set of powers will set you on track for great success (yes, there are bright, motivated students like you at every college--as I just said, stop comparing yourself to other students) wherever you go.
Resist the urge to get stuck, stay in your lane, take off, and don’t look back.
With all the deferrals and delays, many students are just getting started. They're finally getting news from colleges, but there are still plenty of schools they haven’t heard from.
In other years, my CRM creates a spreadsheet that gives a clear overview of who got in and who didn’t. While there is never certainty of what the outcomes will be, this crazy year went beyond the limits of my software. I want my data to be deep because my colleagues and I agreed to share all our findings (anonymously, of course) when this application cycle ends. So I started an Excel spreadsheet and added all my seniors--both the comprehensive package students and the essays/applications kids I developed relationships with--and after adding columns for high school, ED, EA, rolling, and RD, I color-coded it:
Green (admitted)
Red (not offered admission)
Orange (deferred)
Yellow (waitlisted)
Brown (refusing waitlist offer)
Purple (admitted after deferral)
Black (denied after deferral)
Scholarships awarded (Blue)
Waiting for financial package (Gray)
Test-optional for all schools/test optional for some (no color-too complicated/indicated one college at a time)
Yes, 2021 applicants had--and continue to have--more decisions to make as they consider each of their colleges. They have to continue being patient. But as decisions roll in and I review the spreadsheet today, here are some positives (and we’re nowhere near done):
More green than red
More brown than yellow
Not many waitlists (meaning: more brown than yellow)
Lots of blue
Speaking of blue, a good number of students are being offered scholarships. Many accepted students are still waiting on merit awards (come on, Clemson). Colleges have to compete for your strong students. Recognize that despite feeling that you have no control, you have the ultimate power by making the decision to commit to one school, to get the greatest value possible when colleges try to “yield” your student. And please, don’t forget the most important factor--it’s not a variable--”fit.”
Stay focused, stay positive! Looking forward to adding more green!
Every year, I hear a story about a student “who got in nowhere” through the grapevine. That can only happen when there was a bad college list, usually one based on rankings.
Why do I advise families to emphasize fit over college rankings? It’s because no ranking is a reliable indicator of the experience a student will have in college or after graduation.
You might be surprised to learn that college rankings are simply designed for marketing and profit of the third parties that publish them, not students or colleges. Using a mostly twisted “objective” methodology, the information runs from true, skewed, or blatantly false.
What’s true? The dry data provided by IPEDS ( https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/). IPEDS is usually a year behind and colleges must provide the numbers to the government in order to receive federal aid. What’s mostly reliable? The Common Data Set, but it too is a collaboration among Common App, Peterson's, and USNW. This last source is particularly skewed.
Who are the people surveyed by USNW? Like the reviewers on Yelp, the students who choose to participate are often big fans of the college who want to boost its rankings. That means that the students who chose to enroll in the first place create the data, not a fair sampling.
Let’s look at the US News and Forbes charts. College presidents, deans, provosts, and a small sampling of high school counselors give the “peer reputation” on US News, which is based on “Tell us which the best colleges in the US are.”
The faculty source data is tilted towards helping wealthy schools with small class sizes. Professor quality has a real value, but often “having the highest degree in a field” is misleading. All professors may not have the highest degree in the fields they are teaching, just a Ph.D. in something.
The financial resources per student is generally based on the one or two institutional priorities where money was recently spent, such as a science building or a gym. While that may be a boon for a biology major who works out, it is irrelevant for a business or history major who doesn’t set foot in those facilities.
Forbes mainly considers financial factors such as pay scale (self-reported by alumni). Rankings on “American Leaders,” and academic success are arbitrary. Concrete statistics on students who win Fulbrights and earn Ph.D’s are impressive, but impressive students are the real achievers, and they can accomplish this at many colleges.
Rankings are enticing, so it’s ok to be honest if they influence you. But basing your student’s college list on them does him/her/them a disservice; doing so implies that the institution is the source of success, not your child. It may cost you more money than you need to spend on a great education. Largely high-tuition private and many higher-cost publics (especially for out of state students) top the rankings. These colleges can generally afford to be less generous with aid, too.
The bottom line: every student needs a balanced list, including one college that admits over 50% of applicants, regardless of grades, rigor, and test scores.