"… The admission frenzy will stop only when colleges, students and, frankly, parents refuse to play the game anymore — when we admit that more doesn’t equal better. Parents — and colleges — need to encourage students to approach the college search in a thoughtful, intentional way, with fit and match as the goal.
With great respect I say to all parents, ‘Relax.’" …
An admission dean speaks. The Times would like to hear from you.
I don’t think applying to multiple, highly ranked colleges is always about prestige. I think many times it’s about money (the availability of great need-based aid and/or generous merit awards) or the hope that a recognized name will make the student more competitive when they hit the job market. Admission rates are dropping so low that it’s understandable that students apply to a larger number of colleges than students of our generation did. The likelihood of getting rejected from many of the selective schools seems really high.
^Agree. For some of us, it’s about finding enough aid and the hope of being competitive in the job market.
Selective schools were my only chance of getting out and doing it without debt.
I don’t know anyone who applies simply for prestige.
The students I know who apply to LOTS of colleges do so because they know they’ll need a lot of aid and can’t predict where that aid will be best, or even sufficient.
Just completed the college admission process for my second son and I agree w above posters - high number of schools applied to mainly was about the money… scholarships
Son had amazing stats, yet there were only a few schools that advertised automatic merit awards- the others were a crap shoot as to whether he would get a lot of merit money or not.
I happen to think that at 75$ a pop and 39,000 applicants = 2.9$ million ka-ching thats a *moneymaker for these schools … what incentive do they have to limit this??
As long as colleges continue to try to climb the US News ladder, this madness will continue. US News is, in my opinion, the root cause of this college admissions frenzy. It will never happen, but it would be refreshing if US News would rank colleges in quartiles rather than individually. It often amuses me to read CC arguments about how school #54 is better than school #56 because US News ranked it 2 places higher. Silly and counterproductive.
“”… The admission frenzy will stop only when colleges, students and, frankly, parents refuse to play the game anymore — when we admit that more doesn’t equal better."
The thing is parents and students kind of created the game with the help of technology. The only reason so many people apply to such prestigious universities is because they do. No one is forcing them to. I don’t think the Ivy’s, Stanford etc. really want all of these applicants. They have to sift through 2-3 times the number of applicants that they did just 10 years ago. There is another thread on CC about the head of admissions at Stanford saying a low acceptance rate is not something to brag about. I really don’t believe the elite colleges (or frankly any college) with perhaps some exceptions are the instigators.
I see few winners in this game. The losers are stressed out students who are becoming convinced that their state flag ship is now settling, that they must have 12 APs and give up their youth to ECs, and study, not because they want to do it but because they think that is what is required to be successful. That are waiting until April 1 only to discover that they’ve been waitlisted to their elite schools and must wait longer. All the while wondering “what is wrong with me” or " what did I do wrong".
The losers are also university admissions ad FA departments that have to sift through so many applicants and no matter what they do are maligned because it isn’t “fair”. Smaller and mid level universities that now must work to be perceived as “elite” to attract students that used to apply because of fit. I think there was a state school in New Jersey who had previously not played the “game” and hired a new admissions adviser who did. Their yield dropped precipitously and they ended up with a much smaller class than anticipated and nearly went bankrupt.
We chose not to play the game with D16. She only applied to 4 schools none of which were perceived as “elite” each of which fit her needs and only 1 of which was likely not going to be affordable. She was accepted to all of them by December and ended up matriculating to the least elite of the 4 but which offered her the best options for reaching her goals. We are enjoying senior year.
The Common App needs to go. It is too easy to apply to too many schools.
My oldest did not use the Common App at all, and by the time he was finished applying to matchy-safety type schools he was tired of the process and never bothered to apply to the reachy schools. (It was not in as wide use at that time, and most of the schools he applied to were not yet using it.)
My second was the poster child for Common App Craziness. He applied to way too many schools. Some of the reachy applications were of the “throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks” type. He would have been much more thoughtful had he been forced to fill out those applictions one at a time.
My third used the commn app, but applied only a reasonable number of schools. She is the poster child for what I think the Common App was meant for. It made it easier for her, but she add applications just because it was easy to do so.
It’s not USN’s fault if people are stupid enough to believe that there are meaningful differences between 6 and 12, or 56 and 68. We don’t blame Consumer Reports for reporting their findings.
One problem is that the college also has to think the student fits with them, and it’s very hard to ascertain if the school might think so or not. After all, it’s not as though it’s enough to just have a high GPA, great SAT/ACT scores, and lots of advanced classes.
Doing away with the Common App would only have a slight effect. Motivated families will still have their children apply to many places. You’ll still be able to apply online or send the app as a pdf so it’s not that debilitating.
Common App receives a payment from the college for every application submitted - something like $3 or $4. There is absolutely no incentive, in fact there is disincentive, for Common App to try to limit the number of applications sent. The are happy to feed the frenzy.
@Dolemite Not so…even much smaller changes can reduce applications by 25 - 50% in one year. If the common app were limited to 5 - 7 schools applications would go in a tail spin. Just look at what Drexel did and it stayed common ap.
This is a very simple concept. Let’s say we gave our kids 7 text messages per day and asked them to pay $1 for each text message over 7. What would happen?
Think about how much time it would take to apply to 15 schools the old fashioned way. Separate essays, letters of recommendations, etc.
If we really wanted to stop excessive applications we could do it immediately. The current process is way to easy. I wouldn’t do away with it but if there were a limit, kids would choose more wisely.
The text messaging example isn’t relevant. Applying to college isn’t chatting with friends.
Not much would change you would still use the same LORs, many of the essays, etc at all the different colleges like the Common App does - you’d just be doing the work of the Common App.
@Dolemite You don’t understand the vast majority of kids. You also don’t understand teachers and guidance departments very well either. Do you really think they will issue 15 LORs? Without the Common Ap structure separate LORs have to be sent to each school even if they are not individually addressed and signed. It simply won’t happen.
Even for schools without multiple essays, there will likely need to be 15 different essays, even if some can be modified.
Schools have proven that kids will apply based on ease, Colby most recently. And schools have proven the opposite.
“You also don’t understand teachers and guidance departments very well either. Do you really think they will issue 15 LORs? Without the Common Ap structure separate LORs have to be sent to each school even if they are not individually addressed and signed. It simply won’t happen.”
They wouldn’t need to issue 15 LOR’s they’d just tell the student to provide an address list in a format where the ONE LOR provided could be sent to each via e-mail.
Technology overrides a lot of these supposed problems.
Until parents and students understand the limitations of “prestige,” it won’t end. The comments demonstrate that many parents and students will never be convinced that fit is more important than prestige. I do, however, think that the frenzy to get into prestigious colleges and apply to all regardless of fit is largely limited to certain areas of the country. I saw this when I lived in the Northeast. In our current area, very few apply to top schools and very few apply to a large number of colleges. Because for many students in our area, going to UT or TAMU or OU is the “dream” and prestigious in their eyes.
This comment for example…“The reason there’s such a “frenzy” is that a degree from a top college is worth 10 times as much as a degree from a second - tier college. It confers better future opportunities, better future paychecks, and better future spouses. Of course the kids are going nuts: they know how high the stakes really are.” was liked by many readers, but its just not the truth.