About 3 weeks ago, I decided that this month’s blog topic would be about building a balanced college list. And it’s taken me about that long to write it.
It’s not that I didn’t know what to say, it’s that I had so much to talk about, I had a hard time narrowing it down. I couldn’t help but wonder (to quote Carrie Bradshaw), was it just me? Or was this task becoming more and more challenging? And if so, why?
Every webinar I attended and colleague I spoke with confirmed it was becoming more challenging to build a realistically balanced list. Validating, yes, I wasn’t alone in my frustration, but why was this the case? And what could be done about it?
Predicting admission into a college is a guesstimate at best. It has never been an exact science, but what has intensified this, is the lack of predictability is spreading to a wider range of colleges. As more students apply to the same perceived (my word) “prestigious”/top-ranked colleges, the more it lowers the admit rate and makes the predictability for admission almost impossible. What was once a “reach” school is now so unpredictable that the term “lottery” or “wildcard” is more appropriate.
When you combine more colleges with ever-decreasing admit rates, with the already existing lack of transparency of the admissions process, it becomes even more difficult for students to compare their statistics to those of the college and predict if it will be a “reach, target or likely” school for them. So, they just apply to more, hoping it will increase their chances of admission. But applying to “more” is not better. Ask any student who applied to mostly elite colleges thinking “I’ll at least get into ONE of my choices”, only to receive initial deferrals and ultimately denials. And perpetuating the cycle.
And that’s because when there are so many talented and qualified students applying, whether they are ultimately admitted is about creating a freshman class that fulfills the college’s mission and their institutional priorities which are established as a result of that mission and which we are not privy to. It’s the college telling the student, “hey, colleges are businesses”, “it’s not you, it’s me”, Or, to quote Rick Clark, the AVP of Undergraduate Enrollment at Georgia Tech, the admissions process is not fair.
The good news in all of this, is that once we know what the situation is and why it’s happening, we can acknowledge the things we can’t control and focus on the things we can, like really considering what “fit” means, looking beyond the “brand name”, and remembering that the average college admit rate in the United States is 68%, with more than half of all U.S. colleges and universities reporting rates of 67% or higher.”
And, most of all, knowing it’s not the college that creates the success, it’s YOU!