Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

To The Media: End the College Application Nightmare Stories

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It figures that August 1 landed on a Sunday this year.  What used to be just another beach day took on special significance a few years ago, when Common Application chose August 1 to launch its updates for the coming school year.  It’s exciting to be sure, but with a hint of melancholy, as a few overly enthusiastic parents use the occasion to tell their high school seniors “Summer’s over”, while the seniors meekly head towards the nearest computer, even on a weekend, muttering “But what if I don’t want it to be?”

Happily, more than a few colleges agree with the seniors.  While there was a stream—OK, a torrent—of colleges Twittering students on Sunday to hurry up and apply, more than a few colleges said “Start today if you want to, but our deadline isn’t until January.  Take your time.”  I had planned on thanking each of those colleges for posting such a message in the face of application mania.  I’m pleased to say there were too many to do so.

But this is just the start, and here’s hoping more colleges get on board.  The last two years of schooling have left this year’s seniors in pretty bad shape.  Day after day of waking up to find out if school is in person, online, both, or neither may have left them flexible, but it has also left them exhausted.  Students who fit every element of one (and certainly not the only) likely college-bound profile—from the suburbs, in a college prep curriculum, with two well-off parents who went to college—are saying out loud they just don’t think applying to college is worth the hassle.  That’s not because of the Delta rebound; it’s because their last couple of years of school have left them unsure of themselves and their ability to control their destiny.  Since any college admissions rep will tell you the key to a successful application is to let the student drive the bus, this is a huge problem.

Part of the solution lies with us.  August is peach and melon season in Michigan, a time when very rational people who never eat fruit feel a swelling in their taste buds that can only be satiated by interaction with produce that is truly a little slice of heaven.

This same thirst wells up in the media every August, but it isn’t for fruit—it’s for stories about the confusing, terrifying, uncertain world of college admissions.  With a new crop of high school seniors every year, journalists eagerly seize on their newness to college admissions, highlighting profiles of bright young people who find themselves flummoxed over how to apply to college, and when to apply to college.  Curiously, these stories rarely display a student’s confusion over where to apply to college, since the media only covers students who are considering the same 25 colleges ever year that admit about 5 percent of their applicant pool.  “She’s a National Honor Society president, but she can’t get her arms around Yale’s application.” Of course, these same students would be equally baffled by using a plumber’s wrench for the first time, and they easily get the hang of this college thing two weeks into the process.  But apparently, that’s not the point. The very first time they do something new, they don’t completely understand it.  My goodness.

The impact of this approach to college application coverage can’t be understated.  Thousands of students have already had to give up most of their summers at the insistence of parents who have caught the angst early, eager to make sure that college essay sparkles, unaware that the number one cause of weak essays isn’t underwriting, but overwriting.

Parents who haven’t been on their seniors about college since Father’s Day read these August articles and panic, fearing their child is now “behind”.  They plop their senior in front of a computer screen and tell them they can’t come out until an application is finished—for a college that doesn’t even start reading applications until January 10.

Parents whose children really understand themselves, and had no intention of applying to these schools, now feel their child is “losing out” on something, and suddenly insist that an application or two to the Big 25 is a good idea, “just to see what happens”, even though their student is well aware of what will happen.

This brand of media attention has never served high school seniors well, and it’s likely to make matters even worse for this year’s seniors, who are looking to gain their footing after two years of scholastic uncertainty.  In the interest of their well being—or, to use a phrase that is on the verge of becoming unimportant due to its overuse, their mental health—how about a few less media stories on the impossibility of getting into college and its excessive expense, and a few more stories about the 75% or so of colleges who admit more than 50% of their applicants, and the many colleges who are forgiving institutionally-based student loans?  Could the media finally discover the urban and rural colleges whose buildings have not a hint of ivy that are turning around the lives of students who didn’t have the opportunity to take 7 AP classes in high school, students who are shining academically?  How about the students who are making community college work, earning a degree that costs less from start to finish than one year of Harvard, all while the students typically work about 30 hours a week?

It’s certainly true many people turn to the media to read stories that will fuel their dreams—that’s why so many people follow the Olympics, and replay the video of the woman who was reunited with her dog after two years.  But stories about the uncertainty of the college selection process don’t feed students’ sense of the possible; they nourish their nightmares.  They’ve had enough of that these past two years, and may be headed for more.  The best thing the press can do for them, and for our society, is to admit there are more than 25 good colleges in this country, and wake the students to a better vision of how to apply to college, other than run a gauntlet that, at the end of the day, is largely of the media’s own making.

