Weekly Update: May 14

Good luck to all the juniors and seniors taking AP exams this month! We’re keeping our fingers crossed for you.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

NATIONAL MERIT COMMENDED STUDENT CUTOFF RELEASED

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the new Commended Student cutoff this year - 207. The score is two marks points than last year, making it the lowest cutoff in a decade. An estimated one quarter or more of students were not able to take the PSAT last year, which may have contributed to the drop. 

We will have to wait on the Semifinalist cutoffs, which are determined by the individual state scores rather than national scores, so we may see a big variety of cutoffs depending on how available the test was to students in each state. Compass Prep predicts a cutoff in the 218 - 223 range in Virginia - we will likely see the actual numbers leaked once schools are notified in late August. 

SUPPLEMENTAL ESSAYS ARE COMING

Our first juniors have finished up their Common App essays and are starting to work on supplemental essays. Our unique process helps students prepare information that they can use across multiple essays, saving them a lot of time and energy once the specific prompts are released! 

Some schools have already released their prompts for 2021-2022, announcing that their prompts will remain the same. The UC system and the University of Miami, in particular, have both already announced that their prompts will not change from the 2020-2021 choices. Don’t be tempted to make sweeping generalizations about other schools based on this news, though! We always remind our students that they should ALWAYS wait to begin a specific essay until the school confirms its use, whether it’s a change or a continuation.

CHEATING SCANDAL AT DARTMOUTH MEDICAL SCHOOL

We know already that cheating has increased at all educational levels due to the online environment this school year. But it is particularly frightening when those cheating charges come from adult students who will soon have a lot of important responsibility - like medical students at Dartmouth! The accusations leveled against 17 students have prompted protests from students and faculty on campus who feel that those students were unfairly treated, especially given the unique challenges that they faced while testing remotely. The controversy centers on the fact that the school used the online Canvas system to retroactively track student’s computer activity during the tests, what some see as an unacceptable level of surveillance. 

Many different high schools and colleges also use Canvas or similar systems that enable this type of tracking, so this story should also serve as a warning to all students to avoid even the appearance of misconduct while testing or completing assignments online.

FCPS GRADING OPTIONS UPDATE

FCPS has extended the deadline for high school and middle school students to request to have a class switched to pass/fail rather than a letter grade. Seniors will need to designate a class as pass/fail by May 17, while all other students will have until June 1 to make this decision. If you are a current client wondering how to report your grades, let us know and we are happy to help!

GEORGIA PUBLICS REQUIRE TEST SCORES

Public universities in Florida received a lot of pushback this past cycle for being the only state university system besides Wyoming to require test scores from students. However, now that young people are able to receive vaccines and things are slowly returning to normal, more state schools may follow suit. The University System of Georgia announced this week that test scores will be required for applicants in the class of 2022. They also announced that USG campuses will return to normal in-person operations this fall, though have not yet required students to be vaccinated to return to campus (Emory, as a private institution in Georgia, does have a vaccine requirement - and will also remain test-optional in the fall).  

So if you have your heart set on UGA or Georgia Tech next year, make sure that you are taking the time to study for those tests!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Our corner of the internet has been buzzing this week about this New York Times opinion piece about the college essay. The author makes a really strong and difficult point about how many students feel that they have to “sell” their trauma, trying to outdo each other with stories of hardship that are going to pull on the heartstrings of admissions officers.

I was so struck by what the author reports her teacher asking her when she questioned this idea:

“Who are you?”

YES! The very first thing we do with any student working on their college essay is ask them to speak with family and friends and write down adjectives that those people would use to describe them. Students often think they have to have the best story, but that isn’t the case at all - it is MUCH more important to demonstrate a specific personal characteristic, and the story is just the vehicle for that! Colleges want to know who you are, where you’re going, and how you’ll contribute to their community. 

You might have a difficult story that can do all of that, and that’s great! But just writing about personal tragedy for tragedy’s sake, in a way that doesn’t demonstrate personality or growth, is not the key to a strong college essay.

I thought this was so interesting when one of my sorority sisters posted it on her social media this week! She is a professor at USF and is researching the impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate STEM education. This video on her early findings is available for online viewing until May 18.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Amherst, Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, Swarthmore, and Williams are teaming up to offer group info sessions and events for prospective students - a great opportunity for any juniors interested in small, liberal arts colleges. As you work on your college search, we really recommend seeking out sessions like these that go beyond the traditional info session. Reed, for example, is offering a variety of sessions including a Case Study of a College Application session. These case studies can be super helpful for some inside info on how the admissions office is evaluating applications. 

In more exciting news, we are so excited to welcome (back) Tyler! As we mentioned last week, Tyler was a client of ours who just finished up his freshman year at the University of Richmond! He is back in our office as our summer intern, learning more about entrepreneurship and what it’s like to run a small business. We often work with past clients on graduate school applications and we love seeing them in a different context, but this is the first time we’ve had one working alongside us!

Tyler will be taking over the midweek blog next week to share more about himself and his experience with DC College Counseling, so keep an eye out for that. He is excited to talk with both prospective and current clients about the DCCC process and the college transition, so don’t hesitate reach out to him with any questions or words of welcome!

Lastly, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to attend a Zoom on Thursday morning with admissions officers from Brandeis, University of Rochester, Case Western and our own neighbor across the Potomac, George Washington. Shannon and I have both been attending a ton of these sessions lately, but I really enjoyed this one in particular. Here are some takeaways I thought were interesting:

• One of the schools mentioned that they look at actual interactions within prospective student online chats in order to determine demonstrated interest. So if you think that just signing into the chat is enough, think again! Make sure to come up with some well thought-out questions that show that you have done your research.

• On that note, another school’s representative noted, “Before you demonstrate interest, you have to develop interest.” So obvious, but at the same time so wise! His point was that showing up on campus once to check off a box isn’t enough. Take your time, read your emails, do your research, maybe start a dialogue, and THEN start to demonstrate interest if you authentically have it - whether that involves showing up on campus or not.

• Several of the schools reported some interesting observations on waitlist activity that may lead to more waitlist movement later in the summer than ever before. These fascinated me.

  • The numbers are not in alignment between the number of accepted students nationwide and the number of deposits that schools have received from the students. So there is a theory that many students have actually double OR TRIPLE (omg!) deposited this year… (like we have said, this an absolutely terrible idea). And if that’s what’s going on, we’re going to see a ton of activity right around the time when tuition payments are due. At some schools, that’s just two weeks before the start of the semester.

  • Many enrollment management offices are concerned about the travel bans in place with foreign countries and the impact that this could have on international student visas. These students were accepted and have enrolled, but if their visas don’t come through, there are going to be a lot of spots opening up at the end of the summer as a result. When Shannon and I were talking about this yesterday, she made a particularly insightful comment about how waitlisted students who didn’t apply for financial aid are the ones who will really see a huge benefit from this. This is because international students are nearly always full-pay and most schools won’t replace a full-pay student with one that has financial need, so I think she’s absolutely correct. And this, my friends, is why you don’t apply for financial aid just to apply!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Weekly Update: May 7

Congratulations to all of the seniors who sent in their deposits last weekend - we are so proud of you!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

REMOTE WORK CONTINUES AT MANY COLLEGES

With all the focus on whether or not students and faculty can safely interact in-person on campus, many people have overlooked the other major population on college campuses - staff! At some universities, staff are overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to work remotely. At Duke, for example, three-quarters of staff want to work remotely three to five days per week. Colleges and universities, which often pay less in salary than private companies, are considering remote work as a potential benefit to attract top employees. Georgetown, for example, is planning to indicate in job descriptions going forward which positions can be done remotely. It will be interesting to see how colleges, especially those with a high value on a residential campus community, respond to the increasing push for remote work. 

CORNELL ROCK CLIMBING CLASS CAUSES CONTROVERSY

Cornell’s spring BIPOC Rock Climbing course has caused some outrage from those who see this type of course offerings as in violation of Title IV, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race or national origin in education programs. Cornell says that all students on campus have access to rich opportunities, and that this course is intended for students who are traditionally underrepresented in the sport of rock climbing. 

CHOOSING A COLLEGE

Decision Day has passed, but for juniors who are still working on putting together a college list, we recommend giving this Forbes article a read - a professor and parent of a college senior provides some interesting considerations as you think about which college would be the best fit for you! We want to emphasize:

“There are amazing universities across the spectrum. Pick one that fits individual needs not ‘name’ or ‘reputation’ metrics alone.”

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Several great articles this week that focus on equity in the college admissions process. This one from the Atlantic is a must-read! It delves deeper into the issues referenced in the above quote, discussing the chicken-or-the-egg relationship between college admissions, elitism and social status.

“Today, schooling is how elites secure income and pass their privilege down to their children. The U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges Rankings are our Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage. And it is a truth universally acknowledged,” it reads, in a satirical take on the first line of Pride and Prejudice, “that elite parents, in possession of excellent jobs, want to get their kids into college.”

Can’t argue with that, and some of the statistics mentioned in the piece were staggering, including a study quoted by Ron Lieber which found that “nearly 50 percent of America’s corporate leaders, 60 percent of its financial leaders, and 50 percent of its highest government officials attended only 12 universities.” In this type of landscape, it’s not surprising that many students and families feel so much pressure to keep rankings at the forefront of their college search.

Varsity Blues demonstrated the dangers that arise when students and families become hyper-focused on admission to a big-name school, but schools also have issues with this system, going as far as to hire expensive “rankings consultants” to help them increase their ranking (or even, as with the Temple University business school dean we discussed two weeks ago, falsifying the numbers to beat the ranking system!). 

And we recognize that the role of private college consulting companies is often considered alongside these considerations, as discussed in this Yale Daily News article. Here at DC College Counseling, we pride ourselves in working hard to discover students’ true passions and best-fit schools, rather than focusing on the rankings alone, but we recognize that not all students and families are able to afford our services (though, keep an eye out for an exciting announcement about that coming your way soon!).

However, we believe that students and families deserve robust support during this challenging time, and that school counselors do not always have enough resources to be able to provide that support to each student. We are proud to be part of the educational support network that our clients have built! We are educators first, and that is the attitude that we want to bring to all of our students and families. This is a nuanced article with a lot of information about the work that independent counselors do, for those looking for more information about these considerations.

Speaking of equity and rankings, I am always excited to read work from Angel Perez, CEO of the National Association of College Admissions Counseling. In his most recent article, he explores the issues driving people away from the admissions profession. This is a tension that so many admissions officers experience (including Shannon and I!) - entering the profession with the goal of helping young people get a great education. Angel offers several different ideas for colleges to step away from a focus on the bottom line, like diversifying revenue streams, so admissions and enrollment professionals don’t feel that pressure to meet the budget, and creating a more flexible culture in higher education as a whole. 

Jeff Selingo, in a LinkedIn article this week, also offered some ideas for how higher education can view emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for a reset. Some changes include:

• Students watching pre-recorded lectures at home, but using class time for discussions and group work. 

• Changes in grading, particularly grades based on participation, given the challenges that students and teachers faced with this issue during online learning. 

• More flexibility for students with class assignments, including major exams and papers, after a year that has required professors to become a lot more comfortable with flexibility! 

• An emphasis on human connection and campus community - something college students have really missed this past year. 

Jeff’s article also gives some more interesting insight into test optional admissions this cycle. We’ve written before about how it does seem that testing had some effect on admissions this year, and this is particularly true in STEM subjects - students applying for STEM majors were much more advantaged by submitting test scores than those who applied for majors in the humanities or social sciences. At schools like Emory, Colgate, Georgia Tech, and Vanderbilt, students who submitted test scores were more likely to be admitted than those who did not - so if you have the opportunity to take a test this cycle, take advantage of it! You can always decide whether or not to submit the scores later. 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We are so impressed with the determination and perseverance of our juniors, who continue to finish up their beautiful Common ApplicationⓇ essays as they juggle school work and preparing for AP exams, which started this week at many schools! 

We’ve also had several strategy sessions with younger students who are planning ahead, and as we tell them, this is the perfect time to start thinking about your four-year plan for high school and how the next four years can help you develop your passions.

Lastly, we’ve been busy getting ready for the newest member of our team.. our summer intern and former student, Tyler! A future entrepreneur himself, Tyler will be spending the summer with us learning about what it’s like to run a small business. You’ll hear from him periodically with his perspective on a variety of different topics: the college search and admissions process, the transition from high school to college, attending college during Covid, and more!

Finally, Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

If you’re tired of reminding everyone about everything and carrying the burden of the mental load - the “mostly invisible combination of anxiety and planning that is part of parenting,” (a) I can relate and (b) our team can help! Book a Meet & Greet and get the college admissions-related reminders, worrying and stress off your plate!

Now can someone please invent a way to outsource reminders about keeping kids’ hands off the walls?! My four-year-old son and I will be your first clients :) Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Update: April 30

Decision Day is almost here - good luck to all of the seniors who are making their decisions this weekend! Make sure to celebrate once that deposit is in :)

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

MORE COLLEGES REQUIRE VACCINATIONS IN THE FALL

Over 100 colleges and universities will require COVID-19 vaccinations for students this fall, with Emory, Wesleyan, Stanford, and others announcing that they will require vaccines. Colleges are still dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus, even as students are eligible to get vaccinated this spring. While many of the schools requiring vaccines are private, some public schools are requiring them as well - including the University of Maryland system. Other schools, like Baylor, are not requiring vaccinations, but are allowing vaccinated students to skip mandatory COVID-19 testing, creating an incentive for students to get vaccinated. The University of Wyoming is taking incentives a step further - vaccinated students will be entered into weekly prize drawings, and staff will receive an extra day off! 

