Finding your Right Fit College is Magical

This has been a rough few weeks. I have had many difficult conversations with students, parents, and families and have even seen some tears. These difficult conversations are, without a doubt, the hardest part of my job; I wish I could wave my magic wand and give everyone, students, parents, and colleges what they want. We all often speak about certain colleges, so it is no wonder students may think that the only good colleges are the ones they have heard of. Parents do not understand how much harder the current landscape of selective college admissions is than when they or even just their older children applied. There is a fear that not getting into X college is somehow failing and I am the bad guy who has to explain to students they are probably not getting into X college. First, getting denied from highly selective colleges is not failing. Far from it. Failing in this process is not doing your homework and finding the right college for you. I completely understand wanting everything for yourself or your children. I certainly do for my boys, but I can tell you that my number one concern as a parent is having happy, healthy children. I’m sure you feel the same. The rest of my life falls into place when my boys are good. So please, everyone, take a breath and let’s focus on that for a minute. Next, I am going to tell you that I visit a LOT of colleges every year and that many of my favorites are not at the top of US News and World Reports rankings. My favorites are sunny places, and I do not necessarily mean the weather, where I see smiling faces and students engaged in learning but also engaged with each other. I personally believe college is about WAY more than academics. It is about kids learning to navigate their way in the world, often for the first time without their parents. This is a dire plea: please get your students out there to see campuses. Try and plan visits for when students will be on campus as it is so much more informative. Try not to be so focused on names you have heard of, low acceptance rates, or where everyone else is looking, and instead focus on where you will learn, meet people you like, and enjoy yourself. I promise you will be surprised by what you discover if you open your search. 

A college is not better just because it is harder to get into. It is human nature that if someone else wants something, then maybe you should want it too. It must be better. The more selective a college is, the more desirable it becomes. I can point to numerous colleges that just in the last two or three years have cut their acceptance rate in half – and they are the exact same college they were just a couple of years ago (they might even be a worse experience because now they have a housing shortage due to increased demand!). People all of sudden attach value to it that has nothing to do with the actual college itself. People think if a college is not hard to get into then it must not be any good, and that is simply untrue. DON'T LET YOURSELF GET SUCKED INTO THIS!! I see kids every year apply to colleges that, even if they got accepted, they wouldn’t actually like. 

The current college admissions landscape for selective colleges is simply very, very tough. For several years running, admit rates have gone way down. We classify highly selective colleges as admit rates of 20% (the Common App classifies them as under 25%); that number of colleges has grown from 62 in 2019 to 71 in 2024. 29 of those colleges/universities have admit rates under 10% and 42 have admit rates between 10-20%. So why am I focusing on these colleges that the majority of students do not even apply to? Because as this category of colleges grows, it affects what happens with admit rates at all of the other colleges. 

As you can see from this chart with data from The Common App Report March of 2024, some super selective colleges got a little harder, and some got a little easier, but once a college reaches the highly selective category, they have all kinds of enrollment management strategies (see our past blog on institutional priorities) to stay there - which means they are all pretty much wildcards for even the most qualified of candidates. Who is getting into these colleges is often way less about an individual student and way more about that particular college’s institutional priorities. This and the high cost of college has driven many students and families to look elsewhere. That is why the Common App shows the highest growth in the least selective colleges. It is also what is driving the selectivity of the middle selectivity group of colleges. The University of Georgia has gotten significantly harder in the last 5 years, so students started looking at Tennessee and Auburn; students are excited by big sports wins, so that also contributes. As Boston College got more selective, more students considered Providence and Holy Cross and now Holy Cross has entered the most group of highly selective colleges with a 16% acceptance rate. We expect the College of Charleston (CofC) will be even harder next year as students look for alternatives to the University of South Carolina, which will see a big increase in apps because of their Women’s BB team win at March Madness. Over the past few years, while UVA has become increasingly selective, James Madison’s apps have doubled. We are losing our targets and likely colleges, as many students are looking for affordable places where they can be accepted. 

It’s important to note again that nothing significant has changed at any of these colleges. It is simply not possible in just a few years’ time. They are not fundamentally better than their peer schools who didn’t experience such big increases in the number of applications or reductions in acceptance rates. They simply benefited from certain factors and from enrollment management. Holy Cross, the University of Tennessee, and CofC are fantastic colleges, but they are not better today than they were 3 years ago, even though it is a lot harder now to get in. 

Many of the parents I speak to went to highly selective colleges themselves. They see their kids have straight As and assume they can also attend highly selective colleges. I understand; I would probably think the same thing. But the landscape is so different from when parents went to college. More students have ‘A’ averages and more students are taking APs and other college-level courses than ever before. Below are some then-and-now slides. 

Kids have worked super hard for over three years now. When they hear how difficult it is to get into many highly selective colleges, they can often feel like, what was it all for? I promise each and every one of these students it is because you are going to go to a GREAT college. It might not be the one you first thought of, but if you do your “homework,” it will be a GREAT COLLEGE FOR YOU. Finding the right college is about finding colleges that fit: a college the student can be proud to attend and that parents would be happy to invest in, and moreover, one where the student can be successful. So, while I might seem negative to some, I do not mean to be; I am trying to get students to stop focusing on prestige or only colleges they have heard of so they can start focusing on THEIR colleges. As hard as it is to hear in August, it is even harder to be unprepared for a wave of bad news next winter and, even worse, to be in the position where you didn’t apply to several schools that you are excited about and that you have a good chance of hearing good news from. Sadly these days, this is a time-sensitive issue like never before. There is WAY more pressure on students to apply early. When you apply has a lot to do with your chance of acceptance. There is a large difference in Early Decision, Early Action, and Regular Decision admit rates. At many colleges, your chance of acceptance is multiple in ED vs. regular decision. A college that might be a low reach for you in ED or sometimes even EA can become impossible in regular decision. Many selective colleges admit at least half or sometimes over ¾ of their class via ED and at admissions rates that are often multipliers of overall admit rates. At other places, certain majors like Engineering at Purdue fill up in early action, and certain campuses fill up early, like Penn State’s University Park. If a student spends too much time focused on a college that might not ever happen, they might miss the opportunity to get into their perfect match. 

So what can a student do to change their, in the words of Joan Didion and my colleague and friend Elisabeth Bassin, “magical thinking”? They can decipher their “priorities and must haves” in a college from their “it would be nice to haves.” They then can do their research to figure who has those must haves. We can not change the reality. Trinity College only gives need-based aid, and if you don’t qualify for it and cannot afford the COA, it will not become affordable, but Gettysburg might. I know you love U Michigan, but you can not get into the Ross School of Business if you do not get in the day you apply to Michigan, but at the U of Wisconsin or Indiana, you will still have a chance to move into the business school after your freshman year. Or you can decide to study Economics and go for an MBA later. GA Tech will not let you switch into Computer Science (CS) after you get there because it is direct admit only, but at WPI CS is open to all. Many large state universities will not let you easily switch from Liberal Arts and Sciences into the Engineering or Business Schools, but Syracuse will if you are a good student. Colleges all work in different ways, and you need to try and get past big names and cool football teams and figure out which one works for you. To me, it is magical when a student finds the right college for them. We are amazed every day by the brilliance and spirit of the students we are lucky enough to work with. They are truly incredible, and I want all of them and you, too, to realize that there is an incredible depth and breadth of fantastic institutions out there. Please get to work finding your yours.