What Needs to Change in College Admissions

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The ups and downs of the quarantine gave college admissions officers and school counselors a taste of application life to come, as the birth rate for high school graduates continues to slide, and the need to develop new approaches to recruit students increases.  As the profession continues to try and improve college access, and knowing that small differences can make a big difference, here are some considerations for both sides of the desk to ponder this summer over a well-deserved glass of lemonade:

Colleges—move your deadline dates.  November 1 (early applications), January 1 (regular applications), and May 1 (many deposits) are all big dates in the college application world—and they all fell on a Sunday or a holiday this year.  I don’t understand this, since the admissions offices weren’t open, and the vast majority of high school seniors had no access to counselors or other application helpers the day of and before the deadlines.

This needs to change.  Yes, students need to be responsible, and should learn to plan ahead—but perhaps that lesson is better applied to deadlines for things they’ve done before (like papers), not with things they are doing for the first time (like applying to college).  The first Tuesday in November, the second Tuesday in January, and the first Tuesday in May would solve this problem nicely, increasing the quality and quantity of applications to boot. Georgia Tech made the move, and they get kaboodles of applications.  It’s an easy, but important, change.

High Schools—stop working holidays.  Moving the January 1 deadline to a date when high schools are in session is also overdue for school counselors, who have taken a serious shellacking this year with all the student mental health issues arising from COVID.  School counselors have always been overworked, but never able to use the December holidays to recover, since they were expected to help their students make January 1 college deadlines.

It’s time to take a stand.  Assuming the colleges move their deadlines, counselors need to learn to let go.  Send a note to all senior families early in November, letting them know your vacation is—well, a vacation.  If you really can’t let go of your students for that long—or if the colleges unwisely cling to January 1– set two days of vacation for online office hours, and take a breath all the other days.  You have mastered online office hours this year.  Let them be your friend.

Colleges—keep innovating.  One (and perhaps the only) upside of the quarantine was the ability of college admissions offices to adapt major chunks of their traditional approach to recruitment. Test optional, drive-thru tours, and online high school visits suggested it might be OK for everyone to get their hopes up, that some real college admissions reform was in the air.

Yes.  Well.

In a post-vaccine world, we see more signs of returning to “normal” than creating new normal.  Reinventing the entire admissions process is no easy feat, to be sure, but how hard might it be for admissions offices to spend half a day this summer doing “What ifs” to one part of the application process?  Do that for five years, and you have a new admissions paradigm, and a more accessible one—the thing you say you keep wanting.

High schools— mental health and college access aren’t either/or.  I will legitimately blow my top if I read one more post from a high school counselor insisting that the increase in COVID-related mental health needs makes it impossible to do any effective college counseling.

School counseling as a profession has long been showing a mental health bias at the expense of quality college counseling, and this year just seems to have widened the gap.   Counselor training programs plant the seeds of this bias— training programs devote about 7 classes to mental health training, and none to college counseling—and all of this must stop, if only because the dichotomy is a false one.

Discouraged, depressed high school students light up like a hilltop church on Christmas Eve when I tell them college gives them a fresh start to life and learning, proof enough that college counseling affects mental health.  That, plus the American School Counselor Association says college counseling is part of the job.  Counselors truly are overworked, so they can’t do everything they want in any part of counseling.  That said, college can still be part of a key to a better self.  More counselors need to see that, and act on it.

Everyone—stop beating up on the Ivies.  The Ivies and their equally tough-to-get-into institutions largely decided to go test optional this year.  For some reason, this gave a lot of students with B averages the hope that they too could pahk the cah in the yahd, now that they didn’t have to reveal their test scores.

So—more students applied to the Ivies this year than last year.  The Ivies didn’t admit more students this year than last year.  That means their admit rate had to go down, and more students were denied.

That isn’t news—it’s math.  And if you want to blame the Ivies for encouraging students to apply who didn’t really stand a chance of getting in, you’re going to need to make a thousand more jackets for that club.  If you think the Ivies take too few Pell-eligible students, say that.  If you think they admit too many legacies, stay that.  But don’t beat them up for proving the laws of basic ratios.  Any other college in their shoes would have to do the same thing. (Besides, it’s the national media who has left our society with the impression that there are only 25 colleges in America.)

Everyone—about Kiddos.  It’s no secret that college is largely a time of youth, especially with the expansion of adolescence into the early twenties and beyond. But college is also a time to help young people embrace the opportunities of adulthood, skills and attitudes that sometimes require setting the desires of self to one side.

This goal would be more easily achieved if we saw students—and if they saw themselves– as capable of embracing a larger sense of self by referring to them as students, not Kiddos.  They don’t need to grow up in a hurry or, with the right kind of help, succumb to the media images of college choice as a high stakes pressure cooker.  But they also need something more than just a pat on the head and a verbal affirmation that’s the equivalent of a lollipop. Let’s try calling them students.

Dear 12th Grader: Don’t Blow Your Ivy Chances Now

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So many high school seniors are still in real contention for an Ivy League acceptance in the first few weeks of twelfth grade. Then, something happens that takes most of these smart and well-intentioned young people out of the running entirely.