PRIVATE SCHOLARSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE

I think it is hard for many students and families to realize how many scholarships are out there! Even for students who did not receive merit aid from their college of choice, there are still private options to apply for this spring and summer. Check out any local community groups you belong to, as well as any groups for your particular academic interest - there is a lot of money that you could find! Shannon even applied for a scholarship for tall students when she was going to college. As the article states:

“Do you love asparagus? There’s a scholarship for that. Are you left-handed? There’s a scholarship for that.” 

So do your research!

BIDEN PROPOSES FREE COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATION FOR ALL

One of the components of President Biden’s $1.8 trillion (ouch) American Families Plan involves free community college for all Americans - regardless of income. While I am NOT a fan of increased government spending in general, I really do like this idea. I’ve written about this before, but I have always found it sort of puzzling that more families in our area do not consider community college to be a viable plan for their students. I get that most of us are hoping for a traditional college experience for our children, but you truly cannot beat NOVA’s guaranteed admissions agreements. Yes - guaranteed! You will automatically get a spot at the University of Virginia and other great schools if you spend your first two years at NOVA, take certain classes and achieve a 3.4 GPA or higher. That’s pretty incredible when you consider what it takes to get into UVa these days. And I haven’t even gotten into the cost savings! For a student who doesn’t mind sticking around for two more years, this could really be a path worth considering. Remember, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We’ve heard a lot about artificial intelligence in the last several years - how it might affect jobs and even everyday tasks. But higher education is not immune from AI, and many schools are increasingly relying on the technology to do everything from emailing students to grading assignments. Algorithms have even worked their way into admissions, raising questions about bias if we have programs, rather than humans, evaluating students. NYU, for example, uses a program to determine students’ interest in the school based on how they interact with the school’s website and respond to its messages. Georgia Tech pioneered a chat bot, not only to answer questions from admitted students, but to serve as a TA, answering questions about course material. We will have to wait and see if these technologies become more prevalent in making big decisions!

From a do-it-yourself graduation at the University of Tampa to arrivals in shifts at Vanderbilt and Northwestern, colleges and universities throughout the country are taking all kinds of approaches to graduation ceremonies this year. This New York Times piece details the various options, along with the frustration that the students and parents feel about the situation.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We are so excited for all of our seniors who have sent in deposits, and have been busy talking through a few last-minute decisions over the past few days! Congratulations to everyone for such phenomenal success in such a difficult year. We are so proud of you!

We also passed a fun milestone - our first junior is 100% done with her main college essay, and we have about ten more right behind her in the final editing stage! Our students go through a very extensive soup-to-nuts process to make sure that their work is “17-year-old-perfect” and represents their best selves. It’s so nice for them to have this huge accomplishment out of the way and finished early.

For juniors looking for a weekend activity, we recommend attending NACAC’s Virtual College Fair, including live and recorded sessions from over 600 colleges - a great way to get an overview of many different institutions. 

Enjoy the sun this weekend and be careful out there in the wind today! I just heard from friends that a tornado hit Great Falls?! Yikes! No clue if that’s true but I sure hope everyone is safe!

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Weekly Update: April 23

Happy Earth Week! Don’t forget to check out our blog from earlier this week about some of the greenest colleges in the country if you are hoping to be eco-focused all year round.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

WEST POINT CHEATING SCANDAL

Back in 2020, West Point experienced its largest cheating scandal in decades, when over 70 cadets were accused of cheating on a calculus exam. 55 of the students who confessed to cheating were enrolled in the academy’s “second chance” program, which provides rehabilitation for cadets who break the rules. Now, the academy is announcing plans to scrap the second chance program, in an effort to crack down on cheating in the future. 

ACT SUPERSCORING

ACT has rolled out an option that allows students to submit their own ACT-generated superscore to colleges instead of sending multiple score reports and letting schools calculate, which has always been the process in the past. The concept is a good one, but in practice it’s been very confusing. Compass Prep did a great job of putting together a guide for students who are interested in sending ACT-generated superstores.  

HIGHLY UNUSUAL WAITLIST ACTIVITY

As I posted on social media earlier this week, we’ve started seeing waitlist movement already. For context, it’s EXTREMELY rare to see waitlist activity before the reply deadline of May 1, because it doesn’t make sense to start accepting students from the waitlist until all of the admitted students have responded and schools can determine how many spots remain. So this was either part of the overall enrollment management strategy, which is very possible in such a conservative year, or these schools are trending very, very poorly with their yield, which is also possible. Either way, the fact that this is happening so early means that any expressions of demonstrated interest, including LOCIs, need to happen immediately! The schools that have already turned to the waitlist include NYU, Barnard, Lehigh, SMU, Virginia Tech, JMU, and many more!

NEW BOOK OUT: YOUR TURN: HOW TO BE AN ADULT

This is a follow-up to one of our long-time favorites, How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success. The author, Julie Lythcott-Haims, is the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford and is so spot-on in so many ways. Truly, every parent should read the first book if they haven't already, and we're willing to bet that the new student version is just as great. Although if you are one of our graduating seniors or transfers, don’t buy it… a copy may be coming your way in the future! :)

You can get a sneak peak from Julie's famous Ted Talk on raising successful kids without over-parenting, as well as her recent NPR interview. Julie's experience with her own son really resonated with us, because we see this all the time: 

"He got a diagnosis of ADHD and anxiety when he was in the fourth grade... And I think in hindsight, my husband and I didn't quite understand what that meant. He seemed to be so smart and capable and kind and lovely and had good friends and was doing just fine …. [but] he really got into a downward spiral when he got to college. When the scaffolding of home and high school was taken away, this kid began to really struggle."

For many students, the most difficult part of the transition to college is learning how to manage their time - they see a lot more white space on the calendar, but really, that means that they have to figure out their own schedule and that can be incredibly difficult for students used to the structure of high school.

These are exactly the kind of skills that we teach students through academic coaching, which is a great idea for high school and college students alike who need a little extra help developing the executive functioning skills that will set them up for success! Interested in learning more? Book an academic coaching Meet & Greet!

FIRST ANNUAL MARYLAND DAY

If you are looking for a fun virtual activity for young students, check out the University of Maryland’s first virtual Maryland Day on Saturday, April 24! Sessions include “Fun Science for Kids,” “Build a Better Lemonade Stand,” “Dance and Movement,” “Engineering is Awesome!” and more! 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The lack of standardized testing this cycle, along with a nationwide focus on social justice, has enabled colleges and universities to welcome their most diverse classes ever. Relying on standardized testing often works to the advantage of more affluent families, who can afford tutoring and test prep, so the removal of the emphasis on standardized tests worked to level the admissions playing field this year. Last year, 77% of students reported test scores with their applications - this year, that number was only 46%. We are likely to see similar numbers this cycle, as many schools remain test optional for the Class of 2022. 

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that we take US News ratings with… a few grains of salt. But many students and families use rankings to consider their college choices, and in fact rankings do become more important for graduate schools like business and law school (as opposed to undergraduate programs, where rankings truly don’t provide much useful information).

The pressure placed on schools to retain their place in the rankings was brought to life this week when the former dean of Temple University’s business school was federally charged with fraud for falsifying information to ensure that the school would appear at the top of the US News list. This scheme doubled Temple’s enrollment for MBA programs, which rose from #28 on the list to #1 within two years. This just goes to show that US News does not audit the data that schools send in for rankings - and the rankings system may be even more precarious than we thought! 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon and I both attended an great discussion on Clubhouse this week called “What the Heck Just Happened?” - funny, right? But it’s a completely accurate description of the reactions we’ve seen from counselors after this “hectic and insane” admissions cycle! Everyone in attendance emphasized the need for a balanced, conservative college list, given the current upheaval (which is likely to continue for at least the next several years).

My colleague Joyce Wong, who serves with me on the Independent Educational Consultants Association’s Business Practices committee, is a prominent consultant in the Bay Area. I couldn’t agree more with how she summed up the list-making process:

“More than ever it is so important to have a balanced list… I don’t think our parents fully understand what unpredictability means. There is really no formula for guaranteed admissions and that’s a [mindset] that is hard to break.”

She’s completely right - this really is a mindset issue. This is not the college admissions process of a generation ago, a decade ago, or even a year ago - so it’s been a tough season for many students and families that didn’t know what to expect and didn’t have enough options spanning a wide range of selectivity.

However, that does not mean that there aren’t things you can do to help make your application as strong as possible. We keep reminding students that even with their activities severely limited by the pandemic, they can still include the passions they’ve taken on during their time at home - baking bread, learning to code, studying aquatic animals - there are so many things that students can do now to show colleges their drive and passion. Bob Carlton, another seasoned consultant who chairs the committee on which Joyce and I serve, noted:

“Personal stories seemed to be much more significant - their ability to find their personal story and their impact [for the] common good - how they are helping with an issue that they care about in society or in their neighborhood.”

Even with the crazy and unpredictable admissions cycle, we are so relieved to have a lot of happy students who followed our advice and made smart, strategic decisions. During this past week, we started to hear from transfer applicants and I have to say - these decisions on the whole are coming in much better than I expected! We LOVE to get emails like this one, which came from one of our favorite students last night:

I mean, how can you not read an email like that and want to jump up and down?! #lovethisjob

And for our seniors who are still trying to make their final college decisions, check out our blog post from earlier this week on choosing your college - we know it can be stressful to make this decision, but you have everything you need, and you can have a fulfilling college experience at whichever school you choose!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Weekly Update: April 16

Another Friday, another weekly update!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

COLLEGE ENROLLMENT DOWN 25%

In our world, it seems like college is all students are thinking about - we’ve talked about institutions dealing with huge application increases, students applying to more schools than ever before, and historic numbers of waitlisted applicants. But when you focus on the small slice of selective colleges (a tiny fraction of all the higher education institutions in the US!), you can sometimes miss the bigger picture. According to one study, the pandemic has led to a 25% drop in college enrollment - that is a huge number! Many students were forced to postpone college due to financial hardship from the pandemic, and these students are significantly less likely to attend college at all after putting it off. Community colleges, which educate half of the students who eventually obtain bachelor’s degrees in the US, saw on average a 10% drop in enrollment.  

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES CONTINUE TO REQUIRE COVID VACCINATION

Since Rutgers University announced that they would require the COVID-19 vaccine for students to return to campus in the fall, over a dozen other colleges have followed suit. The list includes highly selective institutions like Cornell, Brown, and Northeastern. While these requirements have seen some legal pushback, for now it is legal for these colleges and universities to require vaccination in order to help the community develop herd immunity.

FCPS EVENTS THIS SPRING

FCPS and APS’s virtual career fair is starting next Monday, April 19. This is a great opportunity for high school students to learn more about internship opportunities, as well as take part in mock interviews and resume workshops to prepare them to apply for summer jobs and internships!

(And if you’re still looking for the right summer opportunity? Don’t forget to check out our Summer Opportunities Database - we add new listings every week. Future psychology or education majors should definitely check out the special position I shared on our facebook page yesterday. Not only is it well paid, it would look amazing on applications and you’d be helping out a really wonderful family and incredibly sweet little girl!)

Back to virtual events - parents may be interested in FCPS’s annual Special Education Conference this Saturday, April 17, to learn more and talk with other parents about supporting students through hybrid learning and the slow emergence from the pandemic.

NCAA EXTENDS STANDARDIZED TESTING POLICY

As we’ve seen more and more schools announce that they will be test-optional this cycle, there has always been that important caveat - not for hopeful DI and DII athletes. But the NCAA finally announced this week that it will extend its test optional policy for the Class of 2022. Yay! The NCAA is convening a task force this spring to discuss their testing policy moving forward.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We found this article that emphasizes the “specialist approach” to parenting really interesting! The author is right that many people who are exceptional in their fields start honing their skills at an early age. Does that mean that you should have your six-year-old specializing in piano and quitting the soccer team? We’re not quite sure if it works that way, but we’re confident that it works that way in the college process!

Remember: the well-rounded students of earlier generations are out, and colleges now want to see depth, rather than breadth, from students who know*** what they want to pursue and demonstrate their passion through their course selections, summer plans, and extracurricular activities throughout high school. If you are a high school student looking to maximize your college admissions chances, specialize!

***Totally fine to change your mind. We all do. But have a plan going in!

TIME published an article this week about the impact of climate change on higher education. Particularly, the number of majors that address climate change has expanded from just environmental science to architecture, engineering, business, and more! Interested in studying at a college that emphasizes environmental issues? Check back next week for our Earth Day blog post spotlighting some of the greenest colleges in the country!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon did a lot of different sessions this week, including one with the Common Application to collect data about 2020-2021 college admissions cycle. For our post-game assessment of the data and some key takeaways, check out our post from earlier this week.

