Covid is making it harder to get into a top college

“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.”

This could be any kid in any year’s excuse who didn’t get in ED. “Should have been likelies for him at any other time” is mere speculation. It is harder on the kids, harder on the guidance counselors who have to submit multiple transcripts, school profiles, etc. and keep track of all the balls in the air and harder on AOs who have to evaluate an onslaught of applications. And, yes, that is greedy to insist your kid deserves that extra work IMHO.

Students who are merit hunting often need to apply to more than 10 schools. Not buying the argument that the HS has more work when their are more apps (not hard to send electronic transcripts), and colleges have plenty of readers to read apps.

14 Likes

@parentologist

I have wondered too now that the ED round is over, EA not quite yet, if there will be a huge number in reach applicants for RD rounds as well or if those will be a little more realistic. I still think there will be increases but possibly not at the same level. They always said this is the year to apply ED. So ok, but will people then still take time to write all those extra essays for RD?

Applying for college now is so different than when I applied. I went alone on some of my visits and just stayed with friends. Never going on actual tours or anything like that, it was really just about the vibe and social life. My family also went on a bunch of visits. My ex husband didn’t go on a single visit until he was accepted. With my kids however, we visited all the schools they wanted to apply to except a few locally that would be an easy drive if they got in that we knew were good schools or a good match or safety. This one, we missed 4-5 schools over spring break. He eliminated a few of them from virtual visits but applied to 3 of them and maybe is doing a 4th.

I laughed about your weather comment because 2 years ago on our visits it poured rain when we visited Vandy, Penn, UNC and later Berkeley. They wound up not applying to any except one did apply to UNC. I am sure the rain had a huge factor in that. One of my own visits when staying in a dorm someone pulled the fire alarm and we had to walk down and then back up a ton of flights in the bitter cold and in the middle of the night. That was enough to knock that school off my list. Lol

1 Like

“Merit hunting” = greedy. And we’ll agree to disagree about the rest.

Wait, what? I don’t know about you, but every school my daughter applied to sent innumerable emails and mailings to her, asking her to apply – just like they did to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of other kids. Now, after they actually get an onslaught of applications – which they have been heavily marketing for – the kids are supposed to feel guilty because it’s extra work for AOs?

18 Likes

I have never heard anyone take this stance (of course that’s your prerogative). Parental finances are the number one determinant of where (and if) a student goes to college, and many many people need merit money to make it work (call it tuition discounting if that makes it more palatable). Merit money is unpredictable at many schools, hence more apps than typical may be required to find an affordable school.

21 Likes

Nope. Some of the schools my S21 applied to sent unsolicited emails some did not and many, many he would never consider applying to sent multiple emails. Schools known for sending tons of spam don’t bother looking at half the applications and are only interested in yield. I’m assuming these aren’t the schools being discussed here.

If it is a school my kid would consider going and he isn’t just applying for sh*ts and giggles, like many kids have done, and I’m paying $75 or more for the application then no, it is not at all greedy. If my kid was an avg student, with a lousy score, no solid EC’s, or good grades and rigor then yeah maybe it is a waste, or in your words greedy. But when it’s a college my kid is interested in and would actually go attend and is not sitting there applying to schools so he can sit and collect acceptances so he can compare merit (none of his give merit other than his 1 safety) that I would be paying full freight for him to attend, there is nothing at all greedy about it.

As for the guidance counselors at our school, there is absolutely no extra work for them. The transcript and school report was already uploaded in September. They don’t do anything new when a kid adds colleges. It’s the same transcript and report used for every school. We also do not use naviance so nothing is fed through there either any any reporting of schools kids apply to is all done by the kids themselves and completely voluntary.

Not if you do your homework. Why not apply to 100 schools? Or 200? If it’s only about comparing dozens of offers (and rejecting dozens more) and not about what makes sense as far as fit, then sure. I concede the point.

1 Like

I see. Your kid deserves the chance to apply to a sh*t ton of schools based on his academic record. But “less qualified” kids aren’t? Seriously?