Don’t let this happen to you! Watch the video below to find out what you must do to give yourself the best shot of closing the deal with the Ivy League or similarly selective college of your dreams during the first few weeks of senior year.

The advice in the above video is particularly relevant to students who have not made major mistakes in 9th grade, 10th grade, or 11th grade.

Sadly, many high school students make major academic, extracurricular, or personal missteps throughout high school. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure.” Why get yourself into unnecessary trouble or cause yourself needless anxiety or stress later in high school just because you didn’t know that certain decisions that you make as a high school freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior could actually turn out to be mistakes serious enough to derail your smooth sail towards achieving your post-high school goals?

If you are a student (or a parent of a student) who wants to proactively and wisely tackle every challenge high school throws your way and reach your college admissions potential, the best advice I can give you is to join me for College Counseling Tonight.

College Counseling Tonight is for students and parents who desire expert guidance as they navigate the college admissions process, which actually begins the moment a student starts high school! Too many students don’t get much if any great college admissions advice even as late as into their senior year in high school; therefore, it’s never too late to join College Counseling Tonight if you want to give yourself the best chance at reaching your college admissions goals.

Nearly every weeknight throughout the year participants in College Counseling Tonight meet up with me live (no more than three students (or parents)/session) for thirty minutes during which time they are encouraged to ask their current college admissions questions, discuss where they are in the process, and learn from others’ questions and my answers. During College Counseling Tonight I’m also able to provide exclusive access to insider admissions news and information. My goal is to ensure participants leave each session armed with the knowledge they need to make the most of every opportunity presented during their high school career.

In short, if you join me for College Counseling Tonight you’ll gain access to timely best-in-class college admissions counseling that will empower you to make the right moves regarding academics, testing, extracurricular activities, and college applications in order to meet with future college admissions success.

Best of all, unlike my one-on-one college admissions coaching services, which are, frankly, quite expensive, joining College Counseling Tonight only costs a very reasonable $49/session. Consider it an amazing insurance policy to protect against the lack of college guidance or downright poor college counseling many students experience during their four years in high school. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure – especially if that cure comes too late (which, from my experience, is too often the case with students who only start getting good/any college counseling in 11th grade or later).

Get ready to bust the most common college admissions myths and prepare to glide through the entire college admissions process calm, cool, and collected. Join me for College Counseling Tonight.

Dear 11th Grader: Don’t Screw Up Your Ivy League Chances Now

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One decision you make in eleventh grade, your third year in high school, will directly influence your chances of getting into an Ivy League or similarly selective college or university when you are a high school senior.

If you don’t make time to focus on this one endeavor during your junior year, you won’t be meeting your college admissions potential. In the process you will be kissing Ivy League colleges and similarly selective American colleges and universities goodbye – particularly if this misstep is coupled with similarly destructive mistakes in 9th grade, 10th grade, or 12th grade.

Yet, in an ideal scenario, you won’t be making any major academic, extracurricular, or personal missteps throughout high school. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure.” Why get yourself into unnecessary trouble or cause yourself needless anxiety or stress later in high school just because you didn’t know that certain decisions that you make as a high school freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior could actually turn out to be mistakes serious enough to derail your smooth sail towards achieving your post-high school goals?

If you are a student (or a parent of a student) who wants to proactively and wisely tackle every challenge high school throws your way and reach your college admissions potential, the best advice I can give you is to join me for College Counseling Tonight.

College Counseling Tonight is for students and parents who desire expert guidance as they navigate the college admissions process, which actually begins the moment a student starts high school! Nearly every weeknight throughout the year participants in College Counseling Tonight meet up with me live (no more than three students (or parents)/session) for thirty minutes during which time they are encouraged to ask their current college admissions questions, discuss where they are in the process, and learn from others’ questions and my answers. During College Counseling Tonight I’m also able to provide exclusive access to insider admissions news and information. My goal is to ensure participants leave each session armed with the knowledge they need to make the most of every opportunity presented during their high school career.

In short, if you join me for College Counseling Tonight you’ll gain access to timely best-in-class college admissions counseling that will empower you to make the right moves regarding academics, testing, extracurricular activities, and college applications in order to meet with future college admissions success.

Best of all, unlike my one-on-one college admissions coaching services, which are, frankly, quite expensive, joining me for College Counseling Tonight only costs a very reasonable $49/session. Consider it an amazing insurance policy to protect against the lack of college guidance or downright poor college counseling many students experience during their four years – but especially during their first two years – in high school. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure – especially if that cure comes too late (which from my experience is too often the case with students who only start getting good or better college counseling in 11th grade or later).

Get ready to bust the most common college admissions myths and prepare to glide through the entire college admissions process calm, cool, and collected. Join me for College Counseling Tonight.

Dear 10th Grader: Don’t Become An Ivy League Reject!

