Here are few things you can do over winter break to work on your college search process:
1.  Start doing some college research.  There are so many college websites out there, it is hard to know where to begin.  These days, high schoolers are inundated with information about colleges on TikTok or other social media platforms. But, we often suggest that students begin with a simple college match survey.  You can find these on CollegeBoard.org or Princeton Review.  Once you find some colleges that you are interested in learning more about, visit CollegeData.com.  This site provides a wealth of information about size, academics and the competitiveness of the application process.  Another site to check out is Unigo.com.  This site can answer many questions you may have about the college application process.
2.  Volunteer.  Winter break is a great time to get in some volunteer hours.  You may work at an animal shelter or see if you can help with a holiday program at a local hospital.  Volunteering not only looks great on your college applications, but it is beneficial for your mental health and a great way to give back to your community. It may also be a great opportunity for you to explore some different careers.
3.  Begin thinking about next summer.  Now is the time to begin thinking about your plans for the summer.  Look into possible enrichment programs or camps that will help you explore an interest. You may want to start putting together your resume as you begin exploring potential summer job or internship opportunities.
4.  Network.  There are lots of gatherings during the holidays, which provide great opportunities for networking.  Before you attend your next holiday event, brainstorm some questions you may have from the people you know will be there.  Ask about career paths and college experiences. This is a great way to learn more about college from multiple perspectives.
5.  Read.  Reading is one of the best ways to improve your SAT scores, so take some time to dive into a good book or two or three!

Great College Advice

The post Things To Do Over Winter Break for Freshmen and Sophomores first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Students will be sending in their Early Decision (ED) applications to meet the November 1 deadline with most colleges emailing their Early Decision notifications in mid-December. It’s one of the times of the year when the team at Great College Advice have our fingers and toes crossed very hard for our students who have applied ED. It seems like a strange time to be asking, “is early decision binding or not?”

The question has received a lot more attention recently following a New York Times article (paywall) discussing how Tulane punished a Colorado private high school after a student backed out of their ED agreement with Tulane. As we don’t have all the details of this particular situation, we will refrain from giving our opinion. But it’s important for families to understand how these ED agreements work.

Applying early decision (ED) is not a good idea for every college applicant. For some, sending out a single application could be financially foolish because it carries a binding agreement to attend that school no matter what. For others, if you’re applying ED to a college you’re not excited about just because you’ve been told that it improves your admission odds then that is not a good decision either.

But, we also sympathize with families. The college process can be unfair. Universities like Tulane take roughly 2/3 of its class in its Early Decision rounds. It’s virtually impossible to be accepted in Tulane’s regular decision round. And, yes, for many selective universities the acceptance rate is higher in ED. If you truly have a dream school and financial aid is not an issue, then ED makes sense. If not, then think carefully about whether early decision is right for you.

So Is Early Decision Binding or Not?

But let us clarify our position: we don’t advocate that students and their families renege on the binding ED agreement. The only justifiable grounds for getting out of this agreement is insufficient financial aid. If financial situations are such that parents simply cannot (or will not) be able to pay for college, the family (along with the student’s high school counselor) should communicate with the financial aid office and ask to be released from the agreement.

But it’s MUCH better to never get yourself into this sort of predicament in the first place. Again, if you go back and read our article explaining how ED works, you’ll understand that colleges have less incentive to offer the best financial aid packages to early applicants. Of course, colleges will say that they offer equivalent packages to ED and regular applicants. But, there is no way of proving or disproving their claim. Colleges do not divulge all their records and offers publicly. The logic of the situation (plus long talks with admissions officers off the record over beers) indicates that this is how colleges do business.

Therefore, if ever a family comes to us with any indication that financial aid awards will be central to the decision about where their kid goes to college we de-emphasize ED. This allows families to do some comparison shopping later in the spring. (It’s okay to apply Early Action, however, as these admissions programs carry no binding agreement).

When selecting a college, cost needs to be one of the most important factors for most families. But there are other considerations involved too. And it’s hard to make a general rule when each family’s financial circumstances are different.

Our point is that no student should ever renege on their ED agreement if they have done their homework. They will never get in a situation in which backing out of an ED agreement is necessary to maintain a family’s financial health.

What if I need to talk to someone to ask whether early decision is binding or not?

If you need professional guidance to explore your own circumstances and to discuss the binding nature of your early decision agreement, please reach out to Great College Advice. Every year we help families understand the nuances of the college admissions process so that they can maximize their priorities in the college decision. Please contact us here.

Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.  

In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With nearly 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other. 

The post Is Early Decision Binding or Not? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The short answer is yes. So don’t panic!

How to make changes to a college application

In most cases, you cannot actually change the application. Once it is sent, you cannot alter it. You probably even made a declaration when submitting saying something to the effect that “I understand that once I submit my application, it cannot be changed.”

So the only way to make the change is to contact the admissions office. You will need to write an email.

Who shall I contact to make changes on a college application?

Preferably, you’ll email the admissions officer who is going to read your application. Most admissions offices read by geographic reason, and most admissions websites will have a tool for you to find the admissions officer responsible for your state and high school. So take the time to look up who this person is. You may even find a bio on the website that tells you a bit about them.

Once you have found that person, compose an email. It doesn’t need to be long or involved. It just needs to state the facts and request an alteration.

Some instances in which you might want to make changes to a college application

• Your mom decided to read your essay “one more time” and found an error. Send admissions offices an updated PDF version of your essay and ask them to replace it with the copy submitted with your application.
• Your history grade improved from the C reported on your first quarter grades to a respectable B because you aced your last exam. Kindly ask your history teacher to write a few comments about your improved grade and sign it. Scan the letter and email it to all of the schools you have applied to and put a hard copy in the mail.
• The mayor of your city has just recognized a non-profit organization that you helped create. Cut the article out of the newspaper and mail it into the schools you applied to, along with a letter. If you can provide a link to the article, send an email in as well.
• If it was something you inadvertently left blank but wanted to answer, give the answer in the same format in which the original question was answered. For example, if you left out an activity, provide the activity in the same format that is required on the Common App. There are specific character limits for each of the blanks, and required information about when you participated in this activity. Follow that same pattern exactly.
• If you answered a question wrong (i.e., you wrote your test scores incorrectly, or you clicked the wrong box for citizenship), just explain the error concisely and provide the new, corrected response.

Do NOT spend a lot of time apologizing. Do express regret, but do so without a lot of wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.  Just apologize, and then express gratitude to the recipient of your email for taking the time to make the correction.

Accidents happen.  Things go wrong.  People make mistakes.  Generally, admissions officers are understanding of these little goofs, and are happy to make the changes in your file.

In fact, it’s better to recognize the mistake early and make the correction than let the admissions officer read the incorrect information and make a judgment on your application before you have a chance to communicate the error.

