Whatever one’s view is on holistic admission, is there any doubt that it’s on an unsustainable path? Students have their aspirations and none of us can/will tell them not to apply to their reaches. We are more likely to encourage, rather than discourage, them to apply (e.g. “you won’t get in if you don’t apply”). Of course, we also tell them to apply to their safeties, but many of them don’t seem to care much about that advice.
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Middlebury, Colby, Bates, Williams, Connecticut College….just a handful of highly selective and desirable LACs that require no supplemental essay or interview beyond the Common App. And there are others I’m likely not aware of. It’s irrational not to apply to all of them if you apply to any school with a common app and you want to attend a good liberal arts school. Heck…many are moving in the direction of getting rid of application fees to increase the #applicants that apply. They are actively courting students to apply to drive down their admissions rates.
We see the same thing in South Florida Kids not getting into UF and getting in to Ivy’s and other top 20 schools
UF not really a target for most kids anymore and FSU getting harder to get accepted each year, both had admit rates low 20 percentiles this year
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I was reading in the Northeastern results thread where some students had indicated they had submitted a “Why Us” essay as part of their admissions packet. When some others came on to say that NEU didn’t require one, it turned out that even though it was not required, the admissions reps did accept them, read them, and may have had an impact on the admissions decisions. More than one user reported doing this. So, although not required to submit essays for various highly competitive schools, it may be very beneficial, particularly at colleges that are only going to take a small number of students since the college is small.
Yes. It’s not just that schools are getting harder to get into and less predictable. It’s also that schools are getting more expensive for full pay families. This is especially an issue for families on the edge of full pay. It’s one thing to bite the bullet and pay for Brown or MIT. It’s another thing altogether to pay $80,000 for a T50 school. And I’m not coming at this from a snobbery point of view, but rather a concern about rigor. I attended a T10 LAC where the classes were rigorous and where I was surrounded by bright peers. Still, most outside my state (and many in it!) have never heard of the school. I’m ok with that, because my goal was rigor and bright peers, not prestige. Are there rigorous classes and bright kids at T50 schools [ETA: I mean to say schools ranked 50 or lower]? Sure, there are some rigorous classes and bright kids at any college. But I have also heard back from many of my kid’s '20 and '21 friends at such schools and they are saying things like “college is easier than high school.” My kid is in the IB program at a strong public with 30+ National Merit scholars per class. College at a T50 school will be a step down in terms of rigor and peers. Paying $80,000/yr for that is a disappointing prospect. Thus another reason more families are putting in more apps, searching for that combo of acceptance + rigor + affordable.
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I am sure I will be cited for being in a bubble again :-). My son’s friend was complaining to him quite bit the first year at Amherst that his peers were academically uninteresting – i.e., he felt that he was the strongest kid in the class, and he didn’t like that. He was saying this in comparison to the high school where he did not feel like this. He was thinking very hard about transferring exactly for this reason, but chose to stay back eventually because he joined the swim team, and built some friendships there.
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Yes, you are in a bubble, but a bubble I recognize. I attended the same public school as my children do. I did not meet a single student at my T10 LAC that was anywhere near as bright as the brightest kid from my HS. My HS graduating class was very strong and very deep. I was very well prepared for college. I fear my own kid is going to be bored at the school where I think he will land. Some say the answer is state flagship. This is probably true for STEM kids because STEM anywhere is hard for all (except the tippy top of STEM kids who win national awards and really need to be at a place like MIT.) But I worry more about humanities kids. I took some upper level humanities classes at my local flagship. They were free because I was an employee at the time. Would have been mad to pay for them because they were rinky-dink.
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In comparison, Ontario students submit around 5 apps on average, even those applying to programs with holistic admissions.
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A lot of the colleges here would hate it if this were the case :-).
I have to wonder after reading the last few comments how some kids can manage tolerating life once they get out of their “bubble”. Or do they just stay in it so that their intellect is always stimulated?
Now I can grasp why some are against holistic reviews and it isn’t pretty.
If a kid goes to a university and claims he can’t meet one other person on par with him intellectually, that’s a 100% a “him” problem.
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Easy to blame the kid. Especially when you don’t relate to him.
Kids are very conscious that some lines of work may not be stimulating enough, and take this under active consideration in making career choices. Some are willing to take large pay cuts to keep work stimulating on an ongoing basis.
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If you are expecting to pay 75k+, I would recommend applying to Canadian universities (which will cost less than that) where they will get an excellent education without the hoop jumping of holistic admissions (for most programs).
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We are done for this season :-). We did consider the canadian schools this cycle, but decided against them for a variety of reasons.
This year (so far) on the common app platform, applicants have submitted an average of 5.6 apps each.
Interesting
Do they have a breakdown by quantity for each #.
Like how many did just 1. Or 2
I bet many apply to one or two only knowing up front where they plan to attend…the state flagship or local school.
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No detailed breakdown at least yet. https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ca.research.publish/Research+briefs+2020/20211123_Deadline_Update_FY.pdf
Of course some of these applicants may have also applied to schools with their own apps, or the coalition app or HBCU app. I don’t know of any resource that gives us a complete picture of all apps.
Yeah UCs and CSUs will be big
So, he decided that staying at Amherst for some swim team friends was more important to him than transferring to find his academically interesting peers?
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That’s what I said. Yes. Whatever is important to someone is important to them. Easy to judge people as to why they chose that vs something else because it may not agree with our values. It’s the kid’s life. he can do what he wants.
UCs received 210k first year apps for fall 2022, some of those students likely applied to other schools via common app, but not all.