THE BRIDGE TO COLLEGE

Beware This Year’s New Admissions Strategies!

By Robert A.G. LeVine

By Robert LeVine

Every year, colleges adjust their admissions methods for various reasons. Unfortunately, new strategies can be perilous for applicants.

This year, there are traps everywhere!

It’s been a trend recently that colleges are moving away from “preferring” applicants who apply by “Early” deadlines. Why? By pushing more applicants into the Regular Decision pool, colleges can artificially lower their admissions statistics and appear more competitive, largely to convince happy alumni to increase their donations to the school. So far, we have seen this strategy become even more popular this year.

Look out for schools that have eliminated their supplemental essays to entice more applicants to apply. Mathematically, that makes those schools more competitive than they used to be.

However, to look even more competitive, the recent trend has been to defer Early applicants into the Regular pool. Again, they are artificially adjusting their numbers. Although you may think it won’t make a difference to you, note two potential problems. First, your application may go stale and lifeless over time, and thus admissions officers may prefer more recent applicants whose files are fresh in their minds. Second, your first admissions work is invariably your least mature work. To maximize your chances of selection, submit your best possible application, which is usually not the first one.

And now for the biggest change of all….

This year, many public universities have elected to offer Early Decision as an option. They claim this will give you an earlier answer than in previous years, somewhere around the second week of December. In Florida, both UF and FSU are offering this new plan.

Does this mean that your odds of admission will go up? Maybe, maybe not.

Because an Early Decision (ED) application binds the student if the university says “yes,” ED allows the university exclusivity and certainty in building its class. However, that does not necessarily mean that your odds will go up. Oh, they will tell you that filing ED increases your chances, but that’s a half truth. Statistically, that’s accurate, but because of the greater number of applicants who will not apply ED (because they don’t want to be bound), the numbers are apples and oranges.

But now I want to come back to the foundational characteristic of ED. You will be bound to that school. Although you can apply to other universities, if your ED school accepts you, then you must immediately withdraw your applications to those other universities. No choice.

Remember how they told you in grade school that something might “go on your permanent record?” In this industry, if you try to disregard the binding ED contract that you (and your high school) will sign in your application, bad things happen. I’m not kidding. I’ve seen it. Multiple times. Don’t try it.

In their fervor to announce this wonderful change, the schools are downplaying the limiting effects of ED. Oh, they do use the word “binding” on their websites, but high schoolers and their parents who have never navigated the admissions morass might stumble into a result they did not intend. Many students use their local public universities as “safety” schools while they pursue Ivy+ options or other coveted landing spots. If you apply ED, those other options will disappear if your state school selects you.

As you may know by now, I’m not usually a fan of ED for most students. I’ve seen hundreds of students change their wants and needs during grade 12, and I loathe the idea that you might give up your options for an idea that might not ultimately be in your best interest. I like our students to have choices so they can make their best decisions when they have the most information.

That being said, there are times when we recommend ED to certain students. So, what I’m trying to relate to you is this:

Don’t apply ED just because you think it offers a coupon that will increase your chances to obtain a decent school. Instead, pick the college that is the absolute best for you.

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