It's Gonna Be A Weird Year (Archived, Sept 2019)

So- it's going to be a weird year for college admissions.

The "Aunt Becky" scandal has admissions officers spooked and looking over their shoulders. Admissions decisions for recruited athletes and for students with documented learning differences are liable to be more closely scrutinized than ever. The College Board both introduced and euthanized its Adversity Score before it could affect even one admissions cycle. The "top" thirty colleges have lower acceptance rates than ever (e.g., Duke has gone from accepting 21% in 2007 to accepting 8% in 2018), while thousands of terrific (but lesser known) colleges are facing financial crises because of declining enrollments. Lots of column inches are being given over to "why don't people just train to be plumbers" op-ed pieces lauding vocational training as a solution to student debt/underemployment. The whole world of college admissions (and general social attitudes about academia) is changing radically and rapidly.

Every bit of this is based in something real. Yes, we need to address how privilege helps guarantee acceptances; while the Adversity Score was all kinds of problematic, it was acknowledging real inequities. Yes, having a "name-brand" on your diploma does get you a certain amount of marketability, regardless of whether you've gotten a "better" education. And no, everyone does not need to go to college (nor incur massive debt) to have a fulfilling, useful, and lucrative career.

Having said all this, how are admissions going to be this year for you- the good student, hard worker, normal-to-high achieving high school student (or the parent of such)? Probably absolutely and completely normal. If you're not trying to cheat your way in by faking a learning difference, you're not pretending to be an athlete if you aren't, you're not going to "just die" if you don't get into Harvard/Stanford/Hogwarts, and if you're not secretly suppressing your electrician dreams to be an Art History major, you'll be fine! (If you are an athlete or if you have a learning difference, get your papers, documents, diagnoses in order.) If you're trying to get into a college because it's a great fit and not because it looks good on a bumper sticker, you'll do fine. Will you get in everywhere you apply? Probably not- if you do, you probably weren't ambitious enough in your list. But if you do things right (and yes, I can help with that), you will get into more than one school that's an intellectual, social, spiritual, and financial match, and you'll be left with a choice between terrific options! And all the Aunt Beckies in the world won't be able to take a thing from you!