So if you find a mistake, correct it!  It is possible to make changes to a college application even after it is submitted.

Remember that it is important to provide colleges with all of the information they need to make an informed decision about your application. Just because application deadlines have passed does not mean that you can not submit additional information.

Ready to get started with the college admissions process?

The team at Great College Advice has deep experience in guiding students along the road from high school college. We provide individually tailored, one-on-one advising to help students achieve their college dreams. If you’d like more information about our services, contact us for a free consultation. Or just pick up the phone and call us at 720.279.7577.  We’d be happy to chat with you.

Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.  

In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With nearly 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other. 

The post How To Make Changes to a College Application first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

• Type of learning environment;
• Level of rigor;
• Majors offered;
• Structure of curriculum

Academic College Fit: Learning Environment

Some students are excellent independent learners and need little guidance from their instructors. They can take ideas gleaned from a lecture, and use those to fan the flames of their own intellectual curiosity. Students don’t need much hand holding in developing ideas into term papers or independent projects. They are not afraid to approach their peers or their professors with questions or further exploration of course material.

They have a good sense of what is important in a subject. They can marshal their own resources to ensure their own academic success. These students will likely be successful in any academic environment, even large universities with enormous lecture classes. These students are active in their own learning, so the mode of instruction is less important. The passive presentations of lectures and readings may be enough to activate the innate learning impulses of this sort of student.

Other students enjoy learning most when instructors are able to bring the material alive and help them tie abstractions to the practicalities of everyday life. These students may not yet have developed their own internal academic compass. They may not be as confident with their basic academic skills. Or they may simply enjoy the higher level of interaction that occurs in smaller classes that require a high degree of participation by both teacher and student.

Match the college learning environment with how best you learn

Thus it is critical to match a student’s learning habits and preferences with the sort of learning environments that exist at different colleges and universities. This is more difficult to extract from students in a short discussion. Most students have never really considered why they prefer one teacher to another, or why they are more successful in one class than in another. Most people never give much conscious thought to their own learning.

Some will thrill to the art of a well-crafted lecture by a distinguished professor and be able to convert that thrill into independent learning. Others, however, simply cannot develop a personal relationship with the material without a personal relationship with the human beings in the classroom. In order to make a recommendation about the appropriate learning environment then, it’s important to discuss with high school students why some classes are more successful and to uncover the reasons why others are less so.

Academic College Fit: Level of Rigor

High schools tend to offer various levels of a course (college prep, honors, AP) to provide various levels of academic challenge to different sorts of students. Some prefer to take courses that challenge them intellectually at the top of their game. Others prefer to coast a bit more. Some seek a cohort of students who are as academically driven (or not) as they are, while others prefer to hang with students who are smarter. Still, others prefer to be a big fish in a smaller pond and standout in a less challenging environment.

When you and your family visit colleges, try to get the general academic vibe on campus and rank your schools on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being over-the-top academic. Which schools appealed to you most? Hop on Tik Tok, Instagram and other online resources to confirm or reject your campus visit.

Academic College Fit: Program Offerings and Majors

It’s pretty obvious that finding the right major is important. But it’s important to go beyond the student’s first answer, no matter how confident they appear about their top choice of major. The fact is that the vast majority of students change their major at least once in college and many change two or three times. So as we help our students look for the programs that they want most we also try to be on the lookout for other programs that may interest them.

For example, a high school junior may tell us confidently that they want to be an architect. But they may also enjoy foreign language and literature. Thus it would not be enough to simply list the schools of architecture. We need to consider which schools also would make it possible to continue that interest in a second language.

A student may or may not change majors; but college is also a time in which students are introduced to academic disciplines they have never had any contact with in high school (aeronautics, psychology, philosophy, linguistics) that may end up becoming a passion. So while we start with programs and majors a student identifies as first choice, we also try to tease out what other academic interests the student has. These alternative interests may become a well-spring of electives, a potential minor, or an about-face major alternative down the academic road.

Academic College Fit: Curricular and Program Structure

Some students simply don’t like to be told what to study, while others feel more comfortable making choices within a more structured, controlled environment. Some have a very good sense of what they want to learn and why. Others are still exploring and are happy to have at least a bit of guidance to help them make sense of the smorgasbord that is a collegiate course catalog. Fortunately, there is a college to match this preference.

At one extreme are the colleges that make very few demands and impose few—if any—curricular requirements. The curriculum may be completely individualized and tailored to each student’s interests and passions. At the other extreme are the colleges that allow for virtually no choice in what courses students take. And then there is a broad spectrum of colleges and universities that fall somewhere in the middle of this continuum.

Here again, curriculum structure can be difficult to discuss with high school students for whom their entire academic experience has been laid out to them. Electives have been few and far between, especially compared with the options available in college. In order to make a recommendation, then, one has to measure a student’s academic maturity and ability to make good, future-oriented decisions.

While it’s completely fine not to declare a major until the end of the sophomore year, students still need to put a plan in place to ensure they can graduate on time. Students with less self-discipline may be better off in a more structured program or one that at least has a very strong and personalized system of academic advising.

Evaluating Academic College Fit: Conclusion

Academic fit is the single most important factor in choosing a college, in our view. While the environment, availability of extracurricular opportunities, and social climate are all also very important you must remember that families are not choosing a country club or vacation resort. The primary purpose in college is to get an education—one that suits them best and allows them to achieve their own intellectual and professional goals.

How to Find A Great College Fit

There are many other aspects of finding a great college fit. Please check out our other posts on this topic:

Evaluating social engagement on campus

Evaluating campus social life

Finally, here’s a video on how the team at Great College Advice can help you find a great college fit.

GreatCollegeAdvice.com

Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.  

In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With nearly 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other. 

The post Find the Right Academic College Fit first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

For those new to the process, perhaps it might be helpful to discuss the differences between RD, ED, and EA.

Regular Decision, Early Decision and Early Action

• Regular decision is the normal process by which students apply by published deadlines, with a promise of receiving an admissions decision no later than April 1 of their senior year. Some colleges will give admissions decisions well before April 1, but the student is under no obligation to make a decision about whether to attend until the common response date of May 1.
• Early decision is a binding promise. Under this program, students apply early (usually by November 1 or November 15, depending on the college), and will receive their admissions decisions early–usually by December 15. In return for this early decision, the student, parents, and school counselor sign a pledge that, if accepted, they will attend that college. The student agrees to withdraw all other applications, and not accept any other offers of admission.
• Early action programs are a hybrid. Students may apply early under these early action programs and receive an early admissions decision. However, the student is under no obligation to accept the offer of admission and can wait until May 1 to select which college to attend. 

When Should A Student Apply Early Decision?

I advise that students apply ED only

• when the college in question is clearly the student’s first choice,
• and when the family does not require need-based aid so will not have to compare college offers.