We have been getting a lot of questions this week about double-depositing. If my student hasn’t decided where she wants to go, can we put down a deposit at two different schools until we have a chance to visit in person this summer? The answer is a resounding NO! Colleges share lists of students who have deposited, so they will know if your student has deposited at more than one school. This will likely result in both admissions offers being rescinded. It is absolutely not worth the risk! And with the length of waitlists this cycle, it is also unfair to other students who may be waiting on one of those spots at their dream school.

Of course, it has long been considered acceptable (in fact, encouraged!) for students to put down a deposit at one school while they are on the waitlist at another - or on multiple waitlists. If admitted from the waitlist, the student simply has to withdraw from the first school. Make sure to read the fine print, though, because we mentioned a very strange example earlier in the week with a school that had a rather unorthodox waitlist requirement.

And today, we heard about a school that required a student to accept the offer before technically receiving it. How does that work, you ask? We were wondering the same! The school required the student and his parent to sign a binding statement promising to enroll if admitted from the waitlist. Sort of like early decision, waitlist edition? And then he got in ten minutes later. I swear this year gets crazier and crazier..

All of the upheaval has led to a lot of questions from current seniors who are looking for help with waitlist strategy, decision appeals, or just deciding between college options when many schools still aren’t open for in-person tours. So, by popular demand, we are introducing a one-time Strategy Session for Class of 2021 seniors who need help navigating their post-decision landscape.

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Update: April 9

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to our students who received the last of their RD decisions this week - you did it!!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

LAST ROUND OF DECISIONS IS IN

After the Ivy League’s delayed release date of April 6 and Stanford’s April 7 release, all decisions are finally OUT! This has been a particularly difficult admissions cycle, as we’ve now said a million times, but you can see the hard facts on College Kickstart’s admissions results list. Those are some tough numbers! Regardless of the decisions you received, I want to be able to celebrate, commiserate, or strategize with you, so if you are a current client - let me know how you’re doing!

WAITLIST NUMBERS EXPLODE THIS CYCLE

This has been an extraordinary year for waitlists - the record numbers of applicants, combined with test-optional admissions and schools’ concern for yield numbers, have led to extensive waitlists and a lot of uncertainty. The Washington Post quoted UVa’s Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts, who reflected: “I’m not sure I’ve ever gone into a summer so uncertain about what is going to happen.” Well said - same here!

If you are one of the students who received a waitlist decision, check out our blog post about handling difficult decisions - and get to work on that LOCI (unless you’re waitlisted at UVa - they don’t want these letters)! Need help with your letter of continued interest? Book an appointment with us and we can walk you through it. 

TOURS AND INFO SESSIONS RESUME

Many schools have brought back some form of on-campus tour, and more than a few have brought back info sessions or one-on-one meetings with admissions counselors as well. This is great news for Class of 2021 students trying to make a decision before May 1 as well as Class of 2022 students who are still putting together their college lists. That said, visit options are changing all the time, so make sure to check your schools of interest before booking those summer trips!

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ACCIDENTALLY ADMITS 500,000 STUDENTS

It does seem like every year we hear about some unfortunate admissions errors! The University of Kentucky sent acceptance emails to 500,000 high school seniors for its selective College of Health Sciences program, which typically admits only 35-40 students per year. Luckily, most of the students who received the email were not interested in the program - and had not even applied to the university! So while this was a big error, it doesn’t seem like there will be too many disappointed students once everything is cleared up. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The miniscule admissions rates at top colleges this cycle are prompting a lot of thoughts about how to expand the number of students who are able to benefit from an education at an elite school. Should Harvard admit more students? Should Stanford create a second campus? And here’s my biggest question - would Harvard and Stanford even be as attractive to applicants if they weren’t as selective? While some of these ideas might drop the schools a rank or two in U.S. News, it does seem like a good trade-off for expanded access. We’ll have to wait and see whether this incredibly selective admissions cycle has any real impact for Ivy League schools in the long-term future. 

We are only beginning to understand some of the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One seems to be a decrease in young adults interested in becoming teachers. Teaching as a profession has been upended this year, and as a result, teaching programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level are seeing a drop in enrollment, while applications for organizations like Teach for America are also down. On the other side, attrition of teachers has increased with all of the uncertainty the profession has seen this year. This is just the latest decline in an industry that has been slowly losing candidates since 2006, and we’ll be watching to see whether there is a rebound from this latest drop.

You may have heard this week about the absolute chaos at Notre Dame Law School. Students were warned via email that they needed to deposit before the deposit limit was reached, or they would be unable to secure their spot. In just six hours, Notre Dame Law filled its class and all admitted students who wanted to consider other options, were unable to pay immediately, or just didn’t check their email were moved to the waitlist. This situation clearly disadvantaged students who did not have the money to deposit immediately, as well as those who did not have reliable internet access or work during the day. 

This instance of inequity in the admissions process is just an indication of a larger underlying problem. With everyone in our industry occupied with COVID-19 in 2020, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling slipped a major change under the radar because of pressure from the DOJ: they replaced the required "Code of Ethics and Professional Practices" with the optional "Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admission." The situation at Notre Dame may just represent the beginning of what’s to come, now that less regulation exists in the admissions space.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

I’m coming at you from Day 2 of a spontaneous road trip back from Florida on I-95. We had plane tickets and decided to drive at the last minute so my daughter wouldn’t have to quarantine for a week. I have seen a lot of teenagers in college gear at rest stops, which makes me so happy! Although - pro tip, don’t go crazy with the sweatshirts until you have an acceptance letter in hand next year!! ;)

Still not sure what to do this summer? Many of our students have reported great experiences at Cornell’s Precollege Summer Program, which will be holding an information session next Wednesday, April 14 at 8:00 pm. The application deadline is May 17, so interested students still have plenty of time to get an application in (or book a session with us for some help!). 

Closer to home, JumpStart NOVA is providing graduating seniors with the opportunity to take two free courses at NOVA this summer and get ahead on their general education requirements. Interested students should apply by April 30. And if neither of these options work for you, check out the summer college courses list on our Summer Opportunities Database for some more ideas! 

Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend!

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Weekly Update: April 1

We will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday, but don’t worry - we’d never leave you hanging on the weekly update! Here it is a day early..

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

PANDEMIC IMPACT ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

There is no getting around the fact that the transition to college can be difficult for many students. This is often the first time that students live away from home, and the increased independence can also sometimes feel like the loss of the support system that they’ve had throughout high school. While colleges try to make mental health resources easily available to all students, mental health on college campuses has been a big concern in recent years, and is only increasing with the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Make sure to check in with your new college students this fall, even if they are still learning from home!

BROWN UNIVERSITY VOTES FOR REPARATIONS

Over 2,000 undergraduate students at Brown voted last week on the question of whether students who are descended from enslaved people should receive preference in the admissions and financial aid process. Over 80% of students voted yes. While the vote does not directly impact the school’s policies, we will be watching to see what the administration does in light of this overwhelming support for reparations from students.  

STUDENT ATHLETES TRANSFER IN RECORD NUMBERS

Why have college coaches and sports journalists been glued to the NCAA’s transfer portal this cycle? The portal, which lists student athletes looking to transfer, is not new - it debuted in 2018. But what is new is the potential change in the NCAA transfer rule. Up until now, athletes in certain sports like football and basketball were required to sit out for a season as a penalty for transferring schools. But now, the NCAA is scheduled to vote on a change to the rule that would enable these students to transfer once without penalty. The vote was originally scheduled for January, with the new rule taking effect in August 2021. Though the vote has been pushed back, students and coaches anticipate that this new transfer rule will still apply to the 2021-2022 school year - and as a result, we may see a LOT of transfer movement from student athletes. 

WATCH OUT FOR FAKE COLLEGES THIS APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

Have you heard of the Southern Rhode Island Institute of the Arts? Us either, because it doesn’t exist! Some high school seniors blew off steam during this more-stressful-than-usual admissions season by creating a fake university, complete with a website, mascot (the soft-shell crab), and emotional admissions acceptance videos. Hopefully, “SRIIOTA” creates a bit of fun for other students as well! 

IMPORTANT VACCINE DEVELOPMENTS FOR ADOLESCENTS

Lots of great news this week on the vaccine front! First, the Pfizer vaccine was found to be 100% (WOW!) effective in adolescents ages 12-15 - and no major side effects occurred. According to the New York Times, middle and high school students may be able to be vaccinated by the end of the summer, followed by elementary students.

For our sophomores through seniors, some very promising news out of Gov. Northam’s office today - all individuals ages 16+ will be eligible to register for the vaccine later this month! Shannon and I actually just wrapped up a meeting in which we were discussing our own reopening plans. Right now it looks like our clients prioritize having in-person essay coaching meetings vs. in-person college counseling meetings, so we plan to start with those this summer with our vaccinated students as we begin the transition back into a new normal. We’ll be in touch with more information for our Class of 2022 families over the coming month.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The pandemic has made boarding school seem like a very attractive option for many parents and students. For students unable to attend classes in person in their local schools, boarding school provided the opportunity for face-to-face learning. Boarding schools, like selective colleges, have seen a rise in applications this cycle as students and families look for a chance to get “back to normal” in a new environment. 

We have a lot of personal and professional boarding school experience here in our office: in addition to working with a lot of boarding school clients (both in terms of admissions and exmissions), clients who have seen the banner over my desk know my Choate pride! What you may not know is that Shannon is also a boarding school alum - she graduated from Andover, where she also gave admissions interviews and evaluated candidates for admission. And Staci also has a substantial amount of experience teaching and working at boarding schools!

If you are considering a switch for your student during this difficult time, book a strategy session with us and we can help you think through your options and the boarding school application process. For some students, repeating junior year or pursuing a post-graduate year can be the right choice on the journey towards college - particularly if athletic recruitment is involved.

And if you’re just plain interested in what boarding school life is like, add All Girls: A Novel to your summer reading list. E! Online noted, "If Gossip Girl meets Curtis Sittenfield sounds like your jam then All Girls is extremely your jam. [E]ngrossing.” Gossip Girl and Curtis Sittenfeld are very much my jam and I can attest that it was a page-turner for sure - but it went deeper than that. It led me to reflect upon issues of consent and institutional betrayal, along with the anxiety, pressure, and expectations that are so present in the lives of teenage girls. If UVA keeps their long-time Arts & Sciences essay prompt for the upcoming application cycle, this book could lead to a very compelling response.

On Choate’s campus in Fall 2019 - the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Many students come to us looking to pursue business-related careers, and investment banking is a big one. But this passion may have dimmed this week in light of multiple reports from young Goldman Sachs analysts about the dangerous workplace culture at high-level firms. As cultural norms shift, more young people become much more interested in work-life balance and a healthy mindset than making a lot of money - and larger firms may find that their work cultures have to keep up.  

There have been a lot of waitlist-related blog posts this year because the uncertainty relating to COVID  made the current admissions cycle the unofficial "cycle of the waitlist" in highly selective admissions. I'm actually going to take this opportunity to proactively share a piece with which I do NOT fully agree and I think should be read with some caution, especially because it's on a very popular admissions blog that I normally love and recommend to families all the time. 

In The Waitlist. Why?!, Georgia Tech's Rick Clark shares some very helpful background about waitlists, including why they are needed and how they work. He's spot on about a lot of this, including the need to deposit elsewhere, the slim chances of waitlist admission, and the fact that no amount of begging (or yummy cookies!) will supersede institutional priorities. But I don’t agree that demonstrated interest doesn't matter. In my own experience, time and time again, demonstrated interest actually matters a heck of a lot more in a waitlist situation than at any other point in the admissions cycle. 

This is because admissions officers at many schools are often instructed to recommend waitlist admission for a certain number of students that meet the institutional priority criteria. For example, "Find me 5 female chemical engineering majors from the Mid-Atlantic." In these situations, I cannot emphasize enough that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the metaphorical grease. That doesn't mean you should go crazy, but you also HAVE to make sure you're "known" - in a good way - to get one of those coveted spots. After all, there might be 100 chemical engineering females on the waitlist from the Mid-Atlantic! 

My experience has been (time and time and time again) that once it gets to this point, demonstrated interest actually outweighs any other factor - because every student on the waitlist has already been deemed to be qualified. At this point, the admissions committee is primarily concerned about yield protection and only wants to admit students who they are sure will accept the offer. While it obviously doesn't work like this at Georgia Tech, it does at the vast majority of other institutions.

Anyway, I’m concerned that families could get the wrong idea from this post. One of my fellow educational consultant buddies was so surprised to see this advice that she actually started a text chain with a group of us about it the other day to make sure that she wasn't losing her mind (we all agreed: she wasn't!).

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Speaking of Rick Clark, Shannon was able to chat with him and several other admissions officers at an Atlanta-area counselors event. Rick mentioned that Georgia Tech has not yet decided whether to be test-optional for next cycle, so we will have to wait on that news for Class of 2022 applicants. The admissions officers at the event also spoke about the “demographic cliff” that they expect to see in the next few years, when 15% fewer students are expected to graduate high school and apply to college. Some schools may admit more students over the next few cycles in an effort to combat this anticipated drop in applications. 

