College admissions insight

[gatorsmom]

I think people just keep applying to the same top 50 ranked schools on US News (the name brand schools, which includes all the UCs) and that's why they're not getting in. I see parents online posting that their kids applied to 20+ schools that are all ranked in the top 20 (2 separate lists for universities vs LACs) and are now lamenting over multiple rejections and wait lists. There's just way too many kids applying for so little spots at these few schools. There's over 4000 colleges and universities in the US and the majority accept most of their applicants. In fact, for schools not ranked in the top 50, applications are actually way down this year and schools will be scrambling to make their yield on May 1st. DS1 is probably a slightly above average kid (nothing crazy spectacular) and got into 8 of the 9 schools he applied to. He just avoided all reach schools (those in the top 50) since we're full pay for them all, they don't give merit, and no school is worth $70k+ a year in my eyes. It was a pretty stress free process for us and 3 of his final contenders ended up being Colleges That Change Lives schools.


Interest Surges in Top Colleges, While Struggling Ones Scrape for Applicants
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/u...pplicants.html

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I'm really glad to hear that, in your opinion, the majority of the scramble is in the top 50 colleges. I hope you are right. We will start sending out applications this fall but I was mentally preparing for lots of disappointment. I think there was only one top 50 school on DS1's list and he considers it his reach school. Most of his other school choices would be a much better fit for him, imho.

[AnnieW625]

Essnce how did your college trip go? Did you DS1 end up picking a school?


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[Kindra178]

I read an article that said UCLA got 150,000 applications this year, double the normal 75k. Their acceptance rate fell to 6% (was low double digits before).

[ezcc]

I'm really glad to hear that, in your opinion, the majority of the scramble is in the top 50 colleges. I hope you are right. We will start sending out applications this fall but I was mentally preparing for lots of disappointment. I think there was only one top 50 school on DS1's list and he considers it his reach school. Most of his other school choices would be a much better fit for him, imho.

That is exactly what I am seeing, some kids not getting in to their reach schools (Stanford, Princeton, the most competitive LACs) but for the most part getting into their target and safety schools. DS mostly applied to small LACs, some of which are very difficult to get into and was rejected from the 2 top ones but accepted or waitlisted everywhere else. As it turns out, he is going to his safety- it was the only large school he applied to and when he finally was able to visit a few weeks ago decided a larger school seemed like a better fit for him after all- he's thrilled with his decision and that school offered some nice merit aid so we are thrilled as well.

[essnce629]

Essnce how did your college trip go? Did you DS1 end up picking a school?


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DS1 and I had a great time on our 11 day mom and son college trip! We toured 5 schools in 4 different cities in the Pacific Northwest. It was basically a food and college tour!

DS had been leaning towards Whitman College for months BUT it was way out of our original budget (like $17k a year more even after his $14k a year in merit initially). We attended their Admitted Student Saturday in person 2 weeks ago and then immediately came home and drafted our appeal. We qualify for zero need based aid so our only hope was way more merit. DS wrote a letter basically saying what drew him to Whitman (including specifics from attending the Admitted Student Saturday), told them that our budget all along was the price of a UC school but that a small liberal arts college is what is the best fit, and that Whitman was his first choice but the most expensive choice out of the 8 schools he had gotten into. We included a comparison spreadsheet of all the current colleges’ net costs and attached the aid letters of each school he’s been accepted to. We just heard back that they gave him an additional $16k a year in merit, bringing the total merit to $30k a year! That puts Whitman squarely in our budget and now he can commit. We knew from day one that we would always appeal his first choice school. You have nothing to lose and a ton to gain! Colleges are a business and in the end they need to make their yield and financial goals. If they didn’t budge in price then we could walk and they’d get $0 from us. So in the end it was a win win situation. We got the price we wanted and they are still getting money from us and another student to add to their yield numbers. I looked over their Common Data Sets from the past couple of years and saw that their freshman class from last year was significantly smaller due to Covid. I assumed they were at risk for not making their yield again (they are actually still accepting applications) and therefore we had the upper hand as the consumer. Also, most small liberal arts colleges skew very heavily female, with Whitman being 60% female, 40% male. I knew they needed more males. And in another crazy turn of events my in-laws have offered to pay for Whitman, but now that the price is in our original budget, if anything goes awry with the in-laws we know we can still afford it on our own. We are all ecstatic for how things turned out!

I just checked and Whitman is ranked #47 for LACs in the US, so I guess he did apply to a school in the top 50, plus 2 UC schools since we're in CA. Whitman has an acceptance rate of 56%, probably due to it's location. If it was in a bigger city I think it would be much more popular. It wasn't even on our list of schools to visit last year because it was such a far drive from Seattle. It's truly a hidden gem and we probably would have never known about it if it wasn't for the Colleges that Change Lives book that I read DS1's freshman year.

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[3isEnough]

Wow Latia, that's fantastic! Congrats to your son for finding a college he loves and getting it at a price point that works for your family! I posted above that my DS is deciding between 2 UCs. The best part about that for us is that each is $15K-ish per year in tuition - win/win! He had considered applying to a private university in CA but the costs there would have been $70K-ish/year and we don't qualify for need-based aid, so that was a hard number to accept when we have 2 more to put through college.

ETA: regarding the reduction in applications the OP asked about, we were only focused on CA public schools so I was completely unaware that applications dropped off at the colleges not considered to be in the top 50. This is a really strange college admissions cycle, due largely to the pandemic but also the last-second elimination of test scores at some schools.