Some people point out that, statistically speaking, it is easier to get into a college during the ED process than RD. Thus, they ask me whether it isn’t a better strategy to apply early. The answer is yes–but only if you agree to forsake all other admissions and financial aid offers.

Many colleges accept as much as 30-35% (sometimes much more–see below) of their entire freshman class in the ED process. Liberal arts colleges, for example, may accept as much as 60% of the incoming class in the early application rounds. These early decision acceptance rates help colleges to drive down the overall acceptance rates, which helps colleges to rise in the rankings. And usually, the pool of ED applicants is smaller than the regular pool. So in a statistical sense, a qualified applicant has a better shot of admission in an ED process than in the regular process.

(For more on the statistical analysis of how this works, see the book The Early Admissions Game: Joining the Elite by Christopher Avery, Andrew Fairbanks, and Richard Zeckhauser.)

However, keep in mind that what may be statistically true for an entire pool of applicants may not be true for an individual applicant. Admission is not a matter of randomized statistics. If a student does not possess at least the minimum requirements for entrance to a particular college, she will not somehow sneak past the admissions gate in the early round. The fact is that every selective college has many more qualified applicants than space available. The students who receive an early offer of admission are just as talented and capable of doing the work at that college. Early applicants are still judged on their merits in the ED process.

Early Decision: Financial Aid

Some elite colleges award financial aid only on the basis of need and offer zero merit aid. But most colleges compete for students by offering deep discounts and other financial inducements to bring in the customers. So, colleges love ED because they need to discount much less–if at all–because you are not able to price compare multiple offers like you potentially could by being accepted to multiple universities during the RD process.

• This does not mean, however, that a student who has financial need should necessarily avoid ED altogether. Many colleges, especially those that do not award merit-based aid anyway (e.g., the Ivy League) will still award solid financial aid packages based on the family’s ability to pay.
• Students with high financial needs should be able to get a solid, early offer of financial aid from an ED institution. (And since insufficient financial aid is the only legitimate reason to be released from the ED commitment to attend, financial aid offices do have good reason to work with less affluent students who are accepted under the Early Decision programs).
• Still, the ED system tends to discriminate against students with high financial needs in other, more subtle ways–ways that are not easy to prove. If a student with high financial need is qualified for admission, but not necessarily a clear stand-out in the eyes of the admissions officers, she may receive a deferral to the regular round to compete for an offer with everyone else.

The reason? A high-need student costs the institution more money. If the admissions office feels that they will have to pay a heavy price (in tuition discounts or scholarships) to admit a student in the ED round, then the college may as well release the student from the ED agreement so as to “shop around” for better customers.

ED is not a good idea who strive to pay the lowest price for their college education. If you don’t mind foregoing your ability to compare one financial aid package against another, then ED might be a good admissions strategy.

The one exception might be for a student with high financial need who is also a standout, both inside and outside the classroom, and who can identify a first-choice college. If offered admission in the early round, this student can work with the financial aid office to come up with a reasonable financial aid package. And the student should make it clear that if the package is not good enough. He will ask to be released from the ED and promise to matriculate.

Quality students with high financial need may very well receive a deferral to the regular round. But if a college accepts the student under ED, then that student suddenly has more power to bargain for a good package. But even in such cases, students lose the right to comparison shop: unless they go to the regular round, they will never know what sweet financial deals they might have received from another college.

Generally, we advise clients who are price sensitve (regardless of their true ability to pay) to pass up the ED option and apply regular decision. This is the only way to compare college financial aid offers.

What is ED2 (Early Decision 2)?

In addition to ED1, most selective colleges and universities now offer an ED2 round.

ED2 deadlines are usually January 1st or January 15th. You make the same promise to attend as with ED1. Apply early and you will receive a response from the college around February 15th. And if you receive an acceptance in February, you must withdraw all other applications to other schools.

Why have colleges created ED2? Because it helps them manage enrollment better and helps them to lower acceptance rates overall. They would rather lock a student into her second-choice university. Thereby improving its standing in the rankings by recalculating two key criteria: acceptance rates and yield rates.

To explain, the “yield rate” is the percentage of students who receive an offer of admission who actually enroll. Colleges want high yield rates. Harvard’s yield rate hovers around 80-85%. Other top colleges may have yield rates that are as low as 20-25%. By raising the percentage of students accepted in ED1 and ED2 together, the yield rate is bound to go higher. The promise students make under binding ED programs means that the yield rate is 100% for students in these pools.

So the expansion of early decision programs helps colleges to improve their yield rate.

Should you apply for ED2? Yes, if you have a clear second choice school.

When Should You NOT Apply Early Decision?

You should not apply early decision (ED) if:

• you do not have a reasonable chance of admission. You should not apply early decision if your test scores and academic performance (in other words, your GPA) are generally lower than the majority of students the college ordinarily admits.
• you are NOT one of the more privileged classes of applicants who have one or more admissions “hooks.” These hooks include recruited athletes, legacy students with a parent who attended, or underrepresented minorities.

Too often, applicants look at ED as a sort of miracle play. Students with standardized test scores and transcript grades that are mediocre will begin to think of ED as some sort of lottery: “I may not have a strong application, but hey, you never know…I might just get lucky.”

While luck plays a role in admissions, luck will not overcome lackluster test scores and ho-hum grades. 

You can easily look up the “middle 50%” of test scores submitted by successful applicants to each college. If you have no hooks and you are below the middle 50%, your chances of admission at any of the top-tier schools that accept fewer than about 20% of their applicants are going to be very low. If you are in the lowest quartile of accepted applicants, your chances decrease to nearly zero.

For example, if you are a solid B+ student with a very good, but not awesome SAT score of 1350, you should not apply ED to the Ivy League. Your chances are super slim. Use your ED power where you are at or above the upper quartile of admitted students.

Apply Early Decision to a School You Love–and that Loves You Back

If you are not Ivy League or Stanford material, how should you play the ED game? Should you still go ahead and apply ED to the Ivy League or apply ED to Stanford anyway?

In a word: No.

Our recommendation is to focus on colleges and universities that will appreciate you for who you are. You need to focus on schools in which you are in (at least) the top half of the applicant pool.

If you apply ED to such a school, you are more likely to get accepted because you have made the promise to attend. These schools will look at your application as an opportunity. If your test scores are above their 50% line, you will help that school improve its statistics. If your grades are better than those of the average applicant, you will help that school raise its academic profile.

And if you don’t need financial aid and your family can pay the full cost of attendance, well then you will enhance that school’s bottom line.

You have given this school many reasons to love you, and if you are promising to attend if admitted…then you just helped that school lower its admissions rate, too.

And what if you are just below the average for the applicant pool at this university? Then luck–plus the ED promise–might just be enough to pull you into the accepted pile.