This year, however, applications are up - but attendance may not be. Georgia State is up in applications and admits, but actually down in students who have deposited or registered for orientation. This suggests that while students may have applied to more schools this cycle, they still have to choose just one, and schools like Georgia State are often dependent on waitlist releases from more selective state schools like UGA and Georgia Tech.

Speaking of UGA, this has been an incredibly difficult cycle for students from out of state. We have already told our students who were admitted that they should be very proud of themselves!! For students who are still waiting, UGA plans to release their waitlist by the end of June or early July. 

We have been hearing from several of our students about the grading changes at FCPS this semester, which will let students change F grades to “NM” (no mark) and C or D grades to simply Pass. While some students and families may see these changes and think of them as a positive in the college admissions process, students should assume that any information about grading provided to them is also provided to admissions officers. In other words, colleges will know that an NM grade is on the transcript instead of an F, and that a P likely means the student received a C or D in the class.

The upshot is that these grade changes won’t really make a difference for a student in the college process, and the same is true of grade changes at other high schools. Some students think that if they have a 4.0 GPA, for example, they should select for even A- grades to be reported pass-fail to keep the GPA intact. But keep in mind that colleges may see that “P” in the context of the information provided by the school and wrongly assume that the student’s grade was much lower. If current clients have additional questions about grading options for this year, please feel free to reach out to us. Or better yet, book an academic coaching session to learn about how we can help your student stay on track and out of a grading dilemma!

Lastly, we are so excited to announce the opening of our new and improved Membership Vault! If you are looking for a DIY approach to the college admissions process, the vault is for you. And if you are a current client, you have access to the vault (with easy, one-stop access to all of our many resources) automatically included in your package.

Current clients should check their email for an access code, and others can learn more or register for membership on our Membership Vault page.

Enjoy the weekend, and a very happy Easter to those who will be celebrating! I will be out of the office during the week ahead, but Shannon will be holding down the fort!

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Weekly Update: March 26

We are so excited for this spring weather! We hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the sunshine.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

JMU AND UIUC JOIN THE COMMON APP

YES! We cannot tell you how excited we are to see JMU join the Common Application this cycle, along with the University of Illinois and over 30 other colleges and universities. This addition will definitely make it easier for our students to apply to these schools, and will save students and families a lot of time! Now if UT Austin could hop on board, all my application dreams would come true…

ADMISSIONS STATISTICS CONTINUE TO COME IN

We’ve reached that point in the year where new regular decision releases are happening every day, and as a result, we are starting to see more statistics come in for this year’s admissions cycle. Check out this list for some of the overall admit rates that we’ve seen so far this cycle, including a recently released 19% admit rate from Boston College, 21% from UVA, and a miniscule 4% from MIT! Dean J also released a more detailed breakdown of admissions statistics at UVA that encouraged students not to pay much attention to that 21% average. Instead, students should look to two different admit rates - 28% in state, and 17% out of state - since residency is such a large factor in UVA admissions. 

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY REQUIRES VACCINES IN THE FALL

Rutgers was the first college to announce this week that they will require students to be vaccinated in order to return to campus this fall. Other schools are also considering how they will encourage students to pursue vaccination - Dickinson State in North Dakota will not require vaccinated students to wear masks on campus. UNC, Michigan, and the UC schools have said that they are not currently requiring students to be vaccinated, while Notre Dame has not yet decided on a vaccine mandate. 

Most colleges already require students to have certain vaccinations in order to attend: MMR, meningitis, and Hepatitis B vaccines are commonly mandated before students arrive on campus, so there is some precedent for the Rutgers requirement. We’ll wait and see if other schools follow suit! 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Next Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear the case of NCAA vs. Allston, which addresses the question of whether lucrative NCAA programs should compensate their players. This article breaks down why the NCAA’s refusal to pay players may be a violation of federal antitrust laws. If the Supreme Court agrees, it could mean a lot of changes for Division I college sports - but it is unlikely that this will happen.

We’ve covered before how colleges are using mass testing to try to keep students safe on campus. But colleges are not bubbles, and even if students are being tested regularly, there is a chance for spread in the surrounding areas. This New York Times article argues that colleges (and other businesses) would benefit from increasing mass testing not only for students and employees, but for the surrounding community as well.

While many schools are opening their doors for the first time, some have already been open for months, and there are definitely some lessons to learn from how they have managed the pandemic. This article has some interesting things that have been discovered from in-person learning, some of which go against conventional wisdom (for instance, that it is actually safer for students to have fully in-person classes rather than hybrid, since students who split their time are exposed to more people). 

We love Coursera! The site offers free online courses in hundreds of subjects, and it is a great way for students to delve deeper into subjects that interest them, as well as displaying an interest in those subjects to colleges. This course on the science of well-being was a popular one for our students this year, and according to this New York Times article, over 3 million people agreed! We really recommend this course not only to students but to anyone who needs to focus more on well-being these days.

We found this Atlantic article interesting because it shows how oftentimes, what parents and even students themselves think is the problem with their learning, the actual problem is even deeper. These parents are concerned that their student isn’t remembering what he learns, but the article suggests that maybe he isn’t actually learning it in the first place - the issue isn’t with memory, but with comprehension. This is a really common issue that can make it difficult for students to find the help that they need with learning in the classroom.

As an academic coach, Shannon sees this kind of confusion all the time! That’s why in her first session with a student, she always takes the time to ask questions and get to the root of the problem. We recently had a parent tell us that she is GREAT at asking the right questions! If you are looking for extra support in the classroom, you can hear more about how we can help by booking an Academic Coaching Meet & Greet.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

2021 is quickly shaping up to be “the year of the waitlist.” A lot of students learned decisions this week and will continue to hear decisions next week. Remember that in a waitlist situation, a letter of continued interest is EXTREMELY important! For tips on writing an effective LOCI, check out our blog post. And if you are a student who received a decision that wasn’t what you hoped it would be, read this! If you are a client who received a waitlist decision, please let us know so that we can support you. If you are not a client but are looking for some extra help, book a strategy session with us!

And adults, we know it is difficult, but the best way to support teenagers during this time is refrain from asking them about decisions. Of course, that doesn’t apply to your own children - but if your group of friends agrees not to ask each other’s children about their decisions, it takes the pressure off for all of them. While we know this is a tough process, and a rejection is absolutely not an indictment of the student, many students still feel shame over a deny decision, so try to respect their space during this part of the process. 

For those who are itching to get out and visit colleges - today is the LAST DAY of Amtrak’s big Northeast Corridor sale on train tickets. This is a fantastic sale that we wanted to let you know about - only $19 for a ticket to NYC! The sale applies to trips taken before September 30, so this is a really great deal for students planning to visit colleges in NYC, Boston, or anywhere in between over the summer. 

Shannon has been really enjoying conversations with students and families during drop-in hours (especially when she gets to talk about her alma mater, William & Mary!). Have a quick question about your course schedule for next year, or having difficulty completing a form or research assignment for us? Drop in on Thursdays between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm and Shannon is happy to chat with you and get you on the right track. 

Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Update: March 19

We hope everyone had a happy St. Patrick’s Day and a great week (and isn’t too tired from springing ahead)!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

REGULAR DECISION RELEASE DATES

It is that time of year again - many of our students are receiving regular decision news from colleges! Fordham, American, Bucknell, Northeastern, and Dickinson were among the colleges to release decisions this week, and we expect to hear from UGA, Swarthmore, UCLA, and Boston College today! For more updates on release dates, we recommend following College Kickstart’s list - it is updated almost every day with new information. 

US CANCELS DEBT FOR STUDENTS OF FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES

For-profit colleges in the US have a long history of taking advantage of students, and the Department of Education has decided to forgive $1 billion in debt for students who have been scammed by these institutions. DOE will also work with these students to improve their credit after carrying loans from these private, for-profit college systems. 

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

CNN released an interview with the Senior Vice President of Enrollment Management at NYU, discussing the impact of the pandemic on college admissions. As we’ve recounted on the blog before, schools that interest our students are seeing huge application increases (17% at UVA; 42% at Harvard; an enormous 103% at Colgate!). 

But community colleges and other institutions are seeing enrollment fall due to COVID-19, and are providing incentives like debt forgiveness and extended application deadlines to encourage students to enroll. Mills College, a private women's college in Oakland, CA, is the latest institution to close its doors due to economic struggles caused by the pandemic.  

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

This week saw the release of Netflix’s Operation Varsity Blues on Wednesday - check it out! This interview with one of the creators is also worth reading. Those who made the movie believe that with the notoriety around the scandal, this type of “side door” into college admissions will never open up again. I hope this is the case! We were also excited to see other independent consultants featured in the film… and thought it was funny that we got invitations to some watch parties this week! Maybe we will host one ourselves :)

Schools across the country (and here in Fairfax!) are starting to reopen, and some students are headed back into the classroom for the first time in a year. This New York Times article captures some of the excitement and nerves that students are experiencing during this time, as well as some of the safety measures that schools are taking right now in line with new CDC guidelines on the reopening of schools.

This WSJ article provided more information that aligned with the interview above, including raw numbers. I liked the quotation from Sam Bigelow from the Middlesex School, who disagreed that test-optional admissions is ”tipping the scale on access and equity.” He noted (and I completely, 100% agree with this): “More than anything else it’s just making these applicant pools disturbingly big. It’s by and large just making more kids for them to reject.”

And as our juniors are busy with their college essay work, this piece from the New York Times gives a great sampling of college essays from the Class of 2021. I enjoyed reading about the breakdown of topics submitted:

The coronavirus was the most common theme in the essays submitted to The Times, appearing in 393 essays, more than 40 percent. Next was the value of family, coming up in 351 essays, but often in the context of other issues, like the pandemic and race. Racial justice and protest figured in 342 essays … Family was not the only eternal verity to appear. Love came up in 286 essays; science in 128; art in 110; music in 109; and honor in 32. Personal tragedy also loomed large, with 30 essays about cancer alone….Some students resisted the lure of current events, and wrote quirky essays about captaining a fishing boat on Cape Cod or hosting dinner parties. A few wrote poetry. Perhaps surprisingly, politics and the 2020 election were not of great interest.

All things being equal, I maintain that it’s better to break away from trends in essays if possible. I definitely remember how tedious it felt to read the same type of essay over and over and over again when I worked in admissions. That said, I understand that all things aren’t always equal, and sometimes writing about a popular topic is the right choice for a given applicant.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon attended a series of talks this week for CACHET Counselor Conversations, learning more about many different STEM programs. We are definitely starting to see how different schools will handle testing going forward - as we anticipated, extremely selective private schools and large state schools will be looking to use testing in admissions as soon as possible, while other institutions may leave it behind for good. MIT will be placing “more weight” on APs in admission than in the past in the absence of SAT Subject Tests, while WPI has shifted from a test-optional to a fully test-blind model going forward. Case Western expects to admit more students than last year and see a lot of waitlist movement to make up for a smaller class in the previous cycle, while Purdue does not expect to see much if any waitlist movement for their engineering program. 

One thing we were happy to learn was that this cycle overall, as a Purdue admissions officer put it, was the “most empathetic review” of student applications that many of these schools have ever done, taking into account the impact of COVID-19 on applicants. Want to learn more about the STEM programs who make up CACHET? Check out their Virtual College Fair for students March 29-31. 

If STEM programs aren’t your thing, there are still plenty of upcoming college fairs to check out. Register for the National Catholic College Admission Association fair on March 25, or the Colleges that Change Lives fair on March 23-24. 

Lastly, this blog post would feel incomplete if we did not mention that we were deeply saddened and angered by the events in Georgia this week. We stand in solidarity with our many AAPI clients and the wider Asian community. If you are looking to do more to combat rising anti-Asian violence, we recommend participating in this free bystander intervention training or making a donation to one of the organizations on this list to support Asian communities.

Enjoy your weekend! 

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Weekly Update: March 12

We hope everyone has been enjoying the beautiful weather!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

UMD CONFIRMS TEST OPTIONAL FOR 2022 AND 2023

The University of Maryland is the latest school to announce that admissions will be test-optional for the classes of 2022 and 2023. They specify that students who choose not to submit test scores “will not be disadvantaged” in the admissions process. Living-learning programs and merit scholarships will also be test-optional, though the English proficiency test requirement will remain in place. 

AN INTERESTING SPRING BREAK IDEA

We’ve written before about the variety of plans that colleges and universities have this semester to prevent students from traveling for spring break. From starting in February, to ending in April, to giving students single days off throughout the semester rather than a week-long block, we thought we had seen it all. But UC Davis has a different plan - offering $75 gift cards to local businesses as a “staycation” grant to 2,000 students who agree to stay on campus during spring break. That’s one way to incentivize students to follow CDC guidelines!

TJ ADMISSIONS LAWSUIT 

Last Wednesday, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against Thomas Jefferson High School, alleging that the school’s admissions policies are discriminatory against Asian-American students. This comes after new admissions criteria were put in place for TJ’s incoming class of 2025. These changes include increasing the class size, eliminating the application fee, and no longer requiring teacher recommendations.

