Main Article: Lessons Learned from the Class of 2019 Application Season

This is the largest class of seniors I have worked with in my career to date. Every year, I seem to walk away with two or three new perspectives, based on my observations of these students, their families, and the dynamics surrounding that year’s college application season. Here’s what I have observed thusfar this year.

For the record, my students run the gamut: I have my share of students with 4-point something GPA’s and astronomical test scores, and I also have those students who are on the fence between being capable of handling a four-year school and being better served by attending a community college first. So, when I share my observations, know that they cover the full spread of kids I work with.

The first observation is about understanding the wonderful world of early applications. I had a number of my seniors originally plan to participate in some EA and/or ED applications, and some got the job done, but others procrastinated and needed to push back those early applications to the regular decision window. Is this going to cause them any harm? It’s hard to say at this early stage. What I can say is that, once again, procrastination can kill, and you as students and parents need to have a plan of attack and follow it when it comes to the college application process. Doing so will reduce stress in the long-run, and if the plan is well-designed (as my students have in-hand), the benefits of applying to certain schools on an early track will add the value we seek. This doesn’t mean apply early everywhere, as some families are inclined to encourage. This can actually make things much worse for certain students…but that is for another discussion at another time.

This year I found the number of students who encountered ‘writer’s block’ to be significant and something of a concern. The best advice I can share is to encourage seniors to start the writing process EARLY – like in the summer before they actually start the senior year – and get their feet wet with this process. This doesn’t mean they should finish the writing for all of their college applications in the summer, by no means is this a practical target, but I do think it makes sense to examine the Common App, Coalition App, and the UC App essay selections (if any of them show up on the student’s college radar) and do some early writing and brainstorming about what they wish to say about their experiences, talents, journey toward college, trials and tribulations, etc.

Next is the long-standing trend of highly selective college admissions and the data that has followed them over the past decade. The perspective that it is more and more difficult each year, by percentage, to gain entry to a highly selective school (one that admits fewer than 25% of the students who apply in a given year) is not the issue. Yes, that is a true statement in most cases, but it’s not the observation I mean to convey here. What I am seeing is an inability for high-achieving students, and particularly, their parents, to see the forest from the trees when it comes to just how competitive this swatch of schools is to gain entry to. I give presentations about this all over the state, but I seem to be reaching a smaller percentage of families each and every year.

Let me put it another way: your (or your son’s/ daughter’s) 4.27 GPA and 1430 SAT score are impressive – they suggest the student is in the top 5% of the United States in their age group. What it does not say, is that they are entitled to admission to ANY highly selective college.

First, most highly selective schools read much deeper into their candidates than just curriculum, grades, and test scores. If they didn’t, what would be point of hiring someone like me? In my travels, and after meeting with nearly a thousand families in consultation and working with hundreds of them, I can say there is a HUGE difference between grades and ability, and they don’t always coincide with one another. I have worked with plenty of kids who are good at grinding out A’s and earning splendid GPA’s because they are dedicated and hard-working, or because they attend high schools with a grade inflation problem. I also have kids who just don’t care that much about certain classes or grinding out A’s, but you can tell when having a conversation with them that they have the ‘gift’ – that special combination of intellect and wisdom – that is still fighting with their adolescence to win out. This difference almost always rears its ugly head when examining application essays.

I read and edited more essays this season than ever before; I’m up to somewhere around 475 edited drafts this past Fall alone. What I can share with you is that the quality of writing is not bound by a student’s GPA – far from it. But I can say, with some clarity, that students who have mastered this part of their game will fare far better than those who struggle with this specific writing style (the autobiographical narrative).

My average student will submit 3-4 drafts per essay before they are happy with it (i.e. they can look at their computer and say they love the work on the screen, or at least really like what they have accomplished). But I have one or two students who have ‘the gift’ and require nearly no editing assistance and who are not stressed to share who they are and what they have accomplished in high school (and what they wish to accomplish in college and beyond). These students almost always succeed in the process, not just because they are good writers, but because they are confident writers. They ooze confidence in their writing, and as most schools don’t require interviews, this is the closest a school will get to looking a student in the eye and shake their hand, before getting to know them and their fit within their learning and living communities.

Speaking of essays, there is one other observation that was particularly striking this year. Many of my students struggled with the balance between positive and negative aspects from their own lives that were recounted in their narratives. In the past, my biggest issue revolved around keeping braggadocious kids from sounding like they were too high on their proverbial horse. This year, it seems like it is nearly impossible to get kids to focus on the positive attributes and values they bring to the table; rather, they seem so much more comfortable discussing the negative experiences and values they have learned along the way. In asking one of my students about this issue, they said the standard has become so high that the expectation is near perfection – anything less is considered a failure by both parents and friends. As such, the pressures on students have led them to examine the negative aspects of their lives, as that is where their focus tends to drift through training. This is not a good trend. I would strongly encourage parents, in particular, to recognize the positives in your kids, especially when they are struggling, to provide balance in their lives and reassure them that grades and test scores alone do not make or break college admission decisions – that the human being that exists under their skin is equally important.

I look at this issue of positivity and negativity like it was a resume review. If you put yourself down in a resume, and show strangers who are attempting to evaluate your abilities and fit within a new and challenging learning community, that you have struggled with depression, drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, and the like, you make it tough for them to see the amazing person that you really are! If you conquered one of these mountains in high school, focus on the conquering and how you are better for the experience, how you help others overcome disorders, bullying, test anxiety, etc., don’t dwell on the negative attributes!

Even with a significant amount of polish on the essays, and working through the extra-curricular list, the highly selective populations almost always want to see one or more letters of recommendation from the school counselor and faculty members. This is another area where the work has to be put in months or years in advance to get the dividends the family believes it has coming to them. This is one more category where simply having an A or even possessing the highest grade in the class doesn’t mean as much as you would think. Build strong relationships with faculty you care about students! This will ultimately matter at the most selective schools.

Now we can take a step back and reexamine the original statement: the perspective that it is more and more difficult each year, by percentage, to gain entry to a highly selective school. As Californians, we look at schools like Stanford (down to 4.7% admission), USC (down to 12.8% admission) and UCLA (down to 14% admission) and believe that admissions have become a lottery. Far from it, folks. Every one of the applications submitted to these schools is carefully read and reviewed, by at least two different readers, usually more, and each school has a lengthy list of values and goals that they need to fulfill in their incoming freshman classes that they seek in their applicant pools, including making the faculty happy.

No one from the office of admission is drawing a chalk circle outside of the reading room, climbing up to the roof, and throwing all the apps off the edge – and then admitting only those lucky few that land in the circle. The point is that the student who gets admitted has more than just statistics on their side. They are the whole package, OR they fulfill a specific need for the university in question. That could be something easily identifiable, like a top-rated-quarterback for the football team, or an exceptionally talented actor or musician, or a potential wealthy donor (family), or female engineers, because the college of engineering recently received a sizable grant for such a population. No decision is made by happenstance. There is almost always a good reason why a student is selected for admission – we might not be privy to why that ultimate decision was made, but we can be reassured that it was made for a good reason for the university’s benefit.

There’s a reason why people like me exist; we are here not just to edit essays and review applications, build college lists, and send reminders to you when deadlines are approaching. We, as counselors, are here to share our collective knowledge and wisdom about the entire world of college and beyond. If you are not using this wisdom, you are wasting a tremendous resource that could make a sizable difference in the outcome of a young person’s life. I suggest you use it.