Happy Friday at the end of a crazy week! We’re keeping a close eye on the election results and learning about how they may impact higher education.

BIGGEST COLLEGE-RELATED NEWS OF THE WEEK

THE ATLANTIC NICHE SPORTS STORY TAKES A TURN

You may have seen that we covered a story on our blog last week that discussed the world of niche sports in college admissions. Since that story was released, the Atlantic has made significant changes after discovering that both the author of the piece and its main subject had deceived fact-checkers about several important details. These allegations cast doubt on the entire piece, particularly as the author has had previous instances of journalistic misconduct - “Ruth S. Barrett” is in fact Ruth Shalit, who left DC years ago as a young journalist due to a plagiarism scandal. We are waiting to see if the Atlantic allows the now-edited story to stand, or if more will come to light that necessitates the retraction of the whole story. 

HAVERFORD STUDENTS GO ON STRIKE

Last week, the president and dean of Haverford College sent out an email to dissuade students from participating in the Philadelphia protests following the police shooting of Walter Wallace, Jr. Students responded by going on strike. The strike has continued or over a week, with some students refusing to work, attend classes, or complete assignments until the school provides more support and aid to first-generation students, students of color, and LGBTQ+ students. Many students at Bryn Mawr, which has a close relationship with Haverford, have joined the strike in solidarity. Some faculty have also canceled classes.

COLLEGES RAMP UP PRE-THANKSGIVING TESTING

As we’ve discussed before, many colleges have chosen to send students home before Thanksgiving and keep them at home until January or February. This widespread strategy will hopefully minimize COVID risk from students’ frequent travel. But they are still headed home soon, and it is possible that students who have contracted the virus on campus will be bringing it home to their families during the holiday. To combat this potential outcome, many colleges are ramping up testing in advance of Thanksgiving. UVA is one of a number of schools that will give every student a chance to test shortly before they leave campus. Some schools, like the SUNY system, are taking it a step further by requiring students to test negative before they can head home.  

BEST ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

So many of the students with whom we work are budding entrepreneurs! I love hearing their creative ideas, and as a small business owner myself, it’s been exciting to see how so many colleges have created programs specifically related to entrepreneurship. From Carnegie Mellon’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship to the new Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation minor at Lewis & Clark College, these are popping up left and right. The Wall Street Journal published an article this week that all entrepreneurial students should definitely check out - a list of college courses that business owners wish they had taken. I certainly wish I had been able to take some of these in college!  

Especially right now, so much attention has been on the national media - and on the void created by the collapse of many local newspapers. The New York Times published an interesting article this week about how this void is being filled by undergraduate reporters. In some college towns, the university newspaper is the only local newspaper available and college students are stepping up to cover major stories during the pandemic. Many student papers, including The Michigan Daily and The Indiana Daily Student, have been the first to break the news of outbreaks of coronavirus on campus. 

OFFICE HAPPENINGS

We've noticed some concerning shifts this week regarding the impact of COVID-19 at local schools. We work with a lot of kids at one particular independent school that made the decision to shut down for a period of time because a teacher was diagnosed earlier this week. Arlington Public Schools actually reversed course a few days ago to postpone in-person learning indefinitely, and yesterday they made the (rather unpopular! sorry guys) decision to cancel winter sports. FCPS is still rolling out their phased return-to-school plan but we will see what happens. You can track FCPS cases here, as some students are already back and others have students and teachers coming in and out of the building for various reasons.

In the meantime, we had a very insightful question from a Class of 2022 student asking about how signing up for in-person vs. virtual learning at FCPS next semester will affect the college admissions process. Such a smart question, right? I told her that I was surprised that she was the only student who asked.

So in case you were wondering - my opinion is that the decision about in-person vs. virtual learning won’t really matter too much from the admissions standpoint. FCPS has been communicating all along that the quality of education will be the same across both platforms, and that is what they will likely communicate to colleges as well if asked - though I would be surprised if FCPS shared a student’s choice in the first place! 

My advice for any FCPS student is to choose the option that you think will give you the best chance of academic success and the highest quality of life. If you are happy and successful, that will have a much greater impact on your overall chance of success in the admissions process than the choice itself.

Switching gears a bit, we have seen a lot of speculation about how schools will consider test-optional applications this cycle. Shannon attended a “Coffee with the Carnegie Mellon Deans” event just this morning and learned that applications this cycle are down across the board for Common App schools. However, don’t get too excited - Carnegie Mellon and other highly selective schools like it that have traditionally been very dependent on test scores have received more applications since going test-optional. This shows that students who would potentially have felt that more selective institutions were “reaches” based on test scores are now deciding to apply. We are really interested to see how Carnegie Mellon and peer schools navigate this new normal - and whether all of these test-optional policies will continue during the 2021-2022 admissions cycle!

It is a GORGEOUS day outside - have a great weekend!