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One decision you make in tenth grade, your second year in high school, will directly influence your chances of getting into an Ivy League or similarly selective college or university when you are a high school senior.

Make sure to make time for the major pursuit described in the video below during your sophomore year because if you don’t, your chances of getting into highly selective colleges or universities in two years will nosedive – especially if coupled with similarly destructive mistakes in 9th grade, 11th grade, or 12th grade.

Yet, in an ideal scenario, you won’t be making any major academic, extracurricular, or personal missteps throughout high school. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure.” Why get yourself into unnecessary trouble or cause yourself needless anxiety or stress later in high school just because you didn’t know that certain decisions that you make as a high school freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior could actually turn out to be mistakes serious enough to derail your smooth sail towards achieving your post-high school goals?

If you are a student (or a parent of a student) who wants to proactively and wisely tackle every challenge high school throws your way and reach your college admissions potential, the best advice I can give you is to join me for College Counseling Tonight.

College Counseling Tonight is for students and parents who desire expert guidance as they navigate the college admissions process, which actually begins the moment a student starts high school! Nearly every weeknight throughout the year participants in College Counseling Tonight meet up with me live (no more than three students (or parents)/session) for thirty minutes during which time they are encouraged to ask their current college admissions questions, discuss where they are in the process, and learn from others’ questions and my answers. During College Counseling Tonight I’m also able to provide exclusive access to insider admissions news and information. My goal is to ensure participants leave each session armed with the knowledge they need to make the most of every opportunity presented during their high school career.

In short, if you join me for College Counseling Tonight you’ll gain access to timely best-in-class college admissions counseling that will empower you to make the right moves regarding academics, testing, extracurricular activities, and college applications in order to meet with future college admissions success.

Best of all, unlike my one-on-one college admissions coaching services, which are, frankly, quite expensive, joining me for College Counseling Tonight only costs a very reasonable $49/session. Consider it an amazing insurance policy to protect against the lack of college guidance or downright poor college counseling many students experience during their four years – but especially during their first two years – in high school. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure – especially if that cure comes too late (which from my experience is too often the case with students who only start getting good or better college counseling in 11th grade or later).

Get ready to bust the most common college admissions myths and prepare to glide through the entire college admissions process calm, cool, and collected. Join me for College Counseling Tonight.

Dear 9th Grader: Don’t get rejected from the Ivy League so soon!

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One major decision that you make in ninth grade, your first year in high school, will directly influence your chances of getting into an Ivy League or similarly selective college or university when you are a high school senior.

If you can avoid making this one big mistake (described in the video below) in your first year in high school you will salvage your chances of getting into a highly selective college or university later on – as long as you don’t make similarly destructive mistakes in 10th grade, 11th grade, or 12th grade.

Yet, in an ideal scenario, you won’t be making any major academic, extracurricular, or personal missteps throughout high school. As they say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure.” Why get yourself into unnecessary trouble or cause yourself needless anxiety or stress later in high school just because you didn’t know that certain decisions that you make as a high school freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior could actually turn out to be mistakes serious enough to derail your smooth sail towards achieving your post-high school goals?

If you are a student (or a parent of a student) who wants to proactively and wisely tackle every challenge high school throws your way and reach your college admissions potential, the best advice I can give you is to join me for College Counseling Tonight.

College Counseling Tonight is for students and parents who desire expert guidance as they navigate the college admissions process, which actually begins the moment a student starts high school! Nearly every weeknight throughout the year participants in College Counseling Tonight meet up with me live (no more than three students (or parents)/session) for thirty minutes during which time they are encouraged to ask their current college admissions questions, discuss where they are in the process, and learn from others’ questions and my answers. During College Counseling Tonight I’m also able to provide exclusive access to insider admissions news and information. My goal is to ensure participants leave each session armed with the knowledge they need to make the most of every opportunity presented during their high school career.

In short, if you join me for College Counseling Tonight you’ll gain access to timely best-in-class college admissions counseling that will empower you to make the right moves regarding academics, testing, extracurricular activities, and college applications in order to meet with future college admissions success.

Best of all, unlike my one-on-one college admissions coaching services, which are, frankly, quite expensive, joining me for College Counseling Tonight only costs a very reasonable $49/session. Consider it an amazing insurance policy to protect against the lack of college guidance or downright poor college counseling many students experience during their four years – but especially during their first two years – in high school. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure – especially if that cure comes too late (which from my experience is too often the case with students who only start getting good or better college counseling in 11th grade or later).

Get ready to bust the most common college admissions myths and prepare to glide through the entire college admissions process calm, cool, and collected. Join me for College Counseling Tonight.

 

What to make of Tufts’ Early Decision Deadline Extension

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While occasionally colleges extend application deadlines in response to hurricanes or other natural disasters, Tufts’ announcement in October that it would extend its Early Decision I (EDI) deadline from November 1 to November 17 in response to COVID-19 and various natural disasters didn’t pass the smell test.