This case definitely recalls the affirmative action case against Harvard, as well as those that other Ivy League schools have faced recently. For more of my thoughts on these cases, you can check out my Newsy interview on our Facebook page!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

This article by Jeff Selingo examines the future of admissions in light of all of the changes we have seen during the pandemic. One of the things that is most fun (and most challenging!) about this work is that things change all the time, but Jeff thinks that some of the changes will stick. Here is an excerpt from the article: 

"The numbers from this year’s early-decision rounds were reaching high-school seniors just as many of them were applying for regular decision. For a certain set of prospective applicants — namely upper-middle-class and wealthy students — the early numbers seemed to indicate that applying test-optional might be the way into a selective college."

Key word here - SEEMED! Sure, the early numbers seemed that way to applicants, but that’s not necessarily what they actually said. Test-optional admission alone in the absence of other positive attributes wasn't enough to help a typical upper middle class or wealthy applicant gain admission to a selective college. As always, our current clients should speak with us first before deciding whether the test-optional route is the best choice for them, given their applicant profile. 

Quite an article from The Atlantic this week - “Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene.” I was actually interviewed for this piece last summer, though not ultimately quoted. COVID-19 has definitely thrown the major differences between public and private schools into the spotlight this year, especially as schools have decided whether or not to offer in-person instruction. 

It is worth noting, though, that just because more private schools send students to highly selective colleges, that isn’t necessarily about the school - it could be about the student. The sort of highly-motivated, full-pay student who attends an elite private school is often the same type of student who is admitted to an Ivy League school. The article also mentions the endowments at Exeter and Andover without noting that these schools, like Harvard and other Ivy Leagues, are also need-blind, admitting students regardless of demonstrated financial need. 

But it was a funny read nonetheless and I love the author. This was my favorite line:

College admissions is one of the few situations in which rich people are forced to scramble for a scarce resource. What logic had led them to believe that it would help to antagonize the college counselors? Driven mad by the looming prospect of a Williams rejection, they had lost all reason.

Tongue-in-cheek, but also SO TRUE. As I’ve said before, a student’s [school-based] college counselor at school plays an essential role in the admissions process. This is NOT the person to antagonize, trust me!

Bad news for some class of 2021 students from the Wall Street Journal - college wait lists are likely to be longer than ever this year. This is in part because schools, concerned about pandemic yield numbers, have chosen to be conservative with admissions (which may mean that more students are admitted off the waitlist in the end). But it could also be a symptom of the sheer numbers of qualified applicants that applied to highly selective schools, just the latest sign of a crowded playing field. 

This is also a great reminder to NEVER DOUBLE DEPOSIT - not only could it end with two rescinded offers of admission, but you may be taking a spot from another deserving student who won’t be able to attend that college because the school didn’t have an accurate idea of enrollment numbers until it was too late. 

Something else that can lead to rescinded admission: not being careful with your social media use. Check out our blog post from earlier this week, from guest blogger and hiring expert Jayana Garvey, for more tips about keeping your social media in tip-top shape.  

Students might enjoy this list of secrets and surprises from former college admissions officers. There is some great insight here, but keep in mind that some of these come from admissions officers at less selective schools and may not be true about the schools where our students apply. Legacy students certainly aren’t always accepted (though for more on the impact of legacy status, check out this blog post!) We definitely hope that students keep #15 in mind: “One thing that’s really important to know is that at schools with really low acceptance rates, probably 50-60% of the applicants are equally qualified, and only 5-10% will be admitted.” So true! You can only control what you can control - at some point, even the most qualified applicants are relying on luck! 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We are really excited to introduce a new offering to past, present and future clients alike - academic coaching! We've proven that breaking down the college admissions process into manageable chunks makes it more successful and less stressful. Now we are officially helping students from ninth grade through graduate school approach their regular academic work in the exact same way! Check out yesterday’s blog post to learn more about this offering and set up a session.

Lastly, I couldn’t finish this without acknowledging the one-year “Covid anniversary.” Exactly a year ago today, March 12, was our last normal day seeing clients in the office. I wish I had something meaningful or insightful to say about the past year, but nothing could come close to capturing the challenges we have all faced. From a business standpoint, though, everything has moved forward so seamlessly and I’m incredibly grateful for that. And we are so close to the finish line now!

Enjoy the weekend!

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Weekly Update: March 5

Happy March - and happy (part-time) BACK TO SCHOOL to our FCPS students! Wow - talk about the longest spring break ever :)

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

TOP 20 MOST EXPENSIVE COLLEGES

The cost of college attendance gets a lot of attention, but the fact is that many schools offer both merit- and need-based aid, so the advertised cost of attendance may only be paid by a fraction of students. A more relevant measure for most students is the average price that students pay for their education, calculated by CTAS Higher Ed Business. The University of Chicago, for example, has the highest cost of attendance at more than $80,000, but most students do not pay this full cost. The “real” most expensive school in the US? Wake Forest, with an average cost of nearly $63,000 per student. 

Three schools near the top of the list - NYU, BU, and USC - have students paying a premium for their locations in major coastal cities. NYU, benefitting from an influx of applications like so many top schools this year, may even shoot to the top of the list as we get more data. 

IECA RELEASES NEW STANDARDS

As we’ve written on the blog before, DC College Counseling may not be the right fit for every student looking to work with an independent counselor. However, if you are a student looking to work with someone outside of your school counselor, make sure you do your due diligence! Shannon and I are both members of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), which means that we are required to uphold certain ethical and professional standards. Anyone can call themselves a counselor - look for outside accreditation and experience so you can be confident in the person that you are trusting to help you with such an important life decision!

The IECA recently released new “We Believe” standards in the wake of the Varsity Blues scandal. We stand behind all of these standards, but our favorite has to be #2: “We believe independent educational consultants should act respectfully, honestly, compassionately, ethically, and professionally with every student.” 

OPERATION VARSITY BLUES ON NETFLIX

Speaking of Varsity Blues, we’re excited to check out the new Operation Varsity Blues movie when it premieres on Netflix on March 17. The movie recreates conversations recorded through FBI wiretaps during the investigation, and it is definitely disturbing to hear some of what went on during this scandal.

RICE INTRODUCES BUSINESS MAJOR

Rice University will be introducing an undergraduate business major this fall! This is really exciting for students who have been interested in the incredible STEM programs at Rice and want to be able to further develop their business skills. And since we have a ton of students every year looking for business programs in the South, we’re glad to have another alternative to recommend! Since the school is trying to fill the major with incoming students and current freshmen, fewer students will be eligible - meaning that a student who is interested in the new major might have a slight admissions advantage at this extremely selective institution.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We try to help our students develop the skills they need for college as they work with us throughout the process, but we know that students need a variety of different levels of support to be successful as they move on to this next step. For parents that have been really involved in supporting their students, it can be challenging to get them ready to work on their own as college students. We found this Atlantic article to give some really helpful strategies for parents to help their students improve executive functioning skills in advance of heading to college. As an executive functioning coach, Shannon definitely agreed with all of the tips in the article! And if you want to learn more about how our process can help your student develop self-advocacy, make sure to book a Meet & Greet with us!

One of the most common questions we’ve received during the pandemic is how students can complete community service or volunteer projects while staying safely distanced. Our Summer Opportunities Database is a great resource for these types of opportunities, but for more ideas, check out this New York Times article about how teenagers managed to volunteer this year despite the new challenges. These students phone banked, organized, tutored, and completed other amazing volunteer projects this year.

Interested in a particular organization or nonprofit but not sure how to start volunteering? Our favorite tip is to reach out to the organization and ask them what their needs are right now. Then, you can create a proposal for volunteer or internship experience that meets those needs. This method demonstrates initiative and also makes the choice to take on a volunteer or intern a no-brainer for these organizations!

We know that it has been difficult for students to feel that they really got to know a college during a virtual tour. All the Zoom videos tend to blur together, and students are savvy enough to know that admissions officers are intentionally presenting an overly positive version of the student experience. This Washington Post article illuminates just one of the student-led virtual tour companies that ask real students, unaffiliated with the admissions office, to reveal their perspectives on their school. Check it out! Some of our other favorite resources for student voices are Niche and Unigo, and we always encourage you to connect with current students or alumni at schools that interest you - if you don’t know someone personally, your high school counselor may be able to connect you to a former student. 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

One of the best parts about having Shannon on board in our office is that we can be so much more available to our current clients! Starting next week, we are introducing a month-long pilot of drop-in hours, where current clients can hop into a Zoom meeting to ask Shannon a quick question or provide an update without booking an appointment. Drop-in hours will be from 11:30-1:30 on Thursdays, so parents and students can feel free to pop in during their lunch break for a quick chat with Shannon. This video will show you how to access drop-in hours:

I appeared on Newsy last Friday to discuss the Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard case and the potential implications that the reversal of affirmative action policies could have on the college admissions process. Watch the entire interview on our Facebook page.

And lastly, a really exciting opportunity for FCPS students to pursue a leadership role - serving as Student Representative to the School Board. Current 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students can apply now to represent student interests to the School Board. 

Have a great weekend! 

Weekly Update: February 26

It may be late February but it has felt more like April this week. SUCH a nice treat to have this beautiful weather - we hope all of you were able to get outside and enjoy it!!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

HARVARD ADMISSIONS LAWSUIT REACHES THE SUPREME COURT

Back in 2019, Judge Allison D. Borroughs rejected the argument presented by the “Students for Fair Admissions,” stating that while the Harvard’s admissions process is “not perfect,” the university did meet the constitutional standard for considering race.  She argued that universities need to consider race in college admissions so that they can foster greater diversity, “tolerance, acceptance and understanding that will ultimately make race-conscious admissions obsolete.” The group brought their case to the Supreme Court yesterday.

It’s important to recognize that back in 2003, Sandra Day O’Conner wrote in the majority opinion for Grutter v. Bollinger that race-base admissions was not meant to be permanent:

The Court takes the Law School at its word that it would like nothing better than to find a race-neutral admissions formula and will terminate its use of racial preferences as soon as practicable. The Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.

Well, it’s been almost 18 years, so this will be interesting - it has the potential to shake up college admissions in a very big way. Stay tuned for more as we watch it closely!

VIRGINIA TECH EARLY ACTION DECISIONS RELEASED

After we posted our Friday blog last week, Virginia Tech released early action decisions. They had a 35% year over year increase in early action applicants (nearly 30,000 this cycle compared to just over 20,000 last cycle), and decisions revealed that this was a significantly more difficult cycle than we have seen in the past. We also suspect that demonstrated interest may have played a larger role at VT this year, as it appears anecdotally that they may have tried to fill the class with students most likely to attend. Congratulations to all of our seniors who received good news last week!

INFLUX OF APPLICATIONS AT TOP COLLEGES

This pandemic admissions cycle has felt particularly long for many of our students - and for us as well! But one thing that we’ve increasingly noticed as more data is released (and written about again and again) -is that while college applications across the country have dropped, applications at top universities and big state schools have gone way up. That means that most of our students will be experiencing the most competitive admissions cycle in history (not exactly a claim to fame you want, right?). But it also means that smaller mid-tier colleges may be struggling to fill their classes and suffering budget shortfalls.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The Varsity Blues scandal illuminated some of the ethical issues with athletic recruitment at top colleges. This article further considers that relationship, digging into the relationship between Sean Hannity and the tennis coach at Wake Forest, where his son is a senior and varsity tennis player. Though an investigation did not find any illegal actions in this case (unlike Varsity Blues), it still raises some ethical questions and is a great read to help think about where the lines are drawn for NCAA recruitment.

Not exactly an article, but I recommend this Twitter thread for anyone looking to understand a bit more about the trends we’ve been seeing in applications this year, and how school officials are thinking about this admissions cycle.

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education digs into the CSS Profile, one of the most frustrating forms for students and families to submit during the admissions process. About 300 colleges and universities require this form in addition to the FAFSA for students seeking financial aid. For many students and families, this extensive (and confusing!) form can be a serious barrier to entry for institutional grants from top colleges and the article honestly broke my heart to read! The CSS Profile is just one example of the challenges that low-income students have to overcome when applying to college. The pandemic has only exacerbated this challenge, and led to a decrease in applications overall from low-income and first-generation students. If you are struggling with this form, don’t forget that College Access Fairfax provides great free resources and can help!

High Point University is definitely a school that has recently come into the consciousness of many students and families due to its luxury amenities, including a concierge, multiple swimming pools, and an on-campus steakhouse. This article explores some of the wildest amenities at elite colleges, and how schools use luxury as a way to attract wealthy applicants.

Speaking of luxury, there’s no walking on the High Point tour - your tour guide drives you around on a cushy golf cart! I was six months pregnant in the photo above and THRILLED for a break after trudging around Duke, UNC, Wake, and Elon during a very hot July week!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

February has flown by and we are so excited to start reading student essays as they work through the Wow Writing Workshop with our essay coaches. Hearing students’ personal stories is one of the best parts of our job! If you are a Class of 2022 student who has not yet booked your essay coaching meetings, make sure you begin the process by reviewing what’s ahead and scheduling your meetings! (And don’t forget to share your thoughts on in-person services with us!)

Interested in medicine? Check out this STEM workshop tomorrow morning! The office of Rep. Jennifer Wexton is hosting a workshop for high school students from 10:00-11:15 am tomorrow to allow students to hear from medical professionals, researchers, and health policy experts about how the healthcare field has transformed during COVID-19. 