Well I’m glad you think that, but as I said below, I am not merit hunting, and none of the schools my son has applied to with the exception of his safety school which already offered him a full scholarship, gives merit. So by him adding more schools, I will be paying full freight, which in some cases depending on where, could be up to $80,000 a year. I hardly think that makes me the greedy one. If anything, it’s the schools who are greedy.

4 Likes

So why are you applying to 15+ schools?

Less qualified kids can do whatever they want, but when you complain about kids wasting the time of AO’s it’s certainly not the kids who are qualified doing it. It’s the ones who know they have no chance of ever getting admitted and just apply for the fun of it. I know many who did that this cycle alone to some of the Ivy’s. That is a waste of a lot of people’s time and that is not something I would allow any of my children to do.

I’ve had my daughter start applying to more schools because of the virus. Call it greedy but I call it having options. Who knows how things will change. Do we want her going across country? Do we want to pay $50k a year for her to sit home on the computer and do class? We were only able to visit a handful of schools prior to Covid. Some of the schools she thought she would love actually fell to the bottom of her list after an in person visit. We’d rather apply now and then have time to discuss the best options later. I’m thankful our school allows students to apply to as many schools as they want to. I have a coworker whose school encourages students to apply to as many as they can. Why settle?

6 Likes

Wow.

I don’t think they’ll extend the May 1 date, what I think they’ll do instead is have huge waitlists and then start to take kids off those lists. As someone else said, some of our kids will be flopping around in August still not knowing where they wind up.

Someone asked me today if you can be on more than one waitlist. I said yes, but can you imagine being on multiple lists and having an acceptance at a school you really don’t want to be. What then happens to a roommate you may have picked? No one will want to be roommates with your kid if they think you’re going to bolt. I already told my kid no way is he doing that if that is how his situation plays out. I sure as hell hope it is not something I need to deal with.

1 Like

Because my kid is applying to a competitive major and wants to go to the best program he can get into for that major. His safety school is not one of his top choices, that’s why it’s his safety school. He has other schools he applied to that are much higher on his list with much better programs. And I never said he’s applying to 15+ schools.

2 Likes

Agree about the merit hunting, since competitive merit chances are harder to determine (and therefore should be considered “reach”).

As far as workload imposed on the high school, it depends on things like unique recommendations or other items needed at the time of application. A college that requires no recommendations and uses SRAR instead of transcripts on application imposes no work on the high school. A college that requires three unique recommendations and transcripts adds work on the high school.

It is certainly reasonable for a high school or teachers to impose a limit on unique recommendations per student, so that everyone gets a fair chance at the baseline number before anyone gets any extras. It is less reasonable to limit the number of colleges applied to.

Hmm . . . so it’s greedy to send applications to some schools, but not others?

Should we feel sorry for the AOs at those schools who send out “fee waiver” emails (without regard to need) in December, trying to gin up more applications? (e.g., Lehigh & WashU this year sent waivers to my D (she didn’t apply), or this example (Northeastern) from last year: Application Fee Waiver) )

3 Likes

Funny, my dad drove me to the airport to fly up to Boston (by myself, at age 17) to look at Brandeis. I think it was my first time on a plane! And I took the train by myself down to Philly to look at Penn, which was where I wound up. It never occurred to either of my parents to go with me to look at the schools. It went without saying that since I would be the one going to school, I should just go look by myself. I would have been very unhappy if they had come with me. But of course, I was the youngest kid in a big family, and parents were probably pretty burnt out by then.

Couple of years ago, my dear friend and her daughter visited me so that daughter could look at top Boston schools and Yale. Kid had good grades and scores, but friend refused to acknowledge that top schools had become so much more selective over the 40 yr period since we’d applied, that kid was NEVER going to get into any of the schools we looked at (all T20 schools).
The mother was always within 6 feet of the girl, because of how child-rearing styles have changed, and besides, we were in a (gasp) city! The girl asked such naive questions, like were there curfews in the dormitories. Girl of course wound up at her local state flagship U. The entire endeavor seemed so absurd to me - like window shopping expensive stores when you know you cannot fit into any of the clothing, with an empty wallet to boot. Just add heartbreak.

When I look back at it, I realize now how lucky we were that the kids’ interests really pared down the list.

1 Like