It’s one thing to be or appear charitable by giving struggling students a few extra days or a week to complete their applications; yet, giving every applicant seventeen extra days to submit applications EDI is an extreme act that reeked of desperation.

Now, we are getting Common App data that supports our suspicions.

Inside Higher Ed shared that Common Application colleges are seeing average application declines of eight percent this fall. Meanwhile applications for first-generation students and those eligible for fee waivers are down sixteen percent so far. A full sixty percent of Common App colleges are seeing application declines. In addition Common App colleges and universities in the Northeast and Midwest experienced the steepest declines in application volume – down a full fourteen percent compared to last year.

While we don’t yet know if Tufts is one of the schools with application declines, by pushing its EDI deadline out nearly three weeks the university is signaling that it at least wanted more EDI applications to review for some reason (it could be a dip in application numbers, some other internal application target not being met by late October, and/or just the desire to make more money – after all, Tufts does charge $75/application).

This was all expected and is one of the main reasons why colleges were so fast to go SAT- or ACT-optional for members of the high school class of 2021. Colleges rightly worried that pandemic closure-induced job/income losses and the ongoing pandemic itself would scare students away from wanting to live and learn in close quarters far from home. This is an acute worry at second tier or lower colleges that cost a pretty penny to attend. Interestingly, with so many colleges now SAT- and ACT-optional it is likely that the biggest name colleges are benefitting most from the test-optional trend while others like Tufts that have more limited name-brand appeal are more likely to be overlooked by students newly-emboldened to apply to reach colleges they would have never considered if their SAT or ACT scores were any good.

For instance, let’s say you are a straight A student with a 1010 on the SAT; in a typical year you would never apply to anything other than your state university an a few others with relatively low test score averages. This year, you say to yourself, “I might as well put in an app or two to Harvard and Yale since they won’t look at my scores.” Notice how Tufts (or other similar schools) was not mentioned in such a hypothetical student’s line of reasoning. That’s because most college applicants have never heard of Tufts. Those who have are also probably holding off on applying EDI to Tufts when the school also offers EDII. This is because many typical EDI Tufts applicants are now going to try and swing for the fences at Brown, Penn, Princeton, or Harvard. Tufts likely finds itself in a doughnut hole of a situation.

January 2021 Update: Tufts is thrilled with itself because overall it got thirty-five percent more applications this admissions cycle compared to last year. Yet, in Tufts’ self-congratulatory press release, Tufts attempts to memory hole the fact that pushing back its ED deadline nearly three weeks probably played at least a small role in the increase. The main driver, of course, was Tufts’s decision to go test-optional, which resulted in HALF of Tufts applicants this cycle opting not to submit ACT or SAT scores with their applications! It will be interesting to learn what percentage of those accepted ultimately did or did not submit their SAT or ACT scores. As things stand now, it’s pretty clear that Tufts simply wanted to drive up its perceived selectivity as much as possible by driving down its top line acceptance rate and used test-optional applicants to do so. Should Tufts ultimately accept a significant percentage of its Class of 2025 via the test-optional pathway, how selective can Tufts really be considered? Maybe its acceptance rate will plummet, but, objectively, it will no longer be a college that prizes academic excellence above many other factors. This is because assessing a student by his or her grades in high school as they only measure of academic achievement denies reality that is obvious to most astute observers: most American high schools have become environments of rampant grade inflation and short-term self-esteem boosting and very little more. While SAT and ACT scores are imperfect measures of academic excellence, they are a least objective standardized measures that allow colleges to compare what applicants know upon submitting their application regardless of what curriculum applicants experienced in high school. Test optional colleges may still reject more students than they accept, but what they are basing their admissions decisions on is more akin to what those holding a velvet rope at a night club base their admissions decisions on than any sort of academic achievement metric.

The 3 Dos and Dont’s to get Accepted into America’s Most Selective Colleges

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There is so much misinformation out there regarding how to get into America’s most selective colleges, and sadly, a lot of it comes from high school counselors themselves.

Luckily, by reading on, you will get some of the best advice that many high school-based counselors are unable or unwilling to give their students.

Here are the 3 Dos and 3 Don’ts to help you get accepted into America’s most selective colleges:

1. Don’t be well-rounded. Do be well-lopsided.

Why well-rounded students get skipped

It almost doesn’t seem fair. You work hard throughout high school, joining clubs and sports teams, focusing on getting good grades, trying to be the most well-rounded student you can possibly be – and then comes time to start applying to colleges.

For years, you have dreamed of attending some of the more selective colleges in the nation: Duke, UC Berkeley, Michigan, perhaps some of the Ivies, like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. You have put in the work, built the resume.