What about Early Action (EA)?

Generally speaking, I encourage EA applications whenever a student is certain he or she finds the school attractive. Even if the student is applying to ED somewhere else, if she can complete applications for other schools that accept EA applications, I say do it.

The only exception is in the case of students who meet two criteria. First, they must have grades and/or test scores that are not yet in the “zone” for a desired college. Second, they must commit to making considerable, noticeable, measurable academic progress in the first semester of the senior year.

Keep in mind, however, that it is very, very difficult to make this academic improvement in a single semester. The last-ditch effort can raise your cumulative high school GPA by only a modest amount. And here again, wishful thinking can cloud the decision-making process.

Too often I find students who will insist that they will work hard in their senior year to improve, only to fall back into old habits and make no significant improvement at all.

Therefore, it is better to focus on applying to schools within reach at the end of the junior year. Choose schools that are within your range. Choose schools that can still offer you the opportunities you seek and satisfy your college search criteria. A successful early action application to a school where you have a reasonable chance of admission will give you a mental and emotional boost in December. Just think how good it will feel going into the winter holiday with an acceptance letter in hand! Even if this school is not your number one choice, at least you’ll heave a sigh of relief that at least one highly desirable college has accepted you.

Early Decision or Early Action?

As with most things, the decision about whether to apply ED or EA depends on a lot of factors.

• I generally encourage students to apply ED to schools that they find highly desirable and where they stand a decent chance of admission.
• I encourage all students to submit at least one Early Action (EA) application. In fact, I tell students to submit EA to all schools on their list that accept early action applications.
• There is definitely an advantage to applying ED and EA. But only if you are realistic in assessing your chances of admission.

The admissions game is not a game of chance. It is not a spin of the wheel or a throw of the dice. You can reasonably asses and calculate your own chances of admission–based on a realistic comparison of your academic and testing profile with those of successful candidates in the past. Don’t believe in miracles; they generally do not happen in the world of college admission.

Nevertheless, play your hand intelligently and know how to play the admissions game. With that knowledge, you can raise your statistical chances of getting what you want from this process.

What is Restrictive Early Action?

These weird and wacky exceptions to the general ED and EA policies exist only at a few institutions. They happen to be some of the most difficult universities to get into: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford.

These schools offer a hybrid early application process that combines elements of both early decision and early action – Restricted Early Action (REA):

• First, these policies do not require the promise to attend. You can apply early to these schools without making a promise that you will attend if accepted.
• Second, these policies insist that you cannot apply to other schools in their early rounds. There may be certain exceptions. For example, you may apply to public universities in your home state, or you can apply early to schools that give away scholarships only to early candidates. So you really need to read the fine print.

Why don’t these schools force you to make the promise to attend? Because they don’t need to. Their yield rates are already the highest in the country. They say they don’t want to “burden” you by forcing you into this early promise. However, realities on the ground tell us that most will say “yes” to an offer of admission to these schools. In practice, once admitted to one of these schools, very few accepted students will go on to submit applications elsewhere.

So why do Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford force you not to apply early to any other schools? Because they can. Students are so eager to receive offers from these schools that they will forego other options for the possibility–however remote–of admission to one of these super-elite universities.

Need help with the college admissions process? 

If you’re just starting on the college admissions journey, Great College Advice offers the best of both worlds: personalized, expert college admissions counseling tailored to your needs, and a lively, supportive community through College Admissions Experts, one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families with nearly 100,000 members.

Contact the team at Great College Advice to explore our full range of services and to learn how we support students through every step of the college admissions process to help your student get into their dream school. Then join our College Admissions Experts Facebook Group to connect, learn, and grow.

Inside College Admissions Experts members share:

• Practical application tips and essay strategies

• Financial aid guidance and scholarship updates

• Honest peer experiences—from test prep to campus visits

More than just factual advice, the group fosters a sense of camaraderie. Posts from our team and members alike encourage, inform, and demystify the admissions journey.

The post Early Decision, Early Action, Regular Decision: Which is Better? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

One of the great myths about college admission is that the process is merely a matter of doing your best in high school, getting good scores on some tests, writing a decent essay, and then simply submitting your application to the admissions office. Then you just sit back and pray that a college admissions officer will let you in.

But that’s not really how it works.

If you want a college to love you, you have to love the college first. Show demonstrated interest.

First, let them know you’re interested

Sign up to receive their information. Go to the college website and leave a trace. Register for their web portals, and sign up for their email lists. An admissions officer will never know that you have your eye on their school…unless you give them a sign.

Second, fill out their dance cards.

Any time an admissions officer asks you to fill out a card, do it. Even if you have filled out the same card for the same person a hundred times. You get credit for every bit of contact you have with that admissions officer. In today’s high-tech world, admissions offices across the land keep careful track of your contacts with their admissions people. And every contact is a brownie point in the application process. And who doesn’t need more brownie points?

Third, accept their invitations.

If a college invites you to meet their representative someplace—at your school, at a Starbucks when they visit your town, at a college fair—put on your dancing shoes and show up. Even if you’re not the best dancer in the room, you get major points for just showing up. Especially if an admissions officer visits your school. You cannot afford to waste the opportunity to meet and take another turn around the dance floor—you need those brownie points.

Even if you have to miss your calculus class. Even if you have to skip volleyball practice. Even if your feet hurt. You’ve got to dance if you want that admissions officer to remember your name. To know how much you care, and to know how badly you want the keys to the gate.

Fourth, go visit.

Explore what your life might be like if you agree to keep dancing with this college for the next four years. Nothing—I repeat, nothing—will declare your enthusiasm as much as a personal visit, where you can dance for a few hours (or better, a day or two) to see whether this college really is everything that the admissions officer promised.

So when is the best time to visit? Anytime you can. It’s nice to go when school is in session because it gives you a better sense of what your life might be like if you decide to go exclusive with this dance partner. But you’ll make a suitable impression no matter when you go or how long you stay.

But, make you sure are ready to visit. Take time to develop the criteria you feel is important to you in where you go to college. Do research ahead of time. Otherwise a visit can be a wasted opportunity.

Fifth, meet the rest of the crew.

Talk to the rest of the admissions officer’s team: The faculty. The staff. The coaches. The gardener, even. If you were to accept your this college’s hand, you would suddenly find yourself in this new world, populated by lots of new folks. So when you do visit, don’t simply spend all your time in the visitors’ center! Even if you can’t connect with the family during your visit, use email, the phone, the web. You won’t know whether you really want to commit until you chat with the rest of the clan.

Sixth, spend the night.

Really. Many schools have current students who volunteer to host prospective students overnight in the dorms. You might see some of the institution’s dirty laundry (better to get over the shock before you commit), and some of the polish of the glossy brochures your admissions officer plied you with might lose its luster. But spending the night will give you the opportunity to experience, however briefly, what life at that college is really like.

