Additions to the College Admissions Landscape

In recent years, more colleges have introduced indirect means of assessing student interest and engagement.

This is a guest post from Kristen Miller, an independent college counselor in Portland, Oregon. Kristen is the founder and owner of College Bound & Ready.

As college-bound seniors finish up their applications and await their college decisions, juniors should be considering what factors will be important to them in choosing a college, as well as researching what each college considers and requires of students when they apply.  For both juniors and seniors, there are a few relatively new factors to be aware of in the college admission process.

Demonstrated Interest

Demonstrated interest has become an increasingly important tool to help colleges with enrollment management. Colleges are businesses charged with filling just the right amount of beds and seats each year and trying to offer just enough financial aid (no more, no less) to entice students to attend. To help determine who is likely to accept an offer of admission, and at what price, colleges track a student’s behavior to gauge their interest level.  The very first time a student engages with a college (via responding to an email or mailing, visiting a college, or connecting with an admissions staff member) a file is started in the student’s name and points can be given. In some cases, showing demonstrated interest (and applying early) can be the equivalent of a 100-point increase in SAT score and a .25 boost in GPA.

Students should research whether or not a school tracks demonstrated interest and what tools are available to demonstrate interest for that college.  Two specific things to look out for are Admission Interviews and Early Admission. Applying Early Decision (ED) signifies that one school is your top choice, and if you are accepted, it is a binding agreement that you will attend and withdraw all other applications. With Early Action (EA), you apply early, find out if you will be offered admission early (usually by winter break), yet still have time to compare other offers and wait to make a decision until May 1. Applying ED or EA can often increase your chances of admission (statistically) if you are a strong applicant – an applicant within the middle or upper range of the school’s average statistics. It is a benefit to the college to accept applicants ED because they are guaranteed to fill a certain number of their spots with strong applicants. Even with EA, the likelihood that students will accept offers of admission are higher (especially if they’ve shown demonstrated interest in other ways). Therefore, some colleges take a greater percentage of students in the early rounds.

Before applying early (especially ED) you should review the downsides to applying early, and make sure to do your research or consult an advisor before deciding when to apply.  Each school has different early application policies and restrictions, so you must do the research to understand if you are a strong enough candidate to apply early and what applying early means at that institution.

Not all colleges offer interviews to college applicants, but it is a great way to show interest in a school when interviews are available. Some colleges offer informational (vs. evaluative) interviews when students visit their campuses. This is a great opportunity to get to know a college and its offerings, and to ask an admission representative specific questions about programs you are considering. These are not considered in admissions decisions. Other colleges offer admission interviews, either by admissions representatives or alumni. Students should research if interviews are offered, if they are evaluative, where they are offered (on campus, locally, or via Skype), and schedule them early as availability is not guaranteed.

Spring Admission

A trend that I am increasingly seeing is students being admitted to schools as Spring Admits instead of being admitted in the fall. More and more selective colleges and universities are offering students who are not quite as strong as other admitted applicants, but who have shown demonstrated interest and are otherwise a great fit for the school, can be offered delayed admission in the form of spring term admission. Other colleges state that students being offered spring admission are just as strong as fall admits, but the college just doesn’t have space.  

Offering spring admission to students allows colleges to offer more students admission and helps fill spaces vacated on campuses due to attrition, mid-year graduation and study abroad programs. This can come as a shock to students while they contemplate attending the college of their dreams but having to give up their image of what heading off to college should look like. Some colleges are upfront about the possibility of spring admission and offer this as an option during the application process. Middlebury College has been offering a portion of first-year students spring admission for 40 years. Others offer it as a “take it or leave it” admission decision. Once the initial shock and disappointment wears off, students should evaluate their other offers and compare them to the spring admission program.

When considering a Spring Admission offer, it is important that your fall semester be busy and productive, even if you won’t be on campus. This can be a great opportunity to work and save money for college, travel abroad, or potentially get a jump start on college courses. Pay attention to what will happen once you arrive on campus.  How will the school welcome and integrate you in January? Where will you live? Does the Spring Admit program offer an established travel abroad option for fall semester? Can you take college courses elsewhere during the fall? And if so, how many credits? What courses will transfer? Will you be able to participate in Sorority or Fraternity rush as a freshman when you get to campus in the spring?

Try to connect with other Spring/January Admits for support and to establish friendships prior to arriving on campus.  I recently worked with a very resourceful high school senior admitted to Tulane as a spring admit. She connected with other spring admits on Facebook to coordinate a semester abroad together at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Not only will she arrive in New Orleans in January with a group of friends, but she has also negotiated the ability to take 9 credits abroad, bring with her from high school three IB credits, and qualify to participate in rush at the start of the 2nd semester. Oh, and have a fabulous semester in Italy, to boot.  That’s what I call making lemonade!

ZeeMee and Resumes

A recent trend to the application process is ZeeMee.com as well as the increasing number of colleges prompting students with the option of attaching their resume. ZeeMee is a free video app that was originally designed as an online, visual resume with options to attach a short video. In August 2017, they changed to be solely for use on iOS or Android phones. Students have the option of adding short (26-second) videos to their college applications to help colleges get to know them in a quick, visual manner, as well as highlight a talent, skill, or passion that doesn’t come across strongly on paper. How applications are read, and how much time is spent reviewing an application varies greatly depending on the college and the strength of the applicant (time spent can range from 5-30 minutes). Adding a visual component can help an applicant stand out. The example an Elon University admissions representative recently shared was a student who made her own Halloween costumes. Listing “Handmade Halloween costumes” on an activity list might not come across as impressive, but showing videos of the many creative, and complicated costumes she designed over the years emphasized her creativity, passion and dedication.

While the change in ZeeMee’s platform has gotten mixed reviews, more counselors and students seem to be in favor of the growing number of colleges allowing students to attach their activity resumes to college applications. The numbers have been grown steadily, with this year’s applicants (2019 high school graduates) seeing almost 1/3 of all colleges on the Common Application allowing this option. College applications often offer very limited space for students to explain what they contributed and/or gained from participating in an activity (i.e. the Common App only allows 150 characters to do so). For students that have more activities to share than the 10 allowed on the Common Application, or for students with details they would like to share about their involvement, and for students with links to articles or videos they would like to share with colleges, this is a great opportunity to elaborate on what makes the student unique.

All of the above are optional components of the college application process. However, if a student starts the college admissions process early enough to research, plan and create strong work, the tools mentioned here can increase a student’s chance of being accepted to their school of choice.