Applying to college can be an exciting yet stressful time in a high-schooler’s life. After all, this is what all the hard work was about. This is why you packed your schedule with extracurriculars. This is why you stayed up late studying for those exams.

But before you begin submitting those applications, there is something important you should know: college admissions officers are not looking for well-rounded students.

On the surface, that might not make much sense.

Let’s take a deeper dive into why well-rounded students get passed over and what admissions officers are really looking for in high school applicants.

Well-rounded student vs. well-rounded class

If you are a well-rounded student, don’t take this personally. But consider this a fair warning: college admissions officers are not looking for well-rounded students.

If you’re going down the path of well-roundedness and you have your eyes set on a top college, you need a change of course – before it’s too late.

Many students might find this confusing. After all, you’ve been told time and time again by teachers, parents, and counselors that you need to join a wide variety of clubs, try out for some sports teams, volunteer, get involved however possible.

“If I can show colleges that I can do a little bit of everything, then surely, I’ll set myself apart from the rest of the competition.”

Unfortunately, this sort of thinking couldn’t be further from the truth.

The reality is that admissions officers are not looking for well-rounded students. They are trying to put together a well-rounded class. The mistake that so many college applicants make is trying to be a jack of all trades, which inevitably leads to being a master of none.

With this in mind, you likely only have one question to ask: then what does it take to get accepted to highly selective colleges?

What admissions officers are looking for

The simple truth is that if you want to go to a top college, you can’t just blend in with the crowd—you have to stand out among the other applicants. That may seem like straightforward advice, but it’s far more difficult to put into practice.

Virtually everyone applying to the Ivy League has good grades. Many played sports. Many were involved with the same types of activities and organizations: choir, National Honor Society, and Student Council. On their own, none of these activities will make your application stand out to top colleges.

To college admissions officers, you must be able to prove that you are an applicant who deserves their attention, interest, and ultimately, consideration.

And with many top colleges only spending eight minutes or fewer on any given application, you need to spark their interest – fast.

Brainstorm what sets you apart, what differentiates you from the mounds of well-rounded students who also want one of the select few spots in the upcoming freshman class.

In one of his popular blog posts, Allen Cheng, a Harvard alumnus and co-founder of a college test prep company, notes that there are two things that elite college admissions officers are looking for from applicants; they seek those “who are going to accomplish world-changing things” and those “who are going to contribute positively to their communities while in college and help other students accomplish great things as well.”

Understandably, neither one of those traits are a walk in the park. But with your application, it is your job not to demonstrate how much of a well-rounded student you are, but rather to demonstrate how you are the right applicant to accomplish such remarkable things in the future.

At the end of the day, being a well-rounded student may lead to modest successes in high school, but when it comes to applying to the nation’s most sought-after colleges, be sure you are demonstrating what sets you apart. The members of the next generation who will change the world are almost certainly not well-rounded – they are masters of their trades.

2. Don’t dabble. Do focus.

Why the best college applicants are the most focused

Focus is key.

You’ve already learned that the first key to acceptance into schools like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford is abandoning the image of a well-rounded student, and instead highlighting what sets you apart, and what makes you the type of student who will go on to change the world someday.

We know that alumni of many top colleges are often well-known for their astonishing contributions to the world – Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Olympic medalists…But long before that, while they’re still back in high school, working hard with their minds set on attending one of those schools, how do admissions officers pick them out? What is it that sets these future leaders apart in high school – and on their applications – that so clearly speaks to what their long-term success will look like?

The secret is that the best college applicants are also the most focused candidates. Let’s dive a little deeper into what it means to be hyper-focused and what sets those students apart from the rest of the crowd.

The best college applicants don’t dabble

Being a well-rounded student is usually just another way of saying that the student dabbles in a multitude of activities, often without mastering any of them.

Students who find they have strived their entire high school careers to get involved with as many activities as possible to “round out their resume” should heed this advice. The truth is that if you are preparing to send a competitive application to top colleges, you need to hone in on a select few skills or pursuits. That’s where you should be focusing from here on out.

All those other activities, the ones you are doing half-heartedly or just for a participation trophy – those are simply time-wasters. Take some time to identify those activities now and abandon them.

This is not to say that there was no value in dabbling at a younger age. After all, you need some time to develop your skill sets and identify where your talents lie. But as you progress through high school, and especially as you prepare for college, you should be narrowing your focus and eliminating the activities that simply serve as distractions.

The best college applicants are hyper-focused

Take a moment to think about the people who are the best at what they do in the world. Think about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and NBA superstar LeBron James. No one talks about Zuckerberg’s ability to play basketball, and no one discusses James’s web development skills. You know why? Because those things don’t matter. It’s not what makes them great. What matters are the skill sets each of them uniquely garners that make them truly great.

It’s a safe bet to say that these top-performers cultivated their skills through focused attention and work.

That’s the same type of hyper-focus high school students should use to become the most competitive college applicants.