[georgiegirl]

DS1 and I had a great time on our 11 day mom and son college trip! We toured 5 schools in 4 different cities in the Pacific Northwest. It was basically a food and college tour!

DS had been leaning towards Whitman College for months BUT it was way out of our original budget (like $17k a year more even after his $14k a year in merit initially). We attended their Admitted Student Saturday in person 2 weeks ago and then immediately came home and drafted our appeal. We qualify for zero need based aid so our only hope was way more merit. DS wrote a letter basically saying what drew him to Whitman (including specifics from attending the Admitted Student Saturday), told them that our budget all along was the price of a UC school but that a small liberal arts college is what is the best fit, and that Whitman was his first choice but the most expensive choice out of the 8 schools he had gotten into. We included a comparison spreadsheet of all the current colleges’ net costs and attached the aid letters of each school he’s been accepted to. We just heard back that they gave him an additional $16k a year in merit, bringing the total merit to $30k a year! That puts Whitman squarely in our budget and now he can commit. We knew from day one that we would always appeal his first choice school. You have nothing to lose and a ton to gain! Colleges are a business and in the end they need to make their yield and financial goals. If they didn’t budge in price then we could walk and they’d get $0 from us. So in the end it was a win win situation. We got the price we wanted and they are still getting money from us and another student to add to their yield numbers. I looked over their Common Data Sets from the past couple of years and saw that their freshman class from last year was significantly smaller due to Covid. I assumed they were at risk for not making their yield again (they are actually still accepting applications) and therefore we had the upper hand as the consumer. Also, most small liberal arts colleges skew very heavily female, with Whitman being 60% female, 40% male. I knew they needed more males. And in another crazy turn of events my in-laws have offered to pay for Whitman, but now that the price is in our original budget, if anything goes awry with the in-laws we know we can still afford it on our own. We are all ecstatic for how things turned out!

I just checked and Whitman is ranked #47 for LACs in the US, so I guess he did apply to a school in the top 50, plus 2 UC schools since we're in CA. Whitman has an acceptance rate of 56%, probably due to it's location. If it was in a bigger city I think it would be much more popular. It wasn't even on our list of schools to visit last year because it was such a far drive from Seattle. It's truly a hidden gem and we probably would have never known about it if it wasn't for the Colleges that Change Lives book that I read DS1's freshman year.

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That’s awesome! I’ve heard a lot of good things about Whitman. I’m so happy for him and your family

[California]

Congratulations LatÃ*a! Isn’t a good feeling when they find the right fit? And agree that asking for more merit aid is worth the effort.

Regarding the UCs being test optional- the higher-ups in the UC system have wanted to go this route for a long time. COVID-19 gave them the opportunity to move forward. I believe the plan is to remain test optional for several years, potentially indefinitely. The tests are only marginally better than grades at predicting college retention/graduation rates, wealthy students tend to get higher scores, and thus the tests are a known and significant barrier to admissions for under-represented students. I don’t see them changing from test-optional anytime soon (if ever.)

[westwoodmom04]

I highly recommend this book originally recommended here by Stantonhyde, https://smile.amazon.com/Who-Gets-Wh...s%2C204&sr=8-2 It's an easy and interesting read and does a deep dive into the college admissions process.

If colleges aren't using the SAT and ACT in the admissions process, then they will have to rely on primarily on grades and essays to determine which kids are a good fit for their school. I suspect they will go back to requiring standardized test scores because it makes their job easier.

Princeton recently said it does not plan on being test optional after next year. I expect others will follow for the reason you mentioned.

[wendibird22]

I think people just keep applying to the same top 50 ranked schools on US News (the name brand schools, which includes all the UCs) and that's why they're not getting in. I see parents online posting that their kids applied to 20+ schools that are all ranked in the top 20 (2 separate lists for universities vs LACs) and are now lamenting over multiple rejections and wait lists. There's just way too many kids applying for so little spots at these few schools. There's over 4000 colleges and universities in the US and the majority accept most of their applicants. In fact, for schools not ranked in the top 50, applications are actually way down this year and schools will be scrambling to make their yield on May 1st. DS1 is probably a slightly above average kid (nothing crazy spectacular) and got into 8 of the 9 schools he applied to. He just avoided all reach schools (those in the top 50) since we're full pay for them all, they don't give merit, and no school is worth $70k+ a year in my eyes. It was a pretty stress free process for us and 3 of his final contenders ended up being Colleges That Change Lives schools.


Interest Surges in Top Colleges, While Struggling Ones Scrape for Applicants
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/u...pplicants.html

Sent from my SM-A515U1 using Tapatalk

Congratulations LatÃ*a! Isn’t a good feeling when they find the right fit? And agree that asking for more merit aid is worth the effort.

Regarding the UCs being test optional- the higher-ups in the UC system have wanted to go this route for a long time. COVID-19 gave them the opportunity to move forward. I believe the plan is to remain test optional for several years, potentially indefinitely. The tests are only marginally better than grades at predicting college retention/graduation rates, wealthy students tend to get higher scores, and thus the tests are a known and significant barrier to admissions for under-represented students. I don’t see them changing from test-optional anytime soon (if ever.)

Yes to both of these. I work in HEd. Nationwide applications to college are down simply because there's a decline in high school population. The prestigious schools have more apps than they know what to do with and everyone else is struggling.

And yes, most schools will stay test optional permanently. They are a poor predictor of success and are a huge barrier to enrolling underrepresented populations. Anyone with a DEI enrollment strategy cannot meet that goal without going test optional. I'm sure some elite privates are not worried about their DEI enrollment and will bring back SAT/ACT to help them manage the deluge of applications.