Weekly Update: October 2

And.. October it is! With our first deadlines less than two weeks away, everyone has been very busy! It’s kind of killing me that the results of the 9/23 school-based SAT are released THE SAME DAY as the first round of deadlines (10/15). Yet in order to submit an application to at least one of those schools, students have to answer a question about whether or not they are submitting test scores for consideration. So stressful on everyone involved. The idea of submitting an application the day it is due literally gives me heart palpitations, yet at the same time it’s unavoidable if students are waiting on that round of scores to decide!

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

THE FAFSA IS OPEN

Finally, the moment some of you have been waiting for… the FAFSA opened yesterday, and if you intend to complete the form, I encourage you to do it as soon as possible. It is more important than ever this year to complete this form promptly!

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If you are unsure whether or not you should complete the FAFSA, you can check out my earlier posts here and here to help make the best decision for you and your family. There are a lot of myths about the FAFSA that circle around every year, so if any of our current clients have questions about the process, make sure to reach out to us! We will help you decide how to proceed.

MORE VIRTUAL VISITS

We are working hard to keep our list of virtual college fairs, tours, and information sessions updated, as more and more schools open up registration for virtual events. Some upcoming events that we’re excited about are the Virtual College Exploration fair for Atlanta-area colleges, the Six Colleges events hosted by Amherst, Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, Swarthmore, and Williams, and the NWHE special topics sessions that Notre Dame, Wash U, Johns Hopkins, and Emory have put together. 

COMMON APP REMOVES DISCIPLINARY DISCLOSURE FOR CLASS OF 2022

After finding that the disclosure of disciplinary history disproportionately impacts low-income students and students of color, the Common App has decided to remove the question beginning with the Class of 2022. Students who recorded a disciplinary incident were also nearly twice as likely as others to leave their applications incomplete, choosing not to apply to college at all. The Common App will no longer ask students or their counselors to disclose disciplinary information.

But before we get too excited, I should also note that schools will still be able to ask about disciplinary history on their supplements, and it is likely that many will continue to do so.

It was through pressure from schools that the Common App chose to add this question in the first place in 2006, and Common App schools can continue to require it going forward. So while this is definitely a step in the right direction, it is not a guarantee that Class of 2022 students will not have to report disciplinary action. The right choice is always to avoid disciplinary incidents, but in the event that you do have to report, check out my recent video for some tips!

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

As my current clients know, I find transparency in college admissions to be incredibly important! So I really enjoyed this article about econometric modeling as it relates to the admissions process. We always emphasize the necessity of demonstrating interest in your school of choice by attending information sessions and (virtual) tours, but this article highlights additional ways to engage without the ability to see a college in person. Some tips I want to emphasize are:

  1. Visit the college’s website and click “request more information” - this will enter you into the college’s enrollment management system. 

  2. Once you are on that list, you will likely receive a lot of emails, but if you can, click on the links within the email and explore more about the college. Many colleges track this type of engagement, so taking the time to read and learn more is a great way to demonstrate interest. 

  3. Like, share, and comment on the college’s social media posts. This kind of engagement may also be tracked. 

The key to any of this engagement is to make sure you have ONE email address that you use for all interactions with colleges (including social media accounts linked to this address). We encourage many of our clients to set up a gmail account just for this purpose. And of course, if you interact with any college on social media, be very careful of what they will see if they click on your profile! 

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This Forbes Investigation into the SAT is long, but a worthwhile read. There has been a long-running conversation about the value of the SAT in college admissions, but the change in testing policies due to COVID-19 has sparked a renewal of that conversation. In my opinion, many of the schools who are going test-optional this cycle are likely to remain so, even after the pandemic has passed. That said, I do have my doubts as to whether that will be the case for the most highly selective schools - I’m just not sure how they would be able to assess academic performance without that data point - but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Either way, I’m very interested to see how next cycle will look, and I hope that we will see more and more schools focus on students’ academic progress over the course of four years, rather than their preparation for a single test day. What do you think of the potential shift toward test-blind admissions? Has your student been impacted by SAT difficulties this cycle? Comment and let us know! 

