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Archive for: College Admissions Decisions

University Admissions Decisions


College Admissions Decisions, University Admission Decisions, University Admissions Decision, College Decisions

Don’t be glued to the phone as you await word on university admissions decisions.

Don’t forget as you receive word of your university admissions decisions to learn your fate alone. Alone as in with nobody else around. It’s not a good idea to surround yourself with friends when you read the email that will tell you whether or not you’ve been admitted to the college of your dreams. What if that friend didn’t get in? What if they’re jealous? What if they’re resentful because they had better grades and scores than you and didn’t get in? These just aren’t good emotions to surround yourself with as you find out where you might be spending the next four years of your life.

If you’re someone who has been refreshing your email inbox constantly in class, or on spring break, or in the shower, or in between laps in the pool (your phone is bound to get wet), it’s time to stop. Turn off your phone. Your admissions decisions aren’t going to be overturned because you didn’t receive the email the second it was sent. Seriously. College admissions counselors aren’t monitoring how quickly it took you to read your decision. And, frankly, the ball isn’t in their court when they send out their decisions. It’s in yours — whether or not you were admitted.

We can’t tell you how many high school seniors we see who are glued to their phones around this time waiting on their admissions decisions. They all look absolutely miserable. There’s no need to be miserable at this time. If you’re on spring break, enjoy it. Soak in some sun. Read books. Yes, you read that correctly. Read books for pleasure. Does that seem foreign to you? Oy vey. Just get off the phone. There’s no need to constantly click refresh, Mark Zuckerberg.

College Admission Decisions


Don’t be surprised if you learn about your college admission decisions via phone. Imagine being an admissions officer. For months, you’ve gone around the country urging students to apply. You’ve gone into high schools and given your sales pitch. You’ve gone to China to let students know why they should consider studying in the United States. You’ve spent countless hours reading college applications. College essays about winning soccer goals and deceased grandparents, about trips to Europe and yearbook club. Get the picture? So now is the exciting time…the time when admissions officers have the chance to relay great news to selected applicants.

College Decisions, College Admission Decisions, Decisions on Colleges, Ivy League Decisions

Harvard admissions officers tipped students off via a phone call that they'd be receiving Likely Letters.

It’s only human that admissions officers would want to relay this news to anxious students who are anxiously awaiting word of their fates. Harvard called some applicants who were going to be receiving Likely Letters that they would be receiving Likely Letters! How funny is that? They called to tip off students that they’d be receiving a tip off that they’d likely be admitted. How silly! But it’s great! It relieves stress, it’s fun for students to hear from real humans (rather than through a website or mailing), and it’s fun for admissions officers to relay terrific, life-changing news!

So, college applicants, keep your phones on. Not in class. Not at the library. Not while you’re sleeping. But keep them somewhat nearby so you won’t miss a call from an excited admissions officer at a university that you applied to. But if it doesn’t ring, don’t worry. Admissions officers don’t have the time to call every applicant! It’s one of those things that’s fun a few times but then gets a bit repetitive.

Admissions Decisions


Admission Decisions, Admissions Decisions, Decisions for College Admissions, Ivy League Admission Decisions

When you receive your admissions decisions, say "thank you" to your guidance counselor, teachers, and everyone else who helped you in the college admissions process.

As you receive your Early Decision or Early Action admission decisions, don’t forget to say thank you as you had help along the way.  If you happened to have been deferred or rejected, remember to also say thank you. Your teachers, your guidance counselor, your parents, and your independent college counselor contributed to your candidacy and they worked on your behalf to help you — whether or not you got accepted. In our experience as an independent college counselor – and keep in mind that in the last twenty years, 93% of our students have gained admission to their top college choice and 100% have gained admission to one of their top three college choices – few students say “thank you.”

As an independent college counselor we’re in the business of helping students achieve their dreams but, at the end of the day, we still like to hear a thank you.  When you see a doctor, you say “thank you” to the doctor after the visit.  Sure, you pay the doctor a co-pay but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also say “thank you.” It’s the right thing to do. Check out this post on College Admissions Decisions.