Seventh, stay in touch.

Don’t forget to thank your admissions officer. Sprinkle the praise and your delight in the attention you have been receiving. Mention the specific characteristics of the college that thrill you the most. Tell how appreciative you are. Despite the lightness of the metaphor, the admissions dance is an extremely important aspect of the entire process.

Take the time to build a relationship with the admissions officers of the colleges that interest you. Admissions offices do keep careful track of your calls, emails, visits, interviews—every single point of contact between you and the admissions representative.

Eighth, don’t step on toes.

It is possible to overdo this. You don’t want to be annoying. Sometimes an admissions officer will not be as receptive. This is particularly the case at large state universities and also at the most selective schools, including Stanford and the Ivy League. These admissions officers just have too many inquiries to respond to everyone. Plus, since they are so highly sought-after, they can be very, very choosy with their applicants.

In these cases, just let them know you’re interested, fill out the (dance) cards, attend the college fairs, and pay a visit. But don’t take it personally if they don’t want to engage in a lengthy phone conversation with you. These admissions officers are simply in very high demand.

Think about it.

I the situation were reversed, who would you choose? Someone who simply sends you a typed application, listing all their credentials, their qualifications, and their hopes and dreams? Someone who sits back, passively waiting for you to choose them from among the thousands of others who have also submitted applications?

Or someone who not only completes the application but who goes the extra mile?

Colleges want to accept students who express their strong interest and enthusiasm for their institutions.

So get out your dancing shoes, and don’t be afraid to dance. It may lead to something extraordinary.

Need some dance lessons?

Maybe you are not sure about all this.  Maybe you’re not even sure with whom you want to dance, much less how to master all the steps.

The expert admissions counselors at Great College Advice can help you be light on your toes throughout the complicated college admissions process. We would enjoy the opportunity to chat with you, take you for a spin around the dance floor, and help you figure out how best to master the steps to get admitted to college.

Just reach out. Contact us today for your complimentary consultation.

This post originally was posted in 2023. It has been updated for content.

The post 8 Steps to Get You Admitted to College first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

One of the most important goals a college counselor has is to bring a little bit of their college to a student who may not have the opportunity to visit or is considering planning a visit.  The best way to do this is to have a reception or an “on the road” information session.

What is a college reception?

A college reception is different from a college fair, and different from a high school visit.  Usually receptions are put on by more than one college and are held in the evening.  They are often held at a local hotel, or sometimes at a high school.

Students often receive invitations to these events. If you have signed up for more information about a particular college, you may receive an invite.  Or colleges and universities may get your contact information from either the SAT (College Board) or ACT.  Students may receive emails or glossy invitations about the event.  They are often held at a local hotel or sometimes at a high school.

The structure of the events vary, but often times students can expect to see the same or a very similar presentation to what is offered at the on-campus information sessions. The admissions counselor will give an overview of the basic statistics of the college and the admissions process.  This is a great opportunity to learn some information about the school that may not be available on the website.

One big difference is that you may hear presentations from 2 or 3 different colleges.  In some ways, this can be less helpful than a more focused session on one school.  If you are particularly interested in one of the participants at the reception, you may have to wait patiently through the presentations by colleges that interest you less. On the other hand, you may be learning about a college or two that has not yet been on your radar screen, and you may decide to expand your list as a result of the reception.

An on-the-road college reception may also be a great time to meet with other members of the college community.  Sometimes colleges will bring current students to the reception to talk about campus life and personal experiences.  Professors may come to discuss the courses they teach and the academic goals of the college.  Alumni will often speak of life after graduation and the job searching process.

Overall, attending a college reception in your hometown is a valuable way to learn more about a school.  It can help you decide if you want to spend the money to visit a school in order to learn more.

What to expect at a college reception after the presentations are over

Usually after the presentation, you will have an opportunity to meet individually with the admissions representatives. They will set up tables in different parts of the room, and you can waIk up and ask questions. So be prepared to ask some! Research the information you want to know about majors, student life and the admissions process.  Having an audience that asks questions really helps keep an admissions officer going.  Remember that they may have been up since 5AM trying to make it to all their high school visits and are now working into the evening to showcase the college that they work for.  So show them that you’re interested, and they will feel energized!

Also don’t forget to send a follow up “thank you note” to the person who presented on the college or colleges that interest you. It’s a great way to demonstrate interest and get some more brownie points for attending the college reception.

Need help with the college admissions process? 

The team at Great College Advice has years of experience working with thousands of students as they navigate the college admissions process.  We can help you prepare, select, and apply to colleges to give you the best chance of being accepted to your top choices.  Of course we can help with preparing for a college reception, but we will also help you with every other aspect of college admissions. Want to learn more?  Just contact us on this form and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful. 

The post What To Expect At A College Reception first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Clients ask the team at Great College Advice repeatedly to explain the relationship between the financial aid and admissions offices to help them understand how financial need is factored into admissions decisions. Usually, these questions revolve around whether a college is “need-blind” or “need-aware.” So in this post, we’ll try to shed some light on how the admissions and financial aid offices work together. More importantly, we’ll provide some insight on the difference between a need-blind and need-aware college and how a college’s financial aid policy may impact whether you ultimately decide to apply there based on affordability.

Need-Blind Admission Policies and Enrollment  Management

Generally, the Admissions and Financial Aid offices are operated separately. But usually, the two are overseen by a Dean or Vice-President of Enrollment Management, or some such title. This should give you a clue that the two offices, while administratively independent, are two sides of the same coin.

Both are tasked with recruiting and then retaining students, providing just enough resources to keep the income flowing into the university. Tuition dollars, after all, are the lifeblood of any institution of higher education. Both offices have the responsibility to keep the dollars flowing in.

As prospective students apply to the university, they send their applications to the office of admissions, naturally. They apply for financial aid around the same time. Their applications for aid are processed by the Office of Financial Aid. So, it seems, in some ways that the two are separate, and most colleges like to help create the image that admissions decisions are completely separate from financial aid decisions.

Believe me, they are not.

Colleges That Offer Need-Blind vs Need-Aware Admission

Only one group of colleges can make any claim that the two decisions are separate: those practicing “need-blind” admissions. These colleges are generally very wealthy with large endowments, and their number is quite small. I’ll come back to this exception in a moment. But suffice it to say that the financial aid and admissions offices must work together if they are to ensure the continuity and adequacy of the institution’s income stream.

Both the admissions and financial aid offices start the process with an annual budget–an amount of money that can be used for financial aid.