We have continued to field a ton of questions this year about how deferrals and changes in class size relating to COVID-19 will impact that Class of 2021. But this article also shows that the pandemic will have a positive impact for transfer applicants, at least in the short term. Over three-quarters of colleges anticipate having a higher admit rate for transfers this year! However, this may be short-lived; I expect that transferring will become more difficult in the long term. COVID-related deferrals mean that many schools may welcome a larger-than-usual first year class in 2021, and be less likely to admit transfer applicants in future cycles. We are already well underway in our work with prospective transfer applicants, and if you are considering transferring, now is the time to book a transfer strategy session!   

It seems like every time I post this Friday blog post, I see something come out right afterwards that I wish I had been able to include. This New York Times article from last Friday notes that one of the major reasons students are still putting in so much effort to take standardized tests in a year when most schools are test-optional is because they hope to receive merit aid. Merit aid can be one of the most opaque parts of the college admissions process, so I was excited to see this article shed some light.

The article also points out that some schools, like the College of Wooster in Ohio and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, are offering pre-application financial estimates so that prospective students can assess how much college will cost before they apply. If anyone hears of other schools offering this service, let us know in the comments - we’ll be keeping an eye on how this impacts the admissions process. 

We have worked with so many students this year who care deeply about the commitment to “going green” that college and universities demonstrate, and I think this trend will only continue as high schoolers become more and more environmentally-conscious. The Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” list ranks colleges based on their environmental commitments, and it is a “cool” alternative to more traditional college rankings.

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We’ve begun to spend a lot of time helping our students with post-submission follow-up, and I had a question from a student this week that I thought would be helpful to share as I did not find the answer to be intuitive. Hopefully this will clear things up for anyone else in the same boat!

Many schools require students to submit their self-reported grades and test scores after their applications are submitted. The form through which this takes place is known as a Self-Reported Academic Record, or SRAR. Virginia Tech is one of those schools, and has introduced a test-optional question this year that allows students to decide whether or not they want the SAT and/or ACT to be considered.

Our student wasn't sure how to indicate that she wanted to share her AP scores, but not her SAT/ACT scores. On the Common App, this is very straightforward and easy to do. However, the language that VT used in their question confused both of us.

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As you can see, it reads "To allow Virginia Tech access to your self-reported test scores, select Yes below."

However, it turns out that students who want to self-report their AP scores only should actually go ahead and answer NO to this question but should enter their AP scores anyway through the drop-down box under "Add New Exams." The same goes for students who want to share IB or CLEP scores. I honestly would not have thought to do it that way! Thankfully, our VT rep is very helpful and emailed me back to explain, and I was able to pass the information on to our student.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how it works to submit over Zoom, so one of my seniors yesterday allowed me to share a screen shot of our submission session with all of you (she’s blocked out, obviously). It really does feel just like the real thing! Ignore my goofy smile - I get really excited to click submit and she was equally excited too!

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I love each and every one of our seniors but have to brag for a minute about the particular girl - it occurred to me during our session that I literally have not seen or spoken to either one of her parents since I met her mom at our consultation, which took place probably 15 months ago. I mean not ONCE! How cool is that? I truly would not know these people if I saw them on the street :) We have emailed back and forth a few times and my team and I always CC them on everything, so they are always informed, but she’s worked with us independently the entire way. We helped advise her on every single detail - from college tours, to standardized test approaches, to writing amazing essays, to perfecting and submitting every application! And she was so on the ball that she actually finished her testing and most of her college visits pre-COVID!

While that example is a little extreme, and some parents prefer to be actively involved in each step (don’t worry, we love you guys too and welcome as much or as little involvement as each family wants!), on average we probably have less parent contact than most would guess. When families choose to hand us the reins, they always end up to really appreciate the outcome - not only because it reduces stress in the home and they are able to focus on their own lives knowing that their kids are in good hands, but also because of the life skills that their children gain through the process.

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT!

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It’s important to be able to know how to communicate and interact with adults without using parents as intermediaries. It’s also important to be able to take ownership over tasks - we try as much as possible to use careful scaffolding and constant reminders to help our students step out of their comfort zones and truly become ready for college - not just to get in, but also to succeed when they get there!

Have a great weekend!