College Admissions Decision


College Decision, College Admission Decision, University Decisions, US University Decisions

If your guidance counselor is smiling at you today, it might be because she knows something about your college admissions decision. Find out how.

As you await your college admissions decision or decisions from your Early Decision or Early Action school(s), know that there’s a possibility that your guidance counselor already knows the outcome of your admissions decision. How’s that? Well, just because you don’t know doesn’t mean that your guidance counselor doesn’t know. Each admissions season, college admissions counselors talk to high school guidance counselors. Do they talk to all high school guidance counselors? Definitely not. Do they talk to most? No. But many schools – particularly private schools that often feed a number of students each year into certain highly selective universities – have relationships with admissions offices because of their shared histories.

When a private high school has fifteen students apply to Yale and, after reviewing all of the applications, the Yale admissions office has granted 0/15 admission, then Yale has to do a little PR. First, they often contact the school – typically the person they have the best relationship with at the high school. Then, they’ll tell them the preliminary outcome. While the decisions aren’t set in stone at this point, they’ll go over the decisions with them and give the counselors an opportunity to advocate for one student or another. In fact, these calls are known as “advocacy calls” by high school counselors. Again, keep in mind that many – in fact most – high school counselors don’t take the opportunity to advocate for students because they don’t in fact have relationships with admissions counselors.

So if your high school guidance counselor is smiling at you in the hallway today, know that there might be something behind that. High school guidance counselors are people, too! They share in your excitement. But don’t read too much into these facial expressions. You’ll find out your college admissions decision soon enough!

Check out this post on Early Decision Admissions.

College Acceptances


There’s a blog that went up yesterday on “The Choice” blog of “The New York Times” that details the high stress and competitiveness among high school seniors as they compete against each other for highly selective college acceptances. It’s not atypical to lose a couple of friends during one’s senior year of high school because of the highly selective college admissions process and it’s also not atypical for students to regret some of the choices they made with regard to boasting about their college admissions decisions later on in life. We’d like to walk you through a couple of fairly common ways high school seniors risk alienating friends and becoming disliked. All because of the college admissions process!

College Acceptance, University Acceptances, Ivy League Acceptances, Ivy League Decisions

Don't wear the hoodie of your future college the day you get your college acceptance. That's not cool. Not everyone at your school got admitted to their first choice college.

Many students like to wear the hoodie of the school to which they’re admitted. In fact, many break out this hoodie the day they’re admitted to the university! Don’t be that person. Don’t be the senior who wears the Princeton sweatshirt, Princeton sweatpants, and Princeton baseball hat the day you get in. And don’t wear all this gear the day after either. Or any time that year. It’s totally cool to be proud about your future school but think about the feelings of others. After all, you probably have classmates who applied for admission to Princeton but were denied admission. How do you think they feel when you wear that gear? This is a very easy way to lose friends.

And the same goes for your parents. They, too, are under a lot of stress in the highly selective college admissions process. Many parents view their child’s college acceptances as affirmations of their parenting skills. But however important these college acceptances are to parents, that doesn’t mean they should put up Princeton decals on their back windshields the day their child finds out the admissions decision. That’s not so nice to other parents whose child may not have heard back yet…or worse…whose child didn’t get into Princeton.

Just be mindful of other peoples’ feelings in the college admissions process. You might be really proud you got into Yale but there might be a dozen kids at your high school who are embarrassed they didn’t. And don’t use the term “safety school.” After all, your safety school may be someone else’s reach school. Keep your college admissions decisions as private as you can. Sometimes it’s difficult, we know. Try and be vague if another student asks which schools you’re applying to. They don’t need to know this information. And you don’t have to share it.

College Decisions


In previous posts, we’ve discussed what is termed “summer melt,” a process by which the incoming class of admitted students who have agreed to attend a particular college dwindles over the course of the summer. Maybe they got off a waitlist an another university. Maybe they double deposited and chose to attend another college. Maybe they had a change of heart. Since college decisions can change over the course of the summer months, some universities have gone to great lengths to combat the problem.