Focus, as defined in a Psychology Today article, “involves the ability to pay attention to things that will help avoid distractions that will hurt your work efforts.”

It’s really as simple as that.

Discard the activities that are time-wasters and spend your time and energy on your true strengths. Some might call this your “spike,” “pointiness,” personal brand, or elevator pitch – whatever the term, it’s the overall theme that you’re trying to convey to admissions officers.

So what does it look like to harness the type of hyper-focus that will lead to admissions success? There are several tangible steps you can take.

One of the most significant leaps you can make is to eliminate unhelpful extracurriculars and instead focus on the ones that highlight your best skills. So many high schoolers are encouraged to take up as many extracurriculars as they can – sports, music, clubs, volunteer work. But, admissions officers are going to look at this list and judge you based on whether or not they require any special knowledge or skills to succeed, or whether or not you are a leader or just another run-of-the-mill teammate or club member.

If anyone could do it just by dedicating some time, it doesn’t stand out on applications.

Consider also auditing your free time outside of schoolwork and extracurriculars, and determine if you’re truly spending it wisely. We live fast-paced lives, and, of course, high school students have social lives to live. The advice here is not to completely disregard your social life or the small pleasures of everyday life.

Instead, it’s to be conscious of where you’re spending your time, and to refocus when you find yourselves straying from your long-term goals.

This type of hyper-focus is what differentiates average applicants from the “must-admits.”

3. Don’t give up. Do be gritty.

If you want to successfully compete for a seat at a top college, you need a certain mindset. After all, years of dedication, hard work and high performance culminate with these college applications.

The college application process, and all the work that leads up to it, is enough to burn out many students. But the most successful college applicants have one other thing in common: they are gritty.

Why gritty students have the best chance for admission

Angela Duckworth is a leading researcher who, literally, wrote the book on grit and its impact on success, called Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. She defines the trait as “passion and perseverance of very long-term goals.”

According to Duckworth’s research, the most successful students are not necessarily those with the highest IQ or exam scores. Rather, she notes in her book, “the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, but they also had direction.”

Duckworth is someone worth listening to when it comes to grit’s role in being accepted into elite colleges, herself having earned degrees from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Oxford. Her research uses grit as the greatest predictor of long-term success, rather than talent.

Becoming a grittier person will not happen overnight. It’s a trait that you develop in the long run, with benefits that you reap lifelong.

This is to say, students who are gritty and can clearly demonstrate that grit on their applications have the best chance for admission to top colleges. There is a long list of talented applicants on the desks of Ivy League admissions officers. But those whose story is one of grittiness — a relentless pursuit of a select few strengths and overcoming of obstacles — those applicants consistently dominate the admissions game.

Making a Calm College Decision

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This is typically the week many high school seniors are a little tense about their college plans.  The last few colleges are sending out decisions this week, and they tend to be the colleges where the admit rates are a little less than getting struck by lightning, so the hopes are high, while the odds remain low.

Now that the big week is finally here, here’s a quick list of things you should focus on to make a quality decision for life after high school:

What you do with the college experience matters more than where you go.  Most counselors save this advice for the end of articles like this, but these are unusual times. Chances are, if you’ve applied to a highly selective school, you have what it takes to do well there—it’s just that the college runs out of room before they run out of great applicants.  This means that the talents, habits, interests, and way you look at the world has prepared you to do great things wherever you go.  The college you attend won’t automatically make you a success; that will still be up to you.  So your future will still be in your hands, no matter what the colleges have to say this week.

It looks like another record breaking year. There are fewer students graduating from high school this year, but that isn’t keeping many colleges from seeing new highs in applications—and some that are seeing declines are still admitting less than 20 percent of their applicants.  Combined with an increase in the number of students many colleges took through early action and early decision plans, that leaves precious few seats to give out this week.

Yes, No, or Maybe, read the entire letter.  A student I am close to—OK, it’s my son—was so happy to read he was admitted to his first choice school he didn’t bother to read page 2 of the acceptance letter.  I did, and it’s a good thing, since it included information on the merit scholarship that made his attendance their possible.  Other yes letters have information about when deposits are due, and those are important as well.

Letters that waitlist you are even more important to read, since staying on the list may require you to do something—email, send back a card, update your application—by a specific date.  Even the letters of denial could give you information about transfer options that may now come into play.  So read the letter from start to finish, and have a parent do the same.

Read, and update, your financial aid information.  There’s a good chance all your colleges are going to be sending financial aid packages this week.  These are based on the financial aid information you gave them two months ago, when the world was a quiet place, before the stock market lost 30 percent of its value—and possibly before you or your parents lost their job.

The only way a college will know your financial picture has changed is if you tell them, and this is college—so it’s not time to be shy.  Pick up the phone, call financial aid, tell them your new story, and be ready to send supporting documents.   You’re this close to making the dream real.  Keep working.

