Covid is making it harder to get into a top college

Well, grades and writing have always mattered to a tippy top. And, of course, without scores, they fill something of that gap. But I believe the focus should be on what you present in those non-scores sections, every bit of that, whether or not you submit scores.

Try to know what your targets want to see, want to learn about you, what makes your writing relevant to them, what makes certain activities ring with the adcoms. How important the right LoRs are.

All this focus on scores misses that, even among kids with top standardized testing. if they can’t convey what else the adcoms want to find, your chances go down. It’s not as simple as assuming. Too many kids foil themselves on “the rest.”

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For elites. Grades, (the right) activities, (the right) LoRs, and how you come across in every piece of the rest, how that matches what they seek. The “whole” in holistic. How you think (as evidenced in how you approach this and put your app/supp together. How you show resilience, openness to new experiences, your willingness to climb outside your own little hs comfort zone, what you’ve challenged yourself with/its significance and relevance to college, how you view and interact with others, and more. And nearly every bit of it, is, “Show, not just tell.”)

That’s where kids fall down. One has to get away from the idea better scores (or scores and grades) mean a better whole app.

Most of the kids past First cut will have the grades and rigor. What comes next has far more determanitive impact. Don’t dismiss that.

Ime, this is where too many kids mess their own shot. I’d say, if you have thegrades, come to a stop and work on the rest. Do the digging, figure it out.

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Dead on.

This is why I think schools know they will have to make huge waiting lists. Michigan over the past few years has under accepted and then gone into their waitlist in July. Even before Covid they were doing this. Can you see imagine what will happen this year? I know my daughter’s college was taking kids off the wait list in April this past year, when they normally don’t do it until May (after the May 1 deadline) and then were taking them well into summer as kids were deferring their admission to next Fall. Colleges are well aware of kids applying to way more schools as well as kids not having visited. They also know many of their current freshman never visited either. So that experience is not new to them. So, they will have a huge wait list and many kids will probably get off of it because if the same kids who are applying to the same top tier schools are the same ones getting in all over they can’t all commit to the same school hence when the dust starts to settle we will see if this is a year where our kids who did apply to competitive/elite schools that had to cast a wider net wind up with multiple deferrals (from ED/EA schools) and ultimately on numerous waitlists or just flat out rejected.

I am happy my son has one acceptance with full merit from an upper mid level school but it’s not his top choice so after he was deferred from his ED (fortunately not one that defers just about everyone), he is adding 4-5 more schools to his original 10. This is way more than he ever planned to apply to but once covid made everything uncertain we knew he had to apply. My other children who only applied a few years ago, kept it at 6 schools and had multiple acceptances. In his case, with better stats, I’m worried he will just have the 1. That’s how crazy and unknown this year is and how the anxiety is through the roof!

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I don’t recall whether there was a distinction between score submitters and non-score submitters. That could be because there was no distinction (i.e., AOs were saying this would be the case across the board), or it could be because I was only paying attention as far as it pertained to my son. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!

How would the student decide which college to enroll assuming multiple acceptances and visits are off the table before May 1?

By whatever criteria the student can use that does not require visiting.

Cost will be a big factor for many students and parents, as usual (or maybe more so for families financially impacted by COVID-19).

“Easier to get home” may be a bigger factor, especially for parents.

Students who applied widely due to being undecided on major may be less undecided in April, resulting in more defined preferences based on the more likely major(s).

I agree with most of what you wrote, and that is pretty good for someone like me - with real opinions.

One thing to add would be qualifying that most kids “think” they pass the first cut, believing they have the grades and rigor, but after closer examination, there are clear shortcomings that keep them from being top-level applicants.

Then, what you wrote is dead-on.

My point is don’t underestimate the power of a proper analysis of a students academic profile. It has and always will matter more than anything else


I’m wondering if schools will extend that May 1 deadline at all. I can imagine there may be more transfers in the next couple of years because students had to make decisions without visiting and/or encountering students on campus.

If at all possible to do safely, I hope schools will somehow allow admitted students to visit (maybe by appointment). April weather should be nice enough most places that they could hold some events outside with distancing. But if the student body is totally remote, I’m not sure how much good it will do. Would help some to just lay eyes on the place, but not much.

Most of the online info sessions my son (and I) have done all sound similar, and they don’t really give you a sense of the school’s ethos. To get that virtually, we will have to dig a lot deeper. You Tube, Niche, etc.

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Doubt it in re to admitted student days. Covid was going on last year during these days and most if not all schools had to cancel when everything was shut down. Many kids had to make a decision without ever seeing a school. For some it worked out for some it didn’t. I think it’s going to be more or less the same, and for that reason, that’s probably why we will ultimately see many kids choosing to stay closer to home when all is said and done. Who wants to take the risk of going so far away when they don’t know what they’re going to and the cost involved in all of that?

