College Admissions and Match.com

The college admissions process is very much like dating. Don't believe me? Think about cycle of your typical Hollywood romantic comedy: They meet, they fall in love, they break up and then get together again.

College admissions is not so different, except that the cycles are defined and repeat annually. In the spring on Junior year, the colleges do their best to woo as many students as they can. They send out beautiful "gifts"— flyers full of glossy pictures and promises of the perfect college experience. They catch your interest, and convince you to fall in love with them. "My world will be over if I can't go to ________ college!" you think. And so it goes. Every year, more and more students fall in love, or at least serious "like" with one or more schools. But because students know that colleges are dating around, and not ready to commit, they keep a few or more waiting in the wings, hoping for a relationship.

The next step in this mating dance is the application process, and the response cycle. This is just like plucking petals off the daisy: They love me, they love me not, maybe they love me? It is a time of great insecurity on both sides, although students feel it more keenly as the suitors, rather than the one who is being wooed.

And finally, the commitment phase, when the colleges again try to to woo the accepted students and beg them to come. The shoe is on the other foot, and colleges want to make sure that their yield (the number of students who actually attend) is as high as possible. Accepted student weekends are full of fun event designed to get prospective freshman to say "YES!"

So as your mailbox fills with those glossy brochures, an your email is clogged with info from schools, look at it with a cynical eye... this is a dance, and not all who are wooed are won, and the one you think is your one and only, may end up not being your final choice.

Click Three Times for the Common App

I was thinking about mentioning this in a blog post when it happened: One of my students thought he had submitted his application after paying the fee, and didn't take the final step of sending off the main portion of the application.

It happens. It happens so often that the Common App sent an email to college counselors last week with this reminder:

• Submit App, Supp, & Payment Separately
  The application, supplement, and payment submissions are three distinct processes.  Despite instructions and reminders, some students mistakenly believe that the application automatically follows a supplement and/or payment.  Please remind your students to confirm the status of their submissions within My Colleges.

College counselors and admissions officers have a lot of complaints about the CommonApp, and this is one of them. It can simplify applying to many colleges,  but it is complicated and students can make mistakes if they are not careful. That is one of the reasons that some schools are thinking about also accepting the Universal App, which Harvard announced this week.

If you or someone you know forgot the head to the signature page for that final step, remember that all is not lost. Submit it as soon as you can, and write a note to the admissions department at the university.  You may be shut out of some schools, or accepted for the January term, but others may be willing to cut you some slack. My student applied early enough that he is still eligible for ED2 at his first choice school. A call from your high school college counselor can't hurt either.

Good luck with the applications!