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update: February 19

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm this week!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

ACADEMIC INFLUENCE RANKINGS

A self-described “team of academics and data scientists" at an organization called Academic Influence recently released a brand-new set of rankings that they deem wholly objective and free from outside bias. What are the rankings based on? Influence. The researchers divided the number of influential alumni by the school’s undergraduate population to come up with a term called “Concentrated Influence.”

The rankings allow you to examine a school’s overall influence or even sort by field, which is pretty cool. I thought it was very interesting that they separate alumni field from area of academic study, acknowledging that people are often influential in fields in which they did not earn their degree. Love that! It’s so true. They use the example of Princeton, explaining that it has produced some very influential alumni in the legal field without having a law school.

If you are wondering how a person is deemed to be influential, you are not alone - I was wondering the same thing, but they seem to have a pretty sophisticated process that uses AI.

Check out the rankings here. Most won’t be surprising, but I did find the order to be interesting. For example, NYU is ranked #11 in concentrated influence while Penn is ranked #15 and Caltech is ranked #23. University of Wisconsin-Madison (which I might have called under-rated a few years ago, but I think everyone in our area has caught on by now) comes in at #27 just after Carnegie Mellon at #26, but UVa is #35 and Georgetown is #39. My alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, was ranked #61. Ouch!!

NCAA DEAD PERIOD EXTENDED THROUGH 5/31

Ughhh - again?! I feel so badly for high school athletes going through the recruiting process right now. The NCAA Division I Council announced yet another extension on the in-person recruiting ban that has been in place since last March. Word on the street is that this will be the last extension, but who really knows. It is insane to think by the time this is over, we will be looking at a minimum of fourteen months without official campus visits. I was sharing observations with a few counselors this morning about how coaches really seem to be prioritizing transfers as a result of this extended dead period.

RELEASE OF 2021-2022 COMMON APP ® ESSAY PROMPTS

We covered this earlier in the week, but the Common Application ® finally released the prompts for current juniors (Class of 2022). I’m not a fan of the changes, as I explained, but our whole team is really excited to start the process with our juniors. All current clients should have received an email last night with instructions to begin, followed up by their Wow Writing Workshop login information this morning!

Staci is our Student Success Coach and manages the essay process for each of our students! She’s AMAZING!

Speaking of essays, we have some exciting news to share! One of our all-time favorite coaches, McClain, is going to come back this summer! YAY! We are so excited. She wrote a great guest blog a few years ago about maximizing the high school experience - check it out here. McClain is able to leverage her experience as a teacher, coach, and member of an independent school admission team into her essay coaching, and we’re so fortunate to have her back.

SHAKESPEARE’S BEEN CANCELLED

Boy would this have been welcome news in my life twenty years ago - I hated the mandatory Shakespeare class I had to take as an English major! In any case, some teachers are now refusing to teach Shakespeare or encouraging their students to view his work through a different lens. They are making these decisions on the basis that his work is anti-semitic, misogynistic, homophobic and more. Others are offended by the idea that his work is “universal.” After reading the article, I do vaguely remember writing a paper in college on anti-semitism in The Merchant of Venice. It will be interesting to see if this catches on.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

A New York nonprofit, the National Education Equity Lab, has offered thousands of underprivileged students the opportunity to take for-credit coursework at Ivy League schools during high school. The program began with a 300-student pilot, and has shown that 89% of participants are able to pass the courses, which are graded at the same level as coursework for traditional undergraduates.

This sounds like a fantastic program, and I agree that graded coursework from an Ivy League institution will offer these students another data point in their application materials. But this line from the article made me laugh: “the students’ success has raised questions about how elite university gatekeepers determine college prospects.” Really? Their success raised questions? I think we’ve all had questions on this topic for a little while now :)

On the flip side, and I actually had to read this a few times to make sure I was understanding properly because it sounded so wildly discriminatory to me, the Faculty Senate at Stanford just voted to adopt two policies to de-emphasize wealth in the undergraduate admissions process. It seems like one of the main goals is to help prevent Varsity Blues-type situations with rogue admissions consultants, and I would support that. As the article states, though, close to 70% of students use college admissions counselors - it’s not a service limited to the wealthy. And “surveys to track the distribution of income and wealth levels for parents and undergraduates” seems highly inappropriate in my opinion. I’m honestly shocked that Stanford is publicly sharing their plans to do this. Anyway, it’s yet another reason to skip filling out that FAFSA if you know you won’t qualify for financial aid.

This won’t surprise most of us, but 18-to-29 year olds are having a particularly difficult time struggling with the isolation we’re all experiencing as a result of Covid. I get it - it’s so hard and it’s sad to think about years lost from their lives that they won’t get back. It’s actually my au pair’s 22nd birthday today and when I was writing her card earlier this morning, I was thinking about how most of the time she was 21 - a milestone year - basically disappeared. It is really sad!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon took a much-needed vacation this week and let’s just say I cannot wait for her to come back! :) We are finishing up a number of transfer and grad school applications, in addition to helping some undergraduate clients with honors program applications at their respective schools, and things were very busy!

If you are a current junior client, please don’t forget to take our in-person services questionnaire to help us understand your priorities as we move forward with plans for the spring and summer.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Weekly Update: February 12

A quick note that we will be closed on Monday for Presidents Day. We hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS AND DEADLINES

We’ve written before about the need- and merit-based aid processes for schools, but there are a variety of scholarships available for students from outside organizations, and it is important to be on the lookout for options like these (Shannon once applied for a college scholarship granted to tall students!). 

Scholarships that have been announced this week include the National Catholic College Admission Association scholarship, which is awarded to 16 randomly selected students who are attending National CCAA member colleges like Boston College, Villanova, or Notre Dame. 

The Cameron Impact Scholars application is also now open - the early deadline for the Class of 2022 to apply for this full-tuition merit scholarship is May 21.

JILL BIDEN PROMISES FREE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Dr. Biden said on Tuesday that she would work to ensure free access to community colleges and training programs for all students. Those who are local to Northern Virginia are very fortunate to have guaranteed admissions agreements in place between Northern Virginia Community College and over 40 colleges and universities, including William & Mary, GW, Virginia Tech, UVA, and JMU. All students who graduate from NOVA and meet the requirements of the agreement are guaranteed admission to the college of their choice - a great deal for Virginia students! Dr. Biden is an instructor at NOVA.

CHANGES FOR THE CLASS OF 2022

We wrote last week about some of the changes we are seeing to the AP exams, and expect to see even more changes going forward now that the College Board has done away with subject tests. The College Board is offering three administrations of AP tests: the first wave in early May will be in-school only, while the late May and early June test dates will be available in school and at home. Schools, not students, will make the decisions about exam dates and administration methods, so check in with your school for information.

Changes have also been made this cycle to the citizenship section of the Common App. The question about citizenship will now offer different options for international students and undocumented/DACA students. All questions related to geography will now be optional, as will questions about parents and family. Questions about student visas have also been changed. In general, we recommend that students include as much information as possible, even for optional questions, but we encourage clients to reach out to us if you have any questions about your particular situation!

Here’s how the new visa questions will look for international students this cycle.

STUDENTS PROTEST SEXUAL ASSAULT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES ACROSS THE US

College students at Boston University, Minnesota State, Gettysburg College, and more participated in socially-distanced demonstrations to support survivors and raise awareness of sexual assault on campus. Students argue that schools have deprioritized sexual assault issues amidst the focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.  

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We had hoped that with more college students back on campus this spring, lessons learned from the fall semester would improve safety. But with the new coronavirus variants now spreading, there are already outbreaks at many schools around the country, including Michigan, Berkeley, and Tulane. Some of these outbreaks are linked to the new variants, while others arose because students did not follow quarantine rules upon the return to campus. As we’ve said before, it is not worth the trouble of a disciplinary violation to flout COVID restrictions on campus - you will set yourself up for success by following the rules as closely as you can!

Though we don’t necessarily agree with every single point made in this article from the Wall Street Journal, there were parts of it that definitely resonated with us as interesting as food for thought with the new changes to the SAT and the admissions process this cycle. The author argues that by focusing less on merit and data like grades and test scores in the admissions process, colleges shift their focus from excellence to “mediocrity.” Definitely makes us think about how schools and colleges (and the rest of us!) define excellence for ourselves and our students. 

If you need a feel-good story to counteract all the negative news lately, check out this Washington Post article. It profiles a Houston high school senior who used the money she had saved to attend Barnard College in the fall to pay her family’s rent after her mother lost her job due to the pandemic. This particular story has a happy ending - the student was able to raise the money after her story was featured on Good Morning America - but it is a reminder that during this difficult time, there are a lot of students forced to make challenging financial decisions. 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We have been busy discussing how we might reopen in person in our office - we miss seeing all of you! Given the current Phase 3 restrictions for small businesses in Virginia, this would look very different than it has in the past. Of course, students who want to remain fully virtual would still have this option! If you are a Class of 2022 student or family, please fill out our in-person services questionnaire to help us understand your priorities as we move forward. We really want to serve our clients in person, but we also want this to be safe and successful for everyone - it is a tricky balance!

Have you checked out our Summer 2021 Internships Database recently? If not, you might be missing out on some great opportunities! We update this page every week with local and virtual internships and college courses. You can also see information about registration for the virtual Fairfax County teen job fairs coming up next month on March 13 and March 20. Now is the time to get your plans set for this summer! If you are an employer with an internship or job opportunity for high school students, let us know - we would love to feature your posting on our page. 

Enjoy the long weekend!

Weekly Update: February 5

Happy February - we hope everyone enjoyed the snow this week, and it sounds like there’s more ahead!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

UVA EARLY ACTION DECISIONS RELEASED TONIGHT

So many of our Class of 2021 students are on the edge of their seats waiting for UVA early action decisions to come out tonight. Dean J already published the statistics, so you can check those out now - and don’t forget to let us know the results after you check your applicant portals this evening. Here are our initial observations when compared to last year’s statistics:

• The number of EA applications increased, but the year-over-year jump was nowhere near as high as some other peer schools have experienced - it was only about 13% (although I believe it’s closer to 20% when looking at their overall numbers, i.e. not just EA). The percentage of applicants that increased increases were about the same from Virginians and those applying out-of-state.

• On top of the increased number of in-state applicants, less in-state students were accepted this year than last year. This resulted in an acceptance rate drop from 35% to 30% for that applicant group (remember, this reflects the entire state of Virginia and is not meant to be representative of Northern Virginia).

• Interestingly, more out-of-state students were accepted than last year - about 40% more, if my math is correct! Wow. Even after accounting for the increase in applications, the out-of-state EA acceptance rate increased from 15% to 18%.

• Overall, the spread between in-state and out-of-state acceptance rates narrowed substantially, from 20 percentage points to 12. I know the cynics will say that this was an intentional decision meant to increase revenue, but I wonder if it’s more about the fact that UVA is predicting a bigger spread between in-state and out-of-state yields this year than last year? If I had to guess, I would say that’s probably it.

FCPS RETURN TO SCHOOL AND REDISTRICTING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Yes, you’ve read this before, but FCPS began to implement the return to school plan this week, with priority groups returning to school buildings. If the plan continues as scheduled, high school students will be returning to classrooms in early March.  Not five days per week, but something is better than nothing, right?

In other FCPS news, the school board voted last night to redistrict sections of the McLean HS boundary to Langley HS. My neighborhood was one of the ones impacted and I’m really happy about this! While I actually like McLean HS a lot and would have been very happy to send my children there for a variety of reasons, I think split feeders are so hard on the kids and I’m very glad that Colvin Run won’t be one anymore. Split feeder elementary schools, for those who don’t know, are ones that split the class among different middle and/or high schools.

MID-YEAR REPORTS

Our own seniors have already heard from us twice this week on the topic, but it’s important for all seniors to understand that they are responsible for ensuring that their mid-year grades (also known as “senior grades” or “mid-year reports”) reach all colleges on their list with applications still in play. In other words: unless you have been denied from a school, turned the school down, or were specifically informed that the school does not require mid-year grades, you need to make sure that the grades are submitted. Some schools want students to submit these, and most want counselors to submit them. Please check your individual school portals for more information about the individual school requirements and modes of submission, and then contact your school counselor as appropriate.

And if you are one of the unlucky students whose counselor quit this week (no, we aren’t going to name your school, but there’s a bunch of you…) we suggest reaching out to the Director of Student Services at your school until you are re-assigned a new counselor.

COLLEGE BOARD ANNOUNCES NEW AP EXAM FORMAT

After the struggles that many students had last year with the hastily-assembled digital AP exams, it is no surprise that the College Board has reworked the digital exam for this year. Some changes include security features that block students from returning to a question they have already answered or from toggling back and forth between questions. This is very different from the paper AP exam, and important for students to keep in mind as they prepare! 

