HANNA HELPS

College Admissions in the US has become increasingly competitive. The process has become a mystery that has bamboozled parents, frustrated students and captivated the media. College admission has become the talk of the cocktail circuit. Parents are often comparing notes as to how their child’s application has been handled, or mishandled by the admitting school. Admissions departments, their officers and their methods have intrigued parents and students for years. It seems as if the whole admissions process has become equivalent to reading tea leaves. The media too, has made a sensation out of college admissions. Stories have been written by leading publications as if they were determined to expose the marketing hype of higher education. The end result has been personal stories of mystery, torment, sadness and joy for many families.

Torment?  Media exposés?  Mysteries to be solved? How on earth did it get to this?

Perhaps a little background history will put into perspective the realities around the current college admissions process south of our border.

In the 1980’s, the college admissions pool began to shrink in the US. This shrinkage was largely due to a declining demographic of college aged students in the US. US colleges saw their financial stability jeopardized. As a response, they began marketing strategies to increase the number of applicants that would apply to their schools. Colleges were faced with fewer applicants and a fixed number of seats they needed to fill. As a result, less rigid admissions standards became the norm. Colleges countered this trend by marketing their product like trips, or experiences that were unique, world class and exclusive opportunities not be missed.

Fundraising took on added interest. Corporate sponsorship became increasingly significant. Building campaigns took off, and amenities were designed and built to attract the best and the brightest students. Admissions and retention campaigns were established to ensure school sustainability and stability. The bottom line… it worked.  College was the place to go, the place to be and the place to be trained for the new world economy.

All of this activity converged with a massive demographic shift about 15-20 years ago.  Generation Y (the echo-boomers) has started entering their college years and both they, and their parents, came to expect the very best for themselves. An undergraduate education became the minimum education expectation in the new world economy. As a result, a greater number of students started applying for the same supply of seats.

Spin off industry’s started to benefit. College Preparation courses flourished. SAT and ACT prep programmes became a new expectation for serious applicants.  College application camps, overseas experiential programmes and, Private secondary schools expanded. An unprecedented growth in private school options and credit earning opportunities emerged.  Parents and students were looking for an edge and the market made it available to them.

In the media, a small sub-industry of college rankings and promotional material became the de facto source for information.  Controversial rankings of our universities by leading publishers became “must read” items for prospective students.   Some observers have even cynically accused the colleges of encouraging more applicants to apply to their schools so the colleges could reject more. As a result, more applications to colleges resulted in more rejections, and the perception of greater selectivity grew. These statistics helped colleges increase their rankings in publications such as US News and World Report. Even in Canada, publishers such as The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s have got into the rankings game. The frenzy has started feeding the frenzy. Top tier schools such as Yale, Duke, Harvard and Stanford have seen unprecedented growth in application numbers. For some, applying to these schools has become more important than finding the “right” college. To some this whole process has come to be viewed as a marketing racket.

Let’s step back from this frenzy, and try to make sense of this all.

There are no guarantees, but you can be pretty certain that there is a college/ university that will be the right fit for you. While it is true that the post secondary applicant pool will be increasing until 2018, there has never been a time where so many options have been available to such a broad range of students. It is expected that enrollment will reach 20 million U.S. students by 2015 – up 15% from today. Of these applicants, more students from under-represented groups will be admitted. The Ivy League schools will likely maintain their 10% admission rate. Conversely, 85% of the other 3000 schools have admission rates of 50% or more. That still leaves a lot of choice to get admitted to some excellent schools. You do not have to be Einstein to get into a good college. Marks are an important predictor of success, but all colleges will be looking at a variety of elements when deciding who they will admit.  I will blog about that later.

There is still the matter of finding that college or program that is right for you.  With so much to choose from, how do you begin to know?  If you recall reading Hamlet back in high school, there is a lesson we learned when Polonius prepares his son Laertes for travel abroad; “to thine own self be true”. Sage advice.   The high school experience should not only be about academic skills development and personal management development. The high school experience should also be about learning who you are as a person and an opportunity to explore your  interests and  passions.

Ask yourself – what am I passionate about – what do I like doing – what are my core values – what is important to me – what is my passion?  As students experience “life” and discover their passions, they will be well on their way to finding the right college fit as their prize.