Deciding on Colleges, University Decisions, Deciding on Universities, Attending Colleges, College Decision Making

Syracuse University's Newhouse School came out with a clever strategy this year to disincline students from changing their college decisions.

Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications has come up with a creative approach to fighting summer melt. A little over a week ago, students who were accepted and agreed to matriculate to Syracuse’s Newhouse School received personalized video messages from well known Syracuse University alumni such as an MSNBC anchor and the co-founder of Foursquare.

According to article on college decisions in the “Chronicle of Higher Education,” “The Newhouse dean said she wanted a recognizable face from television as well as someone involved in social media to be the alumni who would personally welcome the students and show them that the school is on the cutting edge of technology.” Each video message began with the prominent alum saying hello to the student by the student’s name.

Do you think this strategy will help fight summer melt? Will it make students think twice about changing their college decisions? Let us know your thoughts by posting below! And check out our post: Deciding on Colleges.

College Admissions Decisions


College Decisions, University Admissions Decisions, University Decisions, Admissions Decisions

College admissions decisions are often influenced by expressed interest. Campus newspapers can prove a valuable resource to effectively express interest.

At the vast majority of the most prestigious universities in the nation, an important input in each of the college admissions decisions is interest. Expressing interest in a university means a great deal to top colleges. Think of it like dating. If you don’t express interest, you’re not going to land the person of your dreams. But unlike dating, colleges are rarely turned off if you express too much interest!

Colleges want to know that if admitted, you’ll attend. They want their yield to be high. They want to admit students who are excited about matriculating to the university. They want that enthusiasm and that passion that will in turn inspire others to attend one day as well.

So how do colleges know that you love them? That’s easy. You visit the university. You make contact with your regional admissions counselor. Maybe you apply through the school’s early program if they happen to have one. And in the all important Why College Essay, you cite specifics! One great way to do that is to pick up a copy of the campus newspaper when you’re on campus or – even better – to regularly peruse the online edition of the campus newspaper.

“USA Today” has come out with a great resource to find so many university newspapers. We hope you find the resource helpful as you prepare to write your Why College Essays and plan out your strategy for expressing interest in colleges.

University of Michigan Admissions Decisions


We’re only a couple of days away from the date in which high school students need to inform colleges of where they intend to matriculate. Some students sent in their decision a month ago. Others have waited until these last few days and if the decision was a tough one, waiting was the right choice. Why not give yourself the time to make up your mind? What if you have a change of heart? It’s best to give yourself the time to think your college decision over. But if you are a student who applied to the University of Michigan, the U of M admissions staff didn’t give you that very opportunity. 10,000 of the University of Michigan admissions decisions, after all, just went out exactly one week ago — on April 21st!

The always controversial University of Michigan admissions office received 20% more applications for a projected total of approximately 38,000 applications. With the surge in applications, the university admissions staff had to hire additional admissions counselors and even those hires couldn’t prevent the delay in sending admissions decisions to so many university applicants. Oh please! Every university had a surge in applications and they managed to get their acts together. Hire more readers! Read faster! Don’t require a supplement if it takes you this long to read applications!

College Admissions Decisions, Michigan Admissions Decisions, UMich Admissions Decisions, Michigan Admissions Decisions

The University of Michigan admissions office was super slow this year in notifying all of its applicants. And that's just not right.

It’s just not right that students who received word of their University of Michigan admissions decisions only last week now have one week to decide if that’s the university they wish to attend. What if they already sent in a card to another school indicating they will come because they hadn’t yet heard from Michigan? What if they now want to attend Michigan and have to tell the college they committed to that they changed their mind? What if students are now debating between Michigan and another college and now they don’t have the time to visit Michigan? It’s just not right. University of Michigan, get your act together.

Let’s hear your thoughts by posting below! And check out our recent newsletters on the college admissions process. Contact us today.