Some of this budget is “hard” money (interest income from endowed scholarships). But the overwhelming majority of financial aid is given in the form of discounts on the price of tuition. Colleges may call these “grants” or “scholarships,” but internally colleges discuss their “discount rate”: the average discount off the tuition sticker price they will offer in a given year.

A large percentage of the financial aid budget goes to fund currently enrolled students. Most (but not all) colleges distribute their aid budgets to ensure that current students can continue their progress toward their degrees. Keep in mind that any individual’s financial need can change from year to year, or even from semester to semester. In order to retain students, perhaps 75% or more of the total financial aid budget goes to continuing students.

Does Need-Blind Admission Really Exist?

Admissions officers try to read your application without prejudice. But admissions officers have clues regarding a family’s ability to pay.  Most applications ask whether you plan to apply for financial aid. If you check “no,” then you are considered a full-pay student. In addition, colleges review family background. If the father is a surgeon and the mother an attorney (or a plumber and a waitress, respectively) admissions officers make some plausible assumptions about the ability to pay. All colleges subscribe to demographic analytic software packages which provide detailed income information on zip codes and even neighborhoods!

Once the admissions office has made a decision on which students to admit, the director will submit the entire list to the financial aid office for review. The financial aid office compares the aggregate financial need of the entire class with the amount of aid available for incoming freshmen. If the need far exceeds the dollars available, financial aid will kick the list back to admissions with the comment, “if we admit this class, we’ll go broke–go back to the drawing board.”

If this occurs, then the admissions office begins another review of applications, focusing on those kids who are “on the bubble,” or who are borderline admissions cases. Needy students on the borderline will be rejected, and replaced with students who didn’t quite make the cut–but who can pay full price. This process will continue until the admissions office can resubmit the list, and the financial aid office is satisfied that the institution will not over-commit itself.

Now let’s look at the small number of colleges who claim that their admissions process is “need-blind.” These colleges are wealthy. They not only have a high discount rate, but they also have endowment funds to draw upon if, for some reason, the admissions office ends up admitting way too many students with financial need. But “need-blind” does not mean “need-ignorant.”

Experienced admissions staffers know that they cannot admit a freshman class comprised solely of students who need a full tuition scholarship. They have to balance the full-pay students against the full-pay students. Even wealthy colleges have budgets that are not infinitely expandable. Admissions staff at “need-blind” colleges simply have a bit more wiggle room.

As I have said, admissions officers do have clues about a student’s ability to pay right on the application. In this sense, all college admissions processes are “need-aware.”

More evidence that need-blind admission is a myth

There is one other piece of evidence that helps us to understand that need-blind admission doesn’t really exist in ideal form. Colleges publish statistics about how many of their students receive different types of aid. We can track, for example, the percentage of the entering freshman class received need-based at Brown.

If Brown were truly and completely “need-blind” and not “need-aware,” we would expect that from year to year, there would be relatively big fluctuations in the amount of aid awarded. Some years, the class might be comprised of lots of kids who had high financial need but were otherwise remarkable applicants. In other years, maybe fewer remarkable, poor kids apply.

What the statistics tell us, however, is that Brown’s financial aid budget is fairly steady from year to year (discounting inflation). And–more important–the percentage of entering students receiving need-based financial aid is also fairly steady in the mid-40% range (for the Class of 2028 cohort 829 of 1719 enrolled students received need-based aid with the average award package totaling almost $69,000).

We do not see those expected fluctuations from year to year based on the quality of the applicants. Strangely, no matter who applies, the percentage of aid recipients stays roughly the same from year to year and even decade to decade.

Need-Blind vs Need-Aware in Admission–A Summary

So what conclusions can we draw from this relationship between admissions and financial aid?

• First, full-pay students have an admissions advantage over scholarship students at most universities. This fact is not one that we like to admit, but reality bites, sometimes.
• Second, students who need aid to afford college should consider applying to schools where they are at the top of the selectivity curve. You do not want to be “on the bubble,” because you either are less likely to be admitted or your aid package is likely to be less generous than at a college where you are one of the top recruits.

To be even more specific, if the middle 50% (25th – 75th percentile) score on the SAT for Lafayette College is between 1390 and 1490, the high-need student with a 1390 will be less desirable than the high-need student with a 1490. If you have a 1390 and need a generous aid package, look for colleges that have a middle 50% SAT range of 1250-1350, and your chances go up for both admission and financial aid.

Need help with the college admissions process? 

The team at Great College Advice has years of experience working with thousands of students as they navigate the college admissions process.  We can help you prepare, select, and apply to colleges to give you the best chance of being accepted to your top choices.  Not only can we help identify the right fit schools that also fit your college budget, but we will also help you with every other aspect of this process. Want to learn more?  Just contact us on this form and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful. 

The post Financial Aid, Admissions, and “Need-Blind” Policies first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

What is demonstrated interest in college admission?

Demonstrated interest and the business of higher education

Why do colleges care about the yield rate?

How colleges improve their yield rate

How to show demonstrated interest in the college admissions process

The general rule for demonstrating interest is to do anything and everything that will indicate to the admissions office that you are a serious applicant and that you have a strong desire to attend.  Your goal is for admissions officers to believe that if you are accepted you will likely attend. With that general guideline in mind, here are the ways to demonstrate interest. 

Apply Early Decision 

An early application indicates your demonstrated interest. Of course, ED is a stronger demonstration of interest, but even an early action (EA) application indicates you have put that school toward the top of your priority list. Of course, as ED is binding, please make sure this is truly your top choice and that the cost to attend is not prohibitive for your family. 

Sign up for the admissions mailing list 

Right on the admissions page of the college’s website is an invitation to receive more information about the college. This is absolutely the first thing you must do to express interest. By sharing your name, address, email, and phone number with the college, you are telling the sales and marketing department (i.e., admissions) that you are truly interested in learning more about the college. This act of giving the college your contact information allows it to activate their enrollment tracking CRM software. 

Visit the college’s website 

Now that you’re in their enrollment management system, colleges have tools to be able to see what pages on their website you visit and how long you spend on those pages. So, spend time on the site. Visit lots of pages. Take your time to read them. Take a virtual tour. Register for virtual information sessions. Demonstrate that you truly are interested in the college by exploring the website–often and in-depth. The side benefit is that you really will begin to learn whether this college is for you by spending the time to really read about it in detail. 

Attend an admissions event 

Colleges are expanding their reach to try to attract more and more applicants. These are marketing events (remember what I said is the true function of the admissions office?).  But they also provide you an opportunity to learn more about the college–and to earn some demonstrated interest brownie points. 

Whether the event is online (a “virtual information session”) or in person at a college fair, take the time to attend.  Your registration is a signal of your interest.  And at a fair, the effort you take to stop by the college’s table or booth–and fill out their contact card and leave it with the sales representative (a.k.a. “admissions officer”)–will be recognized in your electronic file that you established when you signed up for that mailing list! 

