This college admissions season was, once again, extremely competitive with record numbers of applications and record low admit rates. But, was it? if you look more closely, you see that the competition is increasing mostly amongst a certain group of colleges. The “name-brand”, highly selective universities.
Why does this keep happening?
One reason is that these highly selective colleges develop their reputation based on the "illusion" that they are somehow better. That “prestigious” schools are good and “safety” schools are bad. They spend a great deal of money and marketing to attract more applicants, and get more students to choose that college early, which increases their yield and lowers their admit rate. All of which makes the college more “prestigious”.
The other reason is that we, as a society, buy into this type of thinking.
Just recently, I read a parent’s post about how their teen was admitted only to their two “safety” schools and none of their “prestigious” colleges. They were admitted to the Kelley School of Business, which was just ranked “Top 10 to Watch” by the “prestigious” Poets and Quants? And University of Washington’s Foster School of business, which is ranked in the Top 25! What? Why are these business schools considered “safeties”? Or not “prestigious”?
We’ve got to get away from this mentality of giving the prestige to an institution and not the individual student themselves.
It’s not the college that makes the dream come true, it’s the student and the work they do and the choices they make in and out of the classroom. Frank Bruni addressed this in his 2016 book: “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be”.
I’m not saying that students should not apply to selective colleges, especially if the student’s academic profile meets or exceeds the admission statistics of the college. I’m saying that the “name” of the college should not be the only or predominant criteria. And that the term “safety school” be banished from admission lexicon.
As you are building your list, think about what’s important to you in your college experience and check out THOSE statistics first, not the rank of the college. See if the classes invite discussion-based learning. Check out the types of clubs and organizations. Make sure there are a large number of majors and minors that sound interesting. If you want a specific major, make sure that you can get directly admitted. Find out the percentage of students who live on campus the first year and the amount who get guaranteed housing. Explore the “vibe” of the community.
If you find you have a “name-brand” college on your list, that’s okay. At least they’ll be there because of who you are and what you care about and the experience you want to create not just the college’s rank. And if the college admit stats are more competitive than your profile OR if they have a 60% admit rate or below, find it’s “twin” that has a more likely admit profile for you that you like as much and add it to your list. “Likely”, not safety.
If you do that, you will end up with a balanced list of colleges to choose from that you will be excited to attend. Some may have been harder to get admitted to and some may have been easier. But that won’t matter. Because the “prestige” will be created by your experience at that college. It will be created by YOU!