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By Rick
Clark, Georgia Tech Admissions
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My wife has celiac disease. While many people do not know
exactly what that is, they have at least heard of “gluten” and are familiar
with the GF or grain symbol on food labels in the grocery store or at
restaurants. 20 years ago, however, when she was first diagnosed, that was
definitely not the case. In fact, going out to eat was an incredible hassle.
“Can you tell me if this is gluten free?” inevitably resulted in a bemused
and moderately annoyed manager emerging from the back. Most of the time,
despite our best efforts to provide examples, there was more head scratching
(disturbing around food) and eyebrow furrowing than recognition or
appreciation of the issue. In many cases, to be safe, Amy would just order a
salad- sometimes bringing her own dressing to be sure.
One Saturday a month we went to a “Gluten-sensitive support
group,” aka GSSG, which was 20 miles from our house in Atlanta. In a city of
several million people, there was only one group- giving you an idea of how
little known the issue was at that time. During those meetings, people shared
advice on which doctors to see, where they had been able to find gluten free
products in health food stores (never regular grocery stores), and also
exchanged recipes. At the end of each meeting, people shared their latest
baked good product or casserole. I looked forward to those meetings the way
you look forward to taking an SAT- that is to say- not at all. At best the
food tasted like salty cardboard and at worst… well, let’s just say twice in
my recollection I had to quickly walk to the bathroom sink to spit out
whatever half masticated delicacy I’d partially ingested.
Bottom line is if you had celiac disease, or a significant
gluten allergy at that time, there were extremely few choices and options.
Even as a spouse, it felt limiting.
Choice and Options
Along with my staff, we have written extensively in the past
about “what colleges are looking for.” We’ve covered GPA, rigor of
curriculum, activities and involvement, essays, more about essays, plenty of
ink spilled and callouses grown writing about writing, teacher recs,
interviews, etc. And all of that is accurate, helpful, and worth checking
out. But what do colleges really want? Regardless of their size, geographic
location, or athletic conference, they want the same thing-- Choices and
Options. They don’t want to have to “just have a salad” and bring their own
dressing. They want a full menu. And their
desire- or hunger as it were (really just wrote this entire blog to use that
phrase)- for choices and options explains a lot about your college admission
experience.
College Search (mail, email, etc.) –
If you are a sophomore or
junior, you have started to receive more and more email,
postcards, and other glossy, shiny solicitations from colleges. Maybe this
sounds familiar:
“Dear <<insert name here>>” check out our campus.”
Notice all these kids of different ethnicities hanging out together snacking
while studying on our super green grass. It just so happens when we took this
picture that there were three benches in the background occupied by students
engrossed in important discussions about today’s issues.
They say they want you to visit, check out their website, fill
out this card, or ultimately apply for admission. Does this mean you will get
in? Absolutely not. Does it mean you are competitive for admission at their
school? No. So why did they buy your name, spend money on bulk rate postage,
or invest copious time debating whether to include a picture of the kid studying
abroad in Spain or the one of the students looking closely at a colored
liquid in a campus laboratory? Two words (ok, technically three): Choices and
Options.
Colleges cast a very wide net to encourage students to check
out their school, but they have limited information about you when doing
that. Perhaps they have your test score or a sense of what classes you have
taken. Maybe they are trying to attract more students from your state or
city, or they saw you (or your mom) indicated an interest in Chemistry on a
survey or test registration form (hence the lab pic).
Post- Covid (I’m just going to keep saying that ‘til it’s
truly a thing) it is tougher to visit high schools during the school day.
Traveling is also time intensive and expensive. Sending hundreds of thousands
of emails and mailing broadly prospective students- what schools refer to as
“student search”- is a big part of their enrollment strategy. Build a big
funnel of students, see who is really interested, see who applies, admit
those they want, and voila- a class.
What does this mean for you? The
good news is contact from a variety of schools helps you see a bigger
picture. At times, we all have a tendency to be too narrowly focused.
Receiving information from places you have never heard of challenges you to
ask bigger questions about what you really want or need- not just default to
what you recognize. On the flipside, too many students believe that the
number of times a college contacts them correlates to their odds of being
admitted. Nope. Just because a school sends you pithy emails or a lovely fold
out poster of their gothic campus nestled just south of the city does not
mean the wind is ultimately going to blow you into the admit pool. Take these
mailings with a big grain of salt (or a sodium laced circa 2003 gluten-free
experiment).
Admission Decisions- If you are a senior,
unless you applied to a college who explicitly stated they are using a
formula to make admission decisions, they are not using a formula to make
admission decisions. Holistic admission means they draw circles more than
lines. When you hear admission reps say, “We are looking for a well-rounded
class…” they mean they want choices and options. It’s not just going to be
about your test score or number of AP classes. This means a few things.
First, it means you are likely to see a student with lower
grades or fewer activities get into a school that denies you. Their decisions
are based on goals and mission. They want choices and options. They are
trying to “build a class” not just hit ENTER on an Excel sheet to figure out
who gets in. Is this fair? NO. But they don’t call it Fair Admissions. They
call it Holistic Admission- probably because “Choices and Options Admission”
rolls off the tongue like Debbie’s gluten free casserole in the GSSG
bathroom.
Second, it means if you are deferred admission, they are not
saying you are not smart, or they don’t like you, or that you should have
joined the French Club back in sophomore year and that would have done the
trick. Instead, they are saying we’d like to see our full set of choices and
options. Send us your fall grades or maybe write another supplemental essay
(good times!) about why you really
want to come.
Fun to wait? Absolutely not. I polled 100 humans recently
about their five favorite things to do in life and surprisingly nobody listed
“Waiting.” But understanding the WHY
matters. Too many students take a deferral as an ego hit. Or they are mad,
confused, and feel wronged. Deferrals- and ultimately waitlist decisions- are
part of the process. What do colleges want? Choices and Options, people.
Choices AND Options.
Lastly, it means you may get into a school with a higher
ranking or a lower admit rate than another school that denies or defers you.
Each year after we release admission decisions, we get calls or notes
starting, “With all due respect… (Note: This is the southern equivalent of
“Bless your heart…” and basically should be interpreted as “I’m about to tell
you why you are wrong or clueless.”) I think you have made a mistake. See, I
was admitted to/ got a scholarship from (insert supposedly better college
here), so I’d like you to re-review my application.” First, that’s not a
valid appeal. Second, what led to the decision was that particular school's
choices and options based fulfilling their distinct institutional priorities.
As I said earlier, colleges often look the same on their
websites or brochures. A picture is worth 1000 words, but when all the
pictures are the same, it can seem like all colleges are too. Thankfully,
they are not. At the end of the day, they all have different goals, different
priorities, and different processes for enrolling our students. What they are
“looking for” varies widely, but the one thing all colleges want is Choices and
Options.
The good news is you can learn a lot about how to approach
your college search and selection experience from understanding how colleges
approach building their class. And we’ll cover that next time. Until then,
have a great Thanksgiving Break. Eat well, take a nap, read something that’s
not been assigned, and as always- Hug your mama.
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