Visit the college to show demonstrated interest 

You have two opportunities to visit a college. First, you can do so in person (for more information about how to get the most from your college visits, read this post). Or you can do so virtually by signing up for a virtual tour. These online experiences can either be automated or they can be scheduled, live events whereby you visit the school on video with a student and to ask questions in real-time. You can do one or the other. But if you really want to go the extra mile to demonstrate interest, do both! 

Communicate with an admissions officer 

The best way to communicate with admissions offices is via email. Find your local representative and introduce yourself while asking specific questions about programs that interest you. You can also ask to be put in touch with students who share your interests. For example, if you want to learn more about the debate team, ask the admissions officer to put you in touch with the team captain. For more on how to communicate with admissions, read this post. 

Follow colleges on social media 

Instagram. Facebook. X (formerly Twitter). YouTube. TikTok. Every college has multiple channels through which to communicate its marketing messages. Following a school on social media is just one more way to demonstrate interest, and more than likely, they will link your social media presence with your email and other information from when you initially signed up for the mailing list. 

Demonstrated interest is an important step in college admission

Need help with the college admissions process? 

The team at Great College Advice has years of experience working with thousands of students as they navigate the college admissions process.  We can help you prepare, select, and apply to colleges to give you the best chance of being accepted to your top choices.  Of course we can help with demonstrating interest, but we will also help you with every other aspect of this process. Want to learn more?  Just contact us on this form and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful. 

The post 7 Ways to Show Demonstrated Interest first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Reality is that there is no way to predict if you will be taken off the wait list of a college. You can look at the numbers from last year and gauge your chances. But only the college knows if they will need wait listed students to fill spots in their class.

Even if the odds are against you, you should not sit around and not do anything about it. But first, let’s look at how colleges use the Wait List. As with so much with college admissions, the existence of the Wait List has very little to do with you as an applicant and everything to do with the self-interest of educational institutions.  And what do colleges care about most?  Money and rankings.  

What is the Wait List in college admissions?

Conceptually, applicants who end up on the Wait List are the back-up team in the event that someone accepted doesn’t take a space.  You will get off the Wait List if someone else decides not to attend.  At least that is what colleges you want you to think.  But the Wait List is really a way for colleges to manipulate certain data and look after their bottom lines.

It’s all about the money

Let’s take the bottom line first. Admitted applicants represent dollar signs. Each matriculating student comes with money. Some come with a lot:  the students who will pay the full cost of attendance. Some will come with very little:  the students who need significant financial aid and scholarships to attend.  

The college has a budget to make, and it’s not always clear on the day the admissions offices sends out those acceptances what the resulting income will be.  Will all those rich kids decide to go somewhere else, leaving a major hole in our budget?  Will all the Pell Grant students decide to attend, creating another hole in our budget?  

Accepted students have until May 1st to make their decision about which college to attend.  At that point, colleges will tally up the anticipated revenue from the particular students who will matriculate. And they will look at the bottom line.  Is the budget in balance?  Can we afford to take a few more Pell Grant students to provide them a fantastic educational opportunity?  Or are we in the hole, meaning that we have to find a few more of those “full pay” students to make up the budgetary shortfall?

A college will therefore pull from the Wait List those students who will help ensure that the college can make the revenue targets for the year.  After all, colleges are expensive.  There are all those tenured faculty to pay,  health benefits to provide, and buildings to heat (not to mention the landscaping that needs tending and the fitness center that needs new elliptical machines). 

It’s all about the rankings

The budgetary issues are relatively easy to understand. The rankings issues are more nuanced. Let’s dive in, anyway.

Colleges and universities have to report out admissions statistics to the government, to the public, and (especially) to US News & World Report. Two admissions statistics are super important.  First is the admissions rate.  The public presumes that the lower the admissions rate, the better the college. Never mind whether that perception has any basis in reality:  the presumption is used in the rankings.  Low admit rates mean higher rankings.

The other crucial statistic is the yield rate:  the proportion of students offered admission who actually enroll.  The perception is that the higher the yield rate the better–the more desirable the college is. Again, nevermind whether this statistic is an accurate perception of reality.  US News doesn’t care about realities, it cares about selling subscriptions to the rankings rags. And colleges care about whatever US News cares about. Why?  Because the rankings drive higher numbers of applications which drives more money into the college coffers (See the section above: “it’s all about the money”). 

What does the Wait List have to do with rankings?

I spoke with a college data expert today who called the Wait List “Early Decision 3.” Like Early Decision, the Wait List is a way for colleges to protect their yield rate.  So let’s take a quick digression to understand how early decision determines the yield rate.

Early Decision and the Yield Rate

Because an early decision application carries with it a promise to attend, the yield rate is effectively 100%.  That’s as high as it goes. So more and more college are accepting more and more students in the early decisions, both round 1 and round 2. 

To give you an idea of how this works,  Emory has been able to raise its yield rate quite a bit over the past few yeaers. How did they do it? In 2022-23, Emory accepted 66% of the incoming class in the early decision rounds.  If you accept a high percentage of the incoming class at a yield rate of 100%, then you can admit a smaller portion of your class at a lower yield rate and still come out smelling like a rose at US News. Miracles can happen…if you know how to play the game.

The Wait List and the Yield Rate

The Wait List also gives colleges an opportunity to manipulate both the admissions rate and the yield rate. How does this work?

As mentioned, you get off the wait list if you can help a college meet its goals, whatever those happen to be. In this account, you get off the wait list if you can help move the college up in the rankings.  

So let’s just assume the college chooses you to get off the Wait List.  You will NOT get anything in writing. Instead, you’ll get a call from admissions:  “hello, Mark, I’m happy to let you know that we can offer you a position off the Wait List, and you have 24 hours in which to give me a response.”  

If you accept the offer, great.  If not, the admissions officer will call the next name on his list. But notice that nothing is in writing. Admissions officers do this so that they do not have to report any official statistics to the government or to US News. Your acceptance off the Wait List is also blissfully unrecorded in the college’s admissions statistics.  

As a result, the college protects its admissions rate–which is held artificially low by accepting lots of kids in the early decision rounds AND off the Wait List.  Moreover, the college protects its yield rate, making it artificially high–by taking lots of kids early decision and accepting an increasing percentage of students off the Wait List.

In the 2022 admissions cycle at Emory, the percentage of students offered admission from the Wait List was 8 percent.  As a result, effectively 74% of the student body was accepted from Early Decision 1, Early Decision 2, and “Early Decision 3” (a.k.a. the Wait List).  Only 26% of applicants were admitted in the “regular” admission round.  The acceptance rate in the Early Decision rounds was 26%. The overall acceptance rate was 11%–down from 19% just two years ago.  And those students admitted off the Wait List? They aren’t even counted in the acceptance statistics. (How do they do this?  By using the phone rather than any traceable emails or documentation…see above).

