IT'S NOT YOU, IT’S THEM
At this time of year, social media is filled with posts of X kid with XY stats who did not get into Z college. Ivy day is a blood bath because, hello, the HUGE majority of kids do not get accepted to these colleges. Harvard’s acceptance rate this year was 3% and I can list over a dozen colleges off the top of my head that have acceptance rates that are in the single digits. Kids are asking, “What more could I have done?”. I have spent a lot of time talking about all the things students can do to help their chance of admission to highly selective colleges. Today we are going to say after you have done all of those things, studied hard in rigorous courses, participated in activities you felt passionate about, worked to be helpful to others you care about, spent time preparing good applications, studying for, and excelling at your standardized tests, the answer is NOTHING. Yes, I said nothing. It is time to cut yourself a break and realize this is not all about you. It is about these colleges and their institutional priorities. Colleges are businesses and operate like such. They are concerned about putting together a whole class. Highly selective colleges are filled with tons of qualified applicants and can literally fill their classes ten times over with incredibly accomplished, amazingly smart, and wonderful students. At colleges like Harvard, the majority of applicants often have perfect test scores and grades. This is the part of the process that makes so many students and families crazy. This is not a simple equation of hard work = reward. So what does this all mean? What are often some institutional priorities?
A) Colleges need to manage their enrollment.
Um…colleges might have had a huge spike in application numbers due to some crazy unpredictable event like a pandemic and the world shifting to test optional. Many colleges have gotten 25% more selective than they were 2 two years ago.
Colleges might have over-enrolled or under-enrolled last year or for more than one year. So they need to overall take fewer or more students this year. Many colleges over-enrolled last year so they took fewer students this year. An example of that this year would be Boston University.
A college is yielding more of its accepted students. A good example of this is Tulane University. In 2016 their yield rate was 26% and in 2021 it is 45%. They simply need to accept fewer students because more of the students they are accepting are enrolling.
Other things can come into play when a college over-enrolls - a college might not have adequate housing for so many students. A good example of this is the University of Tampa last year which did not have enough housing for the students it admitted. That could not have been good for business.
To control enrollment a college might enroll a large percentage of their class ED I or ED II. Bates took over 80% of their class in their two rounds of ED last year. Washington University in St. Louis and Tufts University are two I often think of that take somewhere between half and two-thirds of their class in their two ED rounds. It simply becomes way harder to get into regular decision.
Colleges must balance their budgets.
Some colleges may need to accept more full pay students.
Some colleges are prioritizing letting in Pell eligible students.
Some colleges prioritize letting in the majority of students with some type of tuition discount. This is the very concept of merit aid. An example of this is Lake Forest College which offers 100% of applicants merit aid.
Some public colleges must prioritize letting in state students. For example, the state of North Carolina mandates that any UNC campus can only have a maximum of 18% of its incoming class coming from out of state.
Some public colleges may need out-of-state students or, moreover, need the money from out-of-state student tuition.
Some colleges prioritize certain groups like military families with things like yellow ribbon benefits and children of academic employees with tuition exchange programs.
Colleges will often accept students with connections to VIPs or Development.
Some colleges will prioritize Legacy students.
B) Colleges have athletic teams, school bands, school choirs, debate teams and theater productions.
Colleges might need to fill an athletic spot.
Colleges might need a student who plays an obscure instrument.
College might need a student for all sorts of special talent.
C) Colleges want students in all of their different majors.
This might mean that certain popular majors are much harder to get into than others. For example Computer Science is one of the hardest majors in the country right now.
Some colleges might need to consider that a department is understaffed or unprepared to take students at this specific time.
Some colleges will prioritize certain genders or cultural groups for certain majors. For example male students might have a strong advantage in fine arts and fashion and Black and Latina women might have an advantage in STEM.
D) Most colleges want to have a diversified class of students.
Colleges want students with diversified interest in and out of the classroom.
Some colleges will prioritize ethnically underrepresented groups. Nine states currently ban affirmative action: : California (1996), Washington (1998), Florida (1999), Michigan (2006), Nebraska (2008), Arizona (2010), New Hampshire (2012), Oklahoma (2012), and Idaho (2020).
Some colleges want a regionally diverse group from all 50 states and multiple international locations. Colleges might be trying to expand their footprint regionally, nationally or internationally. They might prioritize one location over another. Every time I am on a college tour, I laugh at the requests for students from the Dakotas.
Some colleges want a good gender balance and prioritize men over women or vise versa.
Some colleges want a class that is diversified in sexual orientation, again they might prioritize underrepresented groups like LGBTQ students.
Some colleges prioritize first generation students or students who are re-entering college. The UCs are a good example of this.
Some colleges, especially religious ones, may want a certain percentage of their students from their specific denomination/churches.
Some colleges prioritize students who were in the military.
E) Some colleges prioritize their relationships with certain high schools.
F) Some colleges are prioritizing rankings and making decisions to try and maximize their place on US News and World Report. This is part of a larger conversation and probably best left for another day but when you have time look into how US News and World Report ranks colleges. A lot of that data can be manipulated through enrollment tactics, including yield protection.
The true trick to acceptance for many students is when they fulfill multiple priorities of a college. For now maybe when you start looking at colleges you can also consider their institutional priorities. First, do those values line up with your own? Check out a college’s mission statement, does it resonate with you? If you think a college’s priorities align with yours, maybe you are a good fit. If so, then yes please do apply. Spend time on your applications and essays. Put your best foot forward, but realize you can only worry about what you can control. A college will consider the whole class. If the decision is no, remember it is often not you, it is them!