Being denied college admissions can feel like one’s identity and experiences are wholly inadequate. However, remembering that college admissions officers’ decisions are not a measure of one’s worth or defining of one’s potential. Here are some possible ways to cope with the inevitable emotion of being denied admissions: Being frustrated, disappointed, numb, jealous of others…
Tag: Early admissions
University of Southern California’s First Early Action Results
On Friday, January 20, 2023, according to a newsletter sent to counselors, the University of Southern California (USC) admissions officers admitted its first ever class of approximately 2400 Early Action candidates, a 5.9% admit rate. 40,600 first year applicants requested admissions by the November 1, 2022 Early Action deadline, which was also the deadline for…
The Seldom Told Story of Early Admissions
In the next few weeks, students who applied early admissions, both Early Action and Early Decision, will be: Admitted, Denied, or Deferred to the Regular Decision pool. Yet, in Teenager the three admissions responses (respectively) translate to: Validated (or Vindicated), Rejected and In-Between rejected but not a rejection. For students (and sometimes parents), the admissions…
Twas Days Before The Early Admissions Deadline…
Twas days before the first Early Admissions deadline Students are furiously typing, their parents fretting Online applications half completed Teenagers rationalizing the form “won’t take that long to complete” Yet, their parents hover, murmuring about “crashed servers”, Admonishing not to submit at the “last minute”, literally 11:59 pm On the deadline day Still visions of…
Early Admissions Explained
Applying to college is confusing enough, as a teenager pauses to reflect on their young life to date in order to enter adulthood with an understanding of themselves. Then, in determining when to apply, applicants can only add confusion. So, to dispel urban legend about Early Admissions, I’ll explain Early Action, Early Decision and differences…
The Risks of Applying Early Decision
Many students as well as their parents believe that if they apply Early Decision they have an “advantage” given the higher admit rate over regular decision. However, given Early Decision is a binding choice, where students MUST enroll (legal but is it constitutional?) If admitted, considering the pros and cons therefore is prudent. While the…
College Admissions Mis-Information
Although hearsay, defined as: “information received from other people that one cannot adequately substantiate”, is not admissible in any court of law, every day, every year, families make complex educational choices, consequential for their children’s prosperity, based on the hearsay, passing as truth, circulated along The Parent Network, distorted with each retelling, which may have been a selective…
To Apply Early Or Not That Is The Question
“I’ll have a better chance of admission if I apply early, right?” is a popular question at this time of year, every year. Applicants, seeking any seeming advantage in the admissions process, believing the objective is winning a vaunted acceptance letter, can naively choose to apply during early admissions rounds. Groomed since Pre-K, many current…
Changes to Early Admissions for Fall 2021
College admissions officers are changing Fall 2021 early admissions opportunities, both Early Action and Early Decision. Early Action is defined as applying typically in November to receive an admissions decision in mid-Winter, without having to commit to enrollment until May of the following spring. Early Decision means applying early to receive a mid-winter admissions decision…
Princeton Suspends Early Action for Fall 2021
On June 18, 2020, Princeton University’s Dean of Admissions, Karen Richardson, temporarily suspended Princeton’s Single-Choice Early Action deadline for the Fall 2021 application cycle. All first year applicants will apply using a single deadline of January 1, 2021. Princeton is the first university in the U.S. to suspend the early admissions process for Fall 2021…
Potential SAT or ACT Cancellations due to COVID-19 Concerns
Updated: March 11, 2020 7:52 pm As some public health officials are recommending restricting large public gatherings greater than 10 people to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus and some schools, which are testing centers are closing, the potential exists for cancellation of the March 14, 2020 SAT and the April 4, 2020 ACT,…
The Costs of Cheating
Recent articles highlighting cheating in college here and here and here, may be shocking to some or just an everyday commonplace for others or somewhere in between both reactions. However, none of the authors of the aforementioned articles question why students and seemingly more students than in the past believe that cheating in college is…
The Early Admissions Arms Race
According to the Common Application, “around 860,000” applications were submitted on November 1, 2019 for Early Action, Early Decision and Regular Decision application deadlines, which for the first time, exceeded the “around 720,000” applications submitted last year on January 1 for traditional Regular Decision deadlines. The increasingly competitive nature of the college admissions process—evident in…
Only 2.43% Made the Cut
By definition, “highly selective college admissions” means more applicants denied than accepted. Harvard’s admissions results put the exclamation mark on the above statement. 98% or 40,003 people, a combination of “36,119 regular decision applicants, plus the 4,882 students deferred in the early action process” were denied admissions for Fall 2018. And, before assuming that applying Early…
Early Admissions: “The New Normal”
In what’s increasingly becoming an “Arms Race” of admissions, more and more students are applying early admissions. The higher admit rates during early admissions in comparison with the regular decision period seemingly indicates greater chances for admissions. For the current Class of 2021, 14.5% of Early Action applicants to Harvard were admitted, while during Regular…