And yet, 33,197 students applied to Emory in 2022, and the vast majority were rejected. The result?  Exactly what the university hoped:  a further reduction in the admissions rate, a rise in the yield rate, and a increase in the percentage of students who pay full price.  Interestingly, however, Emory’s US News ranking fell from 2018 to 2023 by a few places. 

Nevertheless, Emory wins the game. Tens of thousands of unsuspecting applicants lose. 

[If you’re interested in the source of all this data, check out Moore College Data.]

Why this lengthy explanation of the Wait List?  

Because you need to know how to interpret your chances of getting in off the Wait List.  If you love this particular college more than anything, and you’ve been relegated to the Wait List, you need to understand–painful though it may be–that this purgatory you’re experiencing is not about you. It has nothing to do with the merits of you as an applicant. It has nothing to do whether you have the qualifications to attend this particular school.

Rather, it has everything to do with the narrow self-interest of an institution that sees you mostly as a dollar sign and a data point. I know it’s easy for me to say. It’s almost impossible for anyone NOT to take this process personally:  you are putting yourself on the line and asking to be judged as “worthy” or “unworthy” of admission to a particular institution.

But in many ways, this process is entirely impersonal and you and your accomplishments matter less to the institution than their own narrow self interests.  It bites.  But that’s the way it is.

So what do you do if you are on the Wait List?

You have a couple of choices if you find yourself on the Wait List.

Move on

Some colleges put thousands of applicants on the Wait List. Statistically, your chances are pretty low of receiving one of those phone calls from admissions. Of course, if your family can pay full price for tuition, your chances are perhaps a little bit better. Emotionally, you can do yourself a favor and move on. Look at the colleges that did admit you. You applied to those places, and you liked many things about them–enough to spend all that time completing the darned application. 

As the song goes, “love the one you’re with“.  With time, you’ll forget the sting of the Wait List. Tell the college that put you on the Wait List to take a flying leap and open yourself up to new love.

Accept a place on the Wait List

If you remain interested in the college that has put you in purgatory, then you should do what you can to try to get off the Wait List. When you receive this offer of purgatory, you are given explicit instructions as to what to do. Often all you need to do is check a box on a form that is sent to you through the admissions portal from the office of admission.

Even if you decide to do this, try to keep your emotions on an even keel. The statistics are still against you. However, by placing yourself on the list, your chances or greater than zero that you’ll get in off the Wait List.

And if by some miracle you do get that phone call, rejoice. You have a new choice:  your “new love” or your “old flame.”  You can’t really lose in that situation.

In general, most colleges will clear their Wait List by early June, although some colleges have been known to make a call to a student as late as August.  But if you haven’t heard anything by the Fourth of July, read the silence and move on (see above).

How can you increase your chances of being taken off the Wait List?

There are a few things you can do to increase your chances, at least a smidge. If you agree to stay on the Wait List, then there is no reason not do do them.  So here’s your plan:

Continue to show interest

Some colleges do not rank students on the Wait List  by the applicants’ desirability or any other objective factor that we mere mortals outside the admissions office can see.  Some colleges do, however, rank their wait list based on the review of your application. Your overall admission score can include your testing and your grades and the students with the highest scores will be taken off the wait list first. The major you wish to pursue could be a factor. Geography or where you live could be a factor. And, as we have mentioned, your ability to pay could very likely be a factor.

Your demonstrated interest in the college could also be a strong factor. All colleges are very conscious of their yield, so they want to admit students off their wait list that they think are going to enroll. So it is essential that you continue to show interest in the college you are waiting to hear from. After all, does that admissions officer making all those phone calls want to waste time calling a student who is unlikely to say “yes” to the offer to get in off the Wait List? 

If you have not done so already, send an email or write a letter (on paper! with a stamp!) that continues to document your interest in the college. In your letter, you should highlight what you hope to add to their college community. Be specific. Now is the time to really show that this college is the place for you.

Be careful, however, not to be annoying or to overstep the bounds of decorum. Don’t sent brownies or flowers. Don’t send a singing telegram to you beloved admissions officer. Don’t send notes in the mail with glitter or stickers in the hopes that you’ll be remembered. You could be remembered for all the wrong reasons and become the butt of jokes around the admissions office. Being overly fawning or clever could backfire. So write a good email or letter and let it go at that.

Also be careful to read directions. Some colleges may not accept anything more than the box you check to remain on the Wait List. Do what the college asks of you.

Send updated grades

If you have finished your final semester, go ahead and send in updated grades (especially if they are strong). This again will show interest, but it will also show the college that you have continued to be a strong student.

Send an additional letter of recommendation

Sometimes you have the option of sending another recommendation letter from teachers or their guidance counselor. But colleges would more than likely want to hear directly from you. Our advice is that any additional letter of recommendation needs to say something new or different about you that didn’t appear in your original application. If there is something new to add that makes a material difference in your application, a letter of recommendation might help

Send updates on accomplishments

This time of year is filled with banquets and award ceremonies. Were you honored for anything? Let the college know. Again, this will help them notice any new achievements that may make you a more attractive candidate than the first time they admissions office reviewed your application.

Do what you can to get off the Wait List, but remain realistic

There are no ways about it:  being put on the Wait List stinks. You’re in limbo. You’re literally waiting to see if gods smile upon you and give you a new way into your preferred college or university. 

And of course, you’ll be taking this state of being betwixt and between quite personally:  you’re not good enough to accept and not bad enough to reject. 

But as I have said, the game at this point is not at all personal. It’s not about you. It’s about them. They are trying to manage their budgets and the statistics that will allow them to move up in the rankings. At this point, you are just a data point and a dollar sign. 

Things could still fall your way. But you’re better off to set your sites on other opportunities.  Again, you may be surprised with a phone call one day from an admissions officer that could rock your world–perhaps in a great way. Or perhaps you’ll have moved on to fall in love with a college that genuinely wanted you in the first instance. 

Need help with your Wait List strategy? Or a plan to avoid it altogether?

Our counselors at Great College Advice feel your pain. In the college admissions game, there are few aspects that are more painful than getting put on the Wait List (okay, maybe being rejected outright can be more painful). It’s no fun to be told that you’re good but not great, adequate but inadmissible, eligible but unacceptable. 

Nevertheless, as this post points out, there are things you can do to improve your chances. First you need a solid admissions strategy from the outset that takes into accounts the games colleges play with their applicant pools. Second, if you do end up in limbo, then there are things you might do to increase your chances at the margins.

If you need help with any aspect of the admissions process, give us a call or contact us online.  We’d be happy to give you a free consultation to figure out how we can help make the college admissions game more successful and less stressful.

Great College Advice

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