What dou you think?
This has been asked multiple times on CC. The short answer: No one knows. The long answer: It’s dependent on a variety of factors (if the school’s need-aware or blind, has ED, school’s financial status etc.) No one but Admissions at each schools knows for certain how the pandemic will impact their decisions for the upcoming year.
IMO if you’re qualified for a school, have stats/extracurriculars that are in-range, then apply (widely) and hope for the best.
Hope that helps! Good luck with admissions!
Not so much an admissions question but a retention and yield question too which could impact admissions in the future.
This is really the first semester of mostly online education. Word will get out very quickly how well or how poorly the online experience went for students. I think that will play a role in what admits will do next year. Options are punt and wait for vaccine, GAP year, just go to local or in-state school, attend in-person, or stay online. What parents are willing to pay for the experience or lack of will matter as well.
It will be different than normal.
That’s about all anyone can say for sure.
I am expecting more applications to our state flagship. Will more kids stay within driving distance for example? We are in Massachusetts and the idea of the west coast is less appealing to me than it was a year ago for my daughter but hard to say if many other people are feeling the same way. I wonder if kids will apply to more schools because of the uncertain times. Early decision will be easier (possibly) to get in as many kids haven’t toured schools. Money also. Full pay at a need aware schools is never a disadvantage but I imagine schools will want those kids more than ever.
I think more attending schools closer to home, too. Too much uncertainty to have as many willing to be several hours or states away during a pandemic or if schools are continuing to be partly or majority online. My small sample size of peers is similar in approach.
I agree that no one really knows how the pandemic will impact admissions.
My guess is that it might make admissions slightly tougher because of students who deferred for a year due to the pandemic.
“I am expecting more applications to our state flagship.”
This is a good point. An uncertain economy is likely to drive some students towards more economically safe choices. Where I work (part time) we have already been seeing a gradual increase in the very strong quality of graduates from our nearest state flagship. There are already an increased number of exceptional students attending in-state public schools. This might become even more pronounced due to the pandemic.
I do not expect schools going SAT optional to matter much. At least in our family SAT scores tended to be very close to what you would have predicted looking at our grades, and did not seem to add much more information.