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Yes, I remember all those events being canceled last spring. That was when we all were basically in lockdown though. Many campuses housed students this fall (however irresponsible it might have been) and many plan to welcome returning students this spring. Our nearest LAC has had campus tours throughout the fall despite being remote otherwise. So I think it’s possible schools with lower yields might at least try to offer something, even if on an individual basis.

My kid didn’t apply anywhere very close. Most are flights away. Some we could drive to but wouldn’t want to. I wonder how that geography will affect enrollments. Will LACs in the south and west have higher yields esp from admitted students of the south and west respectively bc there are fewer of them than, say, NE?

Harvard has Early Decision, not Early Action.

Harvard has single choice early action (SCEA), not early decision

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I think some schools will, because they will be short of their enrollment goals.

I agree. My D21 applied to 15 colleges. Things feel unpredictable and we added extra safety schools.

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Our school limits the number of applications to 10 (12 if a student appeals and the school feels there are extenuating circumstances). I think this is more than enough and that when kids apply to 15 or 16 schools it starts to get a little greedy and ridiculous and just makes it harder on everyone. FWIW, my S21 applied to 5 schools total. One reach, three targets, one safety. Admitted to three, including first choice, and did not submit test scores. Edited to say he visited only one of the five (which wound up being his first choice).

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Is Covid/lockdowns/travel restrictions/college campuses being closed an extenuating circumstance?

No. Everyone at the school had to deal with those issues.

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In a normal year I would totally agree with this. My daughter applied to 6 schools 2 years ago. Was accepted to all but 1. Only 1 was a true safety.

My son now has better stats, and a slightly better test score, visited many because of his sister and then some before Covid, and some he didn’t get to visit. Would have not applied to more than 10, however, once he was deferred from his ED school and as results started being released as to the number of applications schools are receiving and what’s been happening with TO applicants etc, he knew he had to submit a few more applicants because the schools that should have been likely’s for him at any other time and per the HS counselor when he had his meeting, are now probably no longer likely’s and more possibly reaches so it caused some reconsideration.

I’m not sure how it’s greedy to apply to many schools, especially if kids are paying to apply. But it is ridiculous and does make it harder on everyone. Maybe a lot of kids are applying for free and those applications are up because there’s no cost to them, or TO is allowing people to apply more freely? Someone could say that’s greedy. Or perhaps someone could say someone who has taken a test but chooses not to submit can be considered unfair. There are lots of problems this year period with the whole system. Kids will get in that don’t deserve to get in to certain schools, others won’t get in that deserve to get in, and in a year after one semester some of these kids won’t be there after they’ve gone through first semester, many won’t make it after a full year, and many might be huge successes.

The one saving grace for a lot of these kids is ultimately no matter where they go, if they do well, its always very easy to transfer to another great school and get in that way. Or, they may wind up loving the school they wound up at. But this year is definitely like no other, especially for the elite students.

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Interesting. I’m curious if they had the same restriction in previous years, or whether it was lower (like, say, 6 or 8) . . . because treating this year as the same as previous years seems . . . not right.

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We didn’t really take the kids on application tours. They had such specific interests that their interests drove the application process, combined with affordability, distance, setting, what we could learn from research over the internet, and from speaking with other families. Daughter applied to only three schools, if I remember right, and was thrilled to get into her dream school, with maximum merit money. Then she went to see it, once she’d gotten in, even though it was only under 90 minutes away. Son was able to narrow his list down to about 7 schools, luckily got into one early action and then decided to go there, so that cut down on the other applications.

When I was applying, I made my list of schools that had what I wanted based upon my research, and only went to look at the ones I got into, to make my choice. Husband was accepted early decision to school his father and sister had gone to. I don’t even know if he’d ever been there.

I’ve just never understood the logic of going to look at schools to try to figure out whether one wanted to apply there, especially since one gets such a limited view of what goes on there. Applicants’ impressions are influenced by the weather on the day they visited, and the charm of the student tour guide. I would assume that applicants would already know whether they want a big school or small school, or a rural school or a city school based upon prior life experience. Do they really need to go make a special trip to tour schools that they may not get into, that they may not get enough financial aid to be able to afford to attend? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

But I do think that you are right, that because of the pandemic having upended most families’ pre-application tours, and because of test optional meaning that the sky’s the limit for those with decent grades alone, families are choosing to put in a lot of reach applications, on the chance that kid might get accepted to one. I am very curious to see whether, now that early action round is over, all the reach schools see a significant increase in the number of applicants.