File financial aid for the first time.  It’s certainly true most colleges have given all their aid away to students who applied for it in February, but many of those students turn down packages, or go to a different school.  If you now need help paying for college, get the forms in yesterday—check the college’s website to find out all the forms they need, and where you should send them.  Calling to ask is an even better idea.

Ask for an extension to the May 1 deposit.  Many colleges understand that this spring isn’t exactly normal, which is why they are moving their deposit deadlines to June 1 or later.  If your college isn’t doing that, you can still call and request an extension for personal reasons.  They might say no, but the only way they say yes is because you ask—kind of like the only way they admitted you is because you applied. Make. The. Call.

Apply to more colleges.  Except for the Top 50, every college in this country is still taking applications for fall admission—and, as mentioned before, some will still have financial aid to offer you.  If you’re looking at changing your college plans due to all the changes in the world, lots of colleges are eager to hear from you for the first time…

Consider transferring …and thanks to some pretty strong transfer options, you could still end up graduating from your dream school, even if you can’t start there.  The best way to plan a transfer is to call the college where you want to finish, and ask about transfer options.  Building the plan from the end means you know where to start, and what classes are best to take to minimize the credits you’ll lose when you make the shift.  Ask for transfer admissions when you call.

Talk to your counselor.  One upside of all of this is that counselors now have more time than ever to talk college with you, since they don’t have to do lunch duty.  I know, I know—they have 8,000 students on their caseload, and they might not know you well.  They will once you tell them who you are, and what you need—and that window is now more wide open than ever before.  Most schools have sent students direction on how to reach out to counselors.  As is the case with most things in life, what you do with that information is now up to you.

College Counseling: The Year in Review

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There are many years in the college counseling world that come and go without a lot of fanfare, but this certainly wasn’t one of them.  Thanks to America’s ever-growing fascination with the college application process, counseling received more than its share of the limelight in 2019.  Here are the highlights:

The Scandal Known as Varsity Blues  Leave it to a small group of parents with way more dollars than sense, and a con man feigning to be an independent college counselor, to create even more angst over selective college selection than ever before.  Since this story involved Hollywood, money, and some of the three schools the New York Times considers representative of the world of college admissions, way too much time and energy was devoted to understanding what this kerfuffle meant to college admissions as a whole. The average high school senior takes the SAT once and goes to college within 150 miles of home.  Varsity Blues meant nothing to them.  The same should have been true for the rest of us; instead, this issue is now running neck and neck with Popeye’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich for the year’s Story That Wasn’t Award.

Change to NACAC Ethics Code It made fewer headlines, but the Justice Department’s investigation into NACAC’s Code of Ethics could prove to have far more implications to the college plans of seniors than Varsity Blues could hope to.  With colleges now allowed to offer incentives for students to apply early, and with colleges able to continue to pursue students who have committed to another college, the May 1 deposit date is still in effect, but may prove to have significantly less effect.

 College Testing and the University of California  The value of the SAT and ACT popped up in the headlines all year, as even more colleges decided test scores no longer had to be part of their application process.  At year’s end, the test optional movement got a big media splash, as the University of California announced it was reviewing its testing policy.  Combined with a lawsuit filed against the UCs claiming the tests are discriminatory, it’s clear that business as usual in the college application process is on its way out.  Will more changes ensue?

The Harvard Case and Race  Affirmative action advocates celebrated a legal victory this fall when a court ruled Harvard’s admissions procedures do, and may, use race as a factor in reviewing college applications.  The case drew national attention in part because it was initiated by a group claiming Harvard didn’t admit enough students of Asian descent.  It’s likely to stay in the headlines when the decision is ultimately appealed to the US Supreme Court, a group that, as it currently stands, has been known to be highly skeptical of race-based programs—meaning this year’s lower court victory could be pyrrhic at best.

Improved Research on College Counseling  Academic research has never gotten its due in the world of school counseling, and that’s certainly true in the more specific field of college counseling.  That trend may be changing, as a report from Harvard lays the groundwork for a more data-based approach to measure the difference counselors make in their work.  The findings include an indication that counselors tend to be more effective in college counseling if the counselor was raised in the same area where they work, and, as a rule, are more helpful providing information to the student about the college the counselor attended.  The report suggests this may be due to undertraining in college admissions as part of counselor education programs– to which most of the counseling world replied, no kidding. Look for more to come here.

Billions More for More Counselors, But Who Cares  It’s hard to remember the need for more counselors was one of the favorite topics of the media just two years ago.  A sign of American’s true indifference—or short attention span—rests with a congressional bill that provides up to $5 billion for new school counselor positions, a bill that is currently languishing in committee.  Is this bill a victim of an absence of school shootings, impeachment, or both?  Given what it can do, is there really any reason this bill can’t be a focus of action in 2020? That’s really up to us.