GOVERNOR NORTHAM RELEASES EXPECTATIONS FOR VIRGINIA SCHOOLS

Governor Northam announced during a press briefing this morning that Virginia schools will be expected to have in-person learning options for students in place by March 15. He also announced a mandate for in-person summer learning options. Summer programs will not be required, but schools are expected to have them in place this summer for students who want to take advantage of them.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The Virginia House passed a bill yesterday that requires public universities, including UVA and William & Mary, to identify and memorialize enslaved people who worked on institutional property. The bill also requires that the schools establish scholarships or economic development programs for individuals or communities with historic connections to slavery. Schools cannot use state funding for these projects, but must use private funds. This process has already begun at many Virginia schools, with William & Mary’s Lemon Project and UVA’s recently completed Memorial to Enslaved Laborers. 

An Indiana University professor wrote in The Atlantic this week about IU’s largely successful response to the coronavirus pandemic. While we’ve heard a lot of news (and featured it here) about the negative impacts of students returning to campus during COVID-19, this article shows how some schools were able to bring students back to campus successfully. IU’s example may offer insights for other schools as well as cities and towns across the country about how to manage the pandemic safely. Other schools, like UC Davis, have also provided important services to keep their communities safe.

This NBC News report provides a lot of useful information about how the merit aid system works at many colleges and universities. Keep in mind that super-selective schools, like Harvard and Stanford, will not offer merit aid at all. But for mid-tier schools, merit aid is an important enrollment management tool, and families should know how the process works.  

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

Shannon presented this week at William & Mary’s Center for Gifted Education annual conference. In addition to a session on finding the right college fit, she also spoke with middle school students about academic planning for high school and beyond. We’ve said before that the best money you’ll ever spend on the college admissions process is our one-hour strategy session for 8th grade students - and we stand by it! Starting off on the right foot will ensure that you ultimately begin the active stage of the admissions process in a position of strength, because you won’t be frantically trying to make up for mistakes you didn’t even know you were making.

I discovered Clubhouse this week and got to sit in on part of a session yesterday afternoon between meetings (thanks for hosting, Bob!). I am obsessed! It’s sort of like a cross between twitter, slack, and a podcast, and I love it so far, although I’m still figuring out how the clubs work vs. the chats. Either way, it’s fun to listen in while working at my desk and I highly recommend it!

Enjoy the Super Bowl this weekend!

Weekly Update: January 29

2021 is already flying by - can’t believe this is our last blog post of January!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO ANNOUNCE TEST-OPTIONAL ADMISSIONS FOR 2021-2022

Every week brings more test-optional updates, and BC, Penn, and the College of Charleston are the most recent schools to announce that their test-optional policy will continue for the Class of 2022 - phew! But this also serves as a good reminder to read the fine print - Penn, like the other Ivy League schools, has not yet decided what test requirements will be for athletes, for example. Wondering whether to submit test scores with your application? Check out our blog post from earlier this week for considerations. 

VA SCHOOLS REPORT RECORD APPLICATION NUMBERS

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you already know that highly selective schools have seen a huge rise in application numbers this cycle, and our local universities are no exception! William & Mary received 17,400 applications, a 23% increase over last year and the first time the school had 15,000 applicants. Virginia Tech also received a record-breaking 42,084 applications this cycle, a 36% increase over last year! We will be waiting to see whether this rise in applications drives admissions rates down at our in-state schools. 

WHAT MATTERS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THIS ECONOMY

Job postings for new graduates with bachelor’s degrees fell by 40% last spring due to the COVID recession. Now that a new crop of college graduates is about to enter the job market, competition for these jobs will be even more intense. A student who is overqualified for their first job out of college is likely to still be in a job they are overqualified for after five years in the workforce, so it is more important than ever to job search carefully and network well. Our advice for all college students - yes, freshmen too! - is to get connected with your career services office early and take advantage of everything your school has to offer to help you find a career. For more career advice, I encourage you to read Jeff Selingo’s latest article, Good Jobs in Bad Times. Current college students should also check out Denison University’s Launch Lab, a cutting-edge career center that is open to all liberal arts students! 

ARE YOU A DARTMOUTH APPLICANT WITH ATHLETIC TALENT? YOU MIGHT HAVE JUST WON THE PROVERBIAL COLLEGE ADMISSIONS LOTTERY!

Are you a men’s or women’s golfer, swimmer, or diver, or a men’s lightweight rower? Did you happen to apply RD to Dartmouth? If so, you should reach out to the varsity coach for your sport immediately.

Dartmouth initially canceled their men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and men’s lightweight rowing programs... but in a surprise turn of events, the university made an announcement today that these programs will be reinstated in the fall as a result of Title IX compliance issues.

However, as anyone familiar with athletic recruiting knows, these coaches are going to be scrambling to fill their rosters. They likely did not follow the typical recruiting schedule as they believed that the teams would no longer exist in the fall, and the application deadline has now passed. In our opinion, any RD applicants who may be able to play for one of these teams are going to go straight to the top of the institutional priority list over the next few weeks.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

We shared this New York Times article about merit aid on Facebook this week, but it is so important it is worth sharing again! Take the time now to have an honest conversation with your 8th or 9th grader about how their high school grades will be used in the scholarship process. Talk to your student about how much you have saved for their college, what you are willing to pay, and how that will impact their school choices. It is so much better to have these conversations early, before students get their hopes up about specific schools that may just not be an option! Yes, conversations about money with your teenager may be uncomfortable, but it is important for them to know how their performance now could impact their opportunities later. If you’re looking for more guidance in strategizing with your 8th or 9th grader, book a Class of 2023-2025 Strategy Session and we can help!

A high school English teacher in Cliffside Park, NJ, had the great idea to collect student essays about their experiences with COVID-19 and publish a series of memoirs. Students were able to use the book to process the physical, mental, and emotional effects of the pandemic, and it is a great reminder to all high school students who are struggling right now that they are not alone. All the proceeds from the sale of the book will go toward a scholarship fund for the students. 

And after the memoirs, lighten the mood by sharing this “applicant’s guide” from McSweeney’s - some of these made us laugh out loud! Poor Florida State ;)

Lastly, if you are applying to college from outside the United States, check out this piece from U.S. News & World Report with a to-do list for prospective international applicants during the upcoming cycle. Perfect timing as one of our own international applicants just received his first acceptance letter yesterday!

We received this email this morning from our applicant’s father - it’s been a LONG JOURNEY and we are THRILLED for their family!

Let me tell you - if you think we’ve had it hard here in the U.S., it’s been nothing compared to what these kids abroad have been navigating. We could not be happier for this very deserving student who will now be studying at a top school in the U.S. next year!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

It is hard to believe how fast this year has gone, but it is already time for high school students to start thinking about their summer plans! The process is more uncertain this year than ever, so we recommend that students have a summer option they’d like to pursue if the pandemic allows, and then a backup option that would make them equally happy if COVID-19 necessitates that they choose a virtual experience this summer.

Still not sure of your summer plans? Check out our Summer 2021 Virtual Opportunities Database for some ideas! We will continue to add new in-person and virtual opportunities in the DC area and around the country on a weekly basis, so bookmark this page to stay up-to-date on all of your summer options.

Have a great weekend, and stay warm!

Weekly Update: January 22

Another Friday, another weekly update!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

TEST OPTIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS CONTINUE FOR THE CLASS OF 2022

We know that a lot of current juniors have been anxiously waiting to see if their dream school will require test scores next cycle. The test-optional announcements keep rolling in, with Penn State and Amherst recently announcing that they will continue test-optional admissions through at least 2023. These schools join others, including Baylor, in committing early to remaining test-optional. BU and Cornell are among the schools that are still undecided, while other super-selective schools like Stanford have announced that they hope to resume considering test scores if possible. We’ll keep you updated!

Looking for a school that won’t accept test scores at all? Check out “test blind” schools like Caltech, Dickinson, Reed, the University of San Diego and the University of California system (Berkeley, UCLA, etc). But remember: a lack of test scores does not mean “easy admissions process.” It simply means that the other factors count more.

FREE FCPS WEBINARS

The FCPS Parent Resource Center is offering four webinars for parents in February about supporting students emotionally during this difficult time. Webinar topics include Teen Depression and Social-Emotional Learning. It’s free to register for these events, which will also be available for replay later on Youtube. In light of the mental health challenges that the pandemic has exacerbated among students, this is a timely and helpful series for any parent!

HOWARD UNIVERSITY BAND ACCOMPANIES HARRIS AT INAUGURATION

Students in the Howard University band had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this week to escort Vice President Kamala Harris, a Howard alumna, in Wednesday’s inaugural parade. Despite social distancing challenges and the fact that only some members of the band were able to perform, the band’s director commented on the personal importance of Harris’s election for Howard students. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

I’m so glad someone finally wrote this article for NPR - yes, you CAN ask for more money from your college! This is true of undergraduates and especially graduate students. In this tumultuous year, if the FAFSA doesn’t accurately capture your financial situation, reach out to your school to see if you can receive additional help. Your first financial aid offer is not final!

Before we started this application cycle, many in the higher education industry thought that enrollment at community colleges would rise, as students chose to spend less on Zoom classes and wait out the pandemic before returning to four-year colleges. But the truth has been very different. Community colleges are seeing a steep decline in enrollment, and students at two-year colleges who have taken a break from education during the pandemic are less likely to return to full-time schooling. Meanwhile, the price tags at highly selective colleges are not dropping - on the contrary, Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, and Harvard have all raised tuition despite continued online learning. While community college isn’t for everyone, it’s always worth checking out Northern Virginia Community College’s guaranteed transfer agreements. When you think about what it takes to be admitted to UVA as a freshman and just how competitive that process has become, the possibility of a guaranteed spot for spending two years at NOVA can look pretty appealing.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

It is always exciting and nerve-wracking for us as we wait for our students to receive decisions, but we had a longer wait this cycle as many EA/ED decisions were released late - and we are still waiting on many of them, from UVA to Michigan to Wisconsin. The trend is likely to continue for RD decisions - all of the Ivy League schools have announced that their decisions will be delayed, and they will give students until May 3 to deposit. This gives less time to students who may have to make other decisions by May 1, which will only add more pressure during a year when it is difficult to visit campuses to make decisions. Trying to get to know a college virtually? Check out our post for tips!

As we covered already this week, the SAT has canceled the essay section as well as the subject tests. We expect that the ACT Writing section will soon follow suit, and honestly do not foresee a big change for our students with this change, as most schools do not consider the essay. 

The bigger change, as we mentioned several days ago, is for the subject tests. We pinpointed certain groups of students who will be more likely to be impacted, and there’s no question that STEM-oriented students in each of those groups will feel the greatest impact. Did you know that one particular subject test comprised over 70% of the subject tests administered this cycle? The Math II test was particularly common for students hoping to demonstrate higher-level math abilities for an edge at highly selective schools (though historically they have not been a strong predictor of student success, as those students were all scoring so high that there really was not much variation in test scores!).

The College Board is likely to push AP exams now as an admissions tool, and it is possible that highly selective schools will place more emphasis on AP scores in the absence of Subject Tests. We anticipate seeing schools respond to pressure from the College Board by making AP exams more accessible for all students, including freshmen and sophomores. Already, the deadline to sign up for AP exams has been extended to March 12, but don’t run out and sign up just yet! As we mentioned in the last post, AP exams are meant to be taken after an official College Board-approved AP course. If you are a client, talk with us before changing your exam strategy.   

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And lastly - this really has been a very busy week! - I was able to attend the Independent Educational Consultants Association’s Professional Member Retreat. This is geared specifically for more experienced educational consultants like me, as opposed to their normal conferences (which are great too) that are open to anyone. I got so much out of it, and Shannon and I have already met about ways we can incorporate new ideas into our practice!

I was invited to co-present a session on Client Experience that took place yesterday, and enjoyed facilitating ideas with my colleagues around the world. It was great to share best practices about the ways to “make happy clients” and I was honored to be asked! I do think our clients are pretty happy! ;)

Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on what you need to know about testing (yes, even more!) and a bit on the differences between the function of an independent school college counselor and an independent college counselor.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Update: January 15

Happy Friday! A note that our office will be closed on Monday for MLK, Jr. Day. Have a great long weekend and be safe!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

PROTECTING COLLEGE CAMPUSES FROM COVID-19

A new study this week found that combining social distancing, mandatory mask-wearing, and routine testing would prevent 92-96% of COVID-19 infection on college campuses. Interestingly, the report asserts that this method would be more effective than online-only classes, which would only prevent about 63% of cases. It is worth noting, however, that this study used a computer model to make its predictions - and actual college students are likely to follow these rules imperfectly. 

COVID-19 FUNDS RELEASED TO COLLEGES

The Department of Education released over $20 billion in new funds for colleges and universities yesterday. Even more funding could be on its way, as Biden’s new COVID-19 relief plan includes $35 billion in aid for these institutions. This round of relief will enable schools to implement safety measures, as well as providing more flexibility for emergency grants to individual students. Unlike the last round of funding, it will also be available even to students who are not academically eligible for federal financial aid. Curious about how much funding your school will get? The CDC released a list of aid received by each individual institution.

NEW COVID-19 DISCIPLINARY MEASURES AT MICHIGAN

The University of Michigan released a plan to hold most classes remotely during the winter semester - and as you know, we will continue to share these new plans with you as colleges decide on their new schedules. But in addition to the changes for classes, Michigan’s plan also outlines stricter disciplinary measures for students who do not follow social distancing and masking rules on campus. College students should make sure that they are familiar with the disciplinary measures at their own institution - we have seen COVID-19 disciplinary measures cause issues for many students, and you don’t want to be one of them!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

Those who were paying attention to college news in 2016 may remember Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University student who protested Columbia’s handling of her alleged rape by carrying a mattress around campus. Around the same time, Ben Feibleman, a Columbia student, was accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate. He was found guilty and expelled without a diploma. But as this New York Times article recounts, Columbia recently settled a lawsuit with Feibleman by restoring his diploma, even as the university stood by its initial verdict in the case. This complicated case reveals the implications of changing rules surrounding sexual assault on campus - Feibleman’s case was made possible by Trump administration’s regulations for due process for those accused of sexual assault, and this is an interesting case to consider for the incoming Biden administration as they debate whether to roll back those regulations. 

This article from Jon Boeckenstedt for the National Association of College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) is a must-read for all those involved in the college admissions process. Boeckenstedt dispels a lot of the myths that surround college admissions and gives an honest look at how the process works. He acknowledges both the humanity in the admissions process as well as the hard financial and institutional realities that admissions officers need to contend with as they try to select the most successful incoming class. 

Jeff Selingo, who wrote my new favorite book on college admissions, made some interesting predictions in his most recent newsletter for the college landscape in 2021. Here are some of them:

1. Student experience will take center stage. After a year when we all realized that college is so much more than just attending classes, colleges will bring more focus to the student experience, improving the relationship between student-facing offices like advising, career services, and financial aid. 

2. Improving the academic experience will be a top priority. Parents and students alike are realizing during this time that online classes are not providing the best value for their tuition dollars. Selingo expects that academic departments will work to integrate in-person and online learning and personalize the learning environment for each student. 

3. Humanities may see a comeback. As we know only too well, after the Great Recession, students and parents were interested in STEM subjects and focused on majors and programs that would lead to successful careers. Selingo hopes that the pandemic will show the importance of thinking, writing, synthesizing information, and developing a growth mindset, and allow a resurgence in studies in the humanities.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

While we’re busy advising on course registration for younger students (#yesyouhavetocontinueSpanishsenioryear #sorry), helping Class of 2022 students put together their college lists, and helping Class of 2021 students wrap up, we are also busy with other types of applications! We’ve got applications for Ph.D. programs, MBAs, law school, transfers, even primary and secondary schools!

Speaking of, it’s actually going to be really interesting to see how the independent school admissions process will play out this year - I have never seen such a competitive landscape. So many families are looking for spots and the spots just aren’t there in the non-entry years.

In any case, one of the things we love about this work is getting to know students across all grade levels and stages of education! If you want to learn more about what we can do for you and your student, book a Meet & Greet or Strategy Session to fit your needs.

Oh, and we also just celebrated our one-year anniversary in the not-so-new-anymore office this week!

Probably should have taken down that little Christmas tree before I took the photo :)

While it’s not unusual for us to never meet clients in person when they live outside of the DC metro, it’s wild to think that some of our current seniors who live right here in Vienna have already finished up the process without stepping foot in our office.

That said, I see the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine and I’m really hopeful that we will be back up and running normally in a couple of months.. although it will be interesting to see how many kids prefer working over Zoom for convenience! I do miss the human interaction, but I am pleased at how well it all worked out this past year and I could see some students wanting to continue that way.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Weekly Update: January 8

We hope you all had a fun and restful break, and we’re excited to be back with our first weekly update of 2021!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

FCPS BOARD DELAYS SCHOOL REOPENING

The FCPS School Board voted to indefinitely pause the Return to School plan and reevaluate in early February. In more hopeful news, Governor Northam announced that K-12 educators are now in group 1B and may receive vaccines later this month, which is very promising for the return to the classroom. YAY! Edit: A press release went out late this afternoon indicating that educators in Fairfax County will be able to get vaccinated as early as Monday, January 11!

BETSY DEVOS RESIGNS

The Secretary of Education submitted her resignation on Thursday, following the riots at the Capitol this week. DeVos is the second cabinet-level official to step down in the wake of recent events. She’s not the most popular name in town, but she did do quite a bit of work to push school choice and keep schools open during the pandemic. We will keep an eye on how those policies might be affected in the coming months. 

COLLEGES CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE WITH SPRING SCHEDULES

With the five deadliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic taking place over the last two weeks, colleges are struggling with how to plan for spring semester. Syracuse, which laid out its spring semester plans in September, announced on Monday that it will start and end the term two weeks later than planned. UNC will start the semester on time but remotely, delaying in-person undergraduate classes for three weeks. Georgetown is facing backlash for keeping students remote during the spring semester, while nearby schools like American and Catholic will be returning to in-person instruction. We are watching closely, as more schools are likely to change their plans for the spring in the coming days.

CHALLENGING ADMISSIONS YEAR FOR STUDENTS AT TOP COLLEGES

As we have said many times on this blog, the overall decrease in college enrollment in the US is not reflective of the landscape at highly selective schools. Early applications at Harvard are up 57% over last year, and the early admit rate was cut nearly in half, from 13.9% to 7.4%. Yale apps are up 38%, and acceptances down to 11%, and the trend continues at Penn and Dartmouth. The Ivy League schools aren’t the only ones impacted, either - UVA and UGA also saw increases in early applications. 

NORTHEASTERN BEGINS COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

Northeastern University, an authorized Massachusetts vaccine provider, became one of the first colleges in the country to issue COVID-19 vaccines this week. About 1,500 people at Northeastern, including 1,000 students who work in direct patient care, are eligible for Phase 1 vaccinations, and 88 people have been vaccinated so far. The university plans to begin Phase 2 vaccinations in February.

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services released a report this week that reveals an average of a 56% rise in COVID-19 cases in counties where colleges and universities had in-person learning. The report does not indicate whether the spread was as a result of in-person learning, or other sources of spread in the community. 

Students and faculty at DC area colleges spoke out this week about their relationships with the U.S. government and their reactions to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Their statements underline D.C.’s status as a “college town,” and the links between Washington and the D.C. educational institutions. 

The New York Times is inviting students to share their college essays about experiences and issues that defined 2020. Submitters will have a chance to be interviewed or have their writing featured. Of course, we encouraged our own students to steer clear of Covid-related topics in their college essays, but there were so many major issues this past year that I am sure some would qualify. We always say that the hardest part about working on essays is that we can’t share our students’ amazing progress, so this would be a great opportunity for students to have a wider audience for their stories!

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

So many people send us emails this time of year saying “You’re probably so relieved to be done with the admissions season…” but did you know that the month of January is probably our third-busiest of the year, after August and September?

Not only are we working with Class of 2021 students on follow-up work such as additional interview prep or LOCIs, we’re also assisting with initial research and application materials with the Class of 2022, who are putting together college lists at a very difficult time. The rate at which colleges are changing their requirements and deadlines is keeping us on our toes! Class of 2022 families who want to learn more about our ongoing services can book a Meet & Greet.

That said, what really makes us crazy busy this time of year is not actually our work with juniors or seniors (or our grad student or transfer applicants, for that matter). Why are we so swamped? Two words: course registration. As soon as the new year hits, FCPS course registration for the following academic year begins in full force, and this January is no exception.

Are you struggling over whether it’s better to earn a B in an honors course or an A in a regular course; wondering which electives to choose; or wondering about the credibility of your 15-year-old son who swears up and down his school counselor said it was no problem at all to go ahead and drop Spanish since he already met his foreign language graduation requirement in 10th grade? You are not alone!

Pro tip: the best money you’ll ever spend on the college admissions process (truly!) is our one-hour strategy session for your 8th, 9th, or 10th grade student. You’ll walk away knowing exactly which courses to choose, which tests to take and when, and what your student needs to be doing (and NOT doing) at this very moment if they want to be one of our success stories down the line.

Whether your family ever sees us again after the meeting is totally up to you, but starting off on the right foot will ensure that you ultimately begin the active stage of the admissions process in a position of strength, because you won’t be frantically trying to make up for mistakes you didn’t even know you were making.

Like dropping Spanish :)

Weekly Update: December 18

We are really thrilled with the good news from so many of our seniors, and look forward to hearing the rest of the decisions as they come out! Our office will be closed for the next two weeks during the FCPS break, but please keep us updated - we can’t wait to celebrate for you!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

EARLY ACTION/EARLY DECISION RESULTS

We have posted so many times about how much we love College Kickstart’s list of early decision and early action release dates, which is updated nearly every day and can be really helpful for students still anxiously awaiting decisions. But for data on those decisions that have already come out, the site also released this list of initial early admission rates. We can see the impact of increased applications at selective schools like Columbia, which saw a 49% increase in ED applications, and Dartmouth, which saw a 29% increase. Stats have not been released yet on MIT’s early action, but some sources are predicting a 60% increase in applications this cycle!

DEFERRALS MAY IMPACT RD ADMISSION AFTER ALL

As we have been saying for months, most colleges assured students that the increase in Class of 2020 deferrals would not impact Class of 2021 applicants. However, in the last week, we’ve begun to see some evidence of policy shifts on this topic - it sounds like some of the most selective schools are beginning to rethink that approach (and not in a good way!). This interview with Dartmouth Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin suggests that while the office did not take deferrals into account during the ED cycle, it will do so during the RD round. Yikes! Along the same lines, Harvard admitted an historically low number of students during the early action round to compensate for deferrals. And that’s despite a 57% increase in applicants year over year! This is really concerning news for RD applicants, and is yet another reason why students who were not admitted in this round should seriously consider applying ED II. 

RECORD NUMBER OF MED SCHOOL APPLICATIONS THIS CYCLE

The pandemic has changed everything about college and grad school admissions, but may have been particularly influential in medical school applications, which are up 18% over last year. Top schools like Stanford have seen a 50% increase in applications in what medical school admissions offices have started to term the “Fauci Effect.” The senior director of the American Association of Medical Colleges likens this wave to the large numbers of young men and women who entered into the military after 9/11.

MACKENZIE SCOTT DONATES MILLIONS TO COLLEGES 

MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated nearly two billion dollars to small colleges and universities that tend to serve low-income or minority students, including more than a dozen HBCUs as well as technical and community colleges. Recipients included Prairie View A&M University, which received $50 million, and Borough of Manhattan Community College, which received $30 million. For many schools, these were the largest single gifts they had ever received. Ms. Scott made the gifts after her team interviewed the presidents of the colleges about their mission and goals. 

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

As previously mentioned, we experienced an unprecedented early admissions cycle this year in terms of skyrocketing numbers of applicants, and the WSJ did a great job of covering the “dramatic growth” today. We knew it was going to be messy, but this past week was just insane.

Binding early decision applications rose by 22% at Brown University, 23% at the University of Pennsylvania, 29% at Dartmouth College and 49% at Columbia University. At Yale University and Harvard University, applications under the restrictive early-action option jumped by about 38% and 57%, respectively.

The massive jumps—and resultant declines in acceptance rates—illustrate just how chaotic this admissions cycle is shaping up to be.

We can’t say that all of our news was perfect- we had two decisions in particular that were very frustrating. That said, we’ve been totally. blown. away. by how well our students have done on the whole despite these crazy increases. Offhand I would say that about 80% of our students who applied ED were admitted to their top choice schools, and we’re talking about some extremely selective institutions, several of which are Ivy League schools that were mentioned in that article. Congratulations, guys!

This piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education makes a radical proposal - that instead of employing human beings to read applications and make admissions decisions, students should be matched with schools using an algorithm that takes into account the preferences of the applicant as well as those of the program. The article cites the racial and socioeconomic disparities in traditional admissions as the reason why the system needs such a drastic overhaul. The system would also help struggling colleges to meet enrollment goals, a goal that is even more salient as colleges go into debt during the COVID-19 crisis. We’re not sure that they will ever be able to fully replace admissions readers, but it is definitely an interesting proposition! 

There have been multiple articles this week about the difficulties that students and counselors face during the admissions process this cycle. The LA Times notes that school counselors have often been unable to reach their students through remote learning platforms, but the lack of technology isn’t the only issue. Students and families contending with unemployment, anxiety, and illness are not motivated and are sometimes unable to complete the time-intensive work of applying to colleges. NPR stresses how these effects are even more profound for first generation and low-income students, who are left with fewer resources than past cycles in what has become the most challenging and capricious cycle we have ever seen.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We have been trying hard to keep up with the ED/EA statistics from as many schools as we can, and sharing our information to help clients make good decisions about ED II and RD applications!

Shannon attended a Best of Boston session with Tufts, BU, and Northeastern this week and learned that Tufts is admitting fewer students early this year (only 18% of the entering class), and that interestingly, they have seen a HUGE increase in applications from Virginia. Figures, right?! We know that many of our students have become interested in Tufts, and are keeping our fingers crossed for them in a cycle with a lower admit rate and stiff competition! 

And of course, we have seen so many decisions come out this week! But keep in mind that whether you were accepted, deferred, or denied, your responsibilities do not end with your decision letter. Deferred or denied students should read our post from earlier this week for next steps. And for those who got good news, keep an eye out for next week’s blog post on important steps to take after your ED acceptance. 

We hope you all have a great holiday, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for those still waiting on decisions!