Dear senior parents and guardians,
The next two weeks always bring a wave of admissions decisions, an (understandably!) emotional time for some seniors and their families. In prior years, some students asked for additional guidance in processing decisions, and below is advice we’ve given. We hope these ten frameworks will further empower you to help support your student. (Additionally, students received information, which is also on the Resources Page, regarding next steps after receiving their decisions. Please refer them to the Resources Page if they’re unsure how to proceed.)
1. Bad news doesn’t mean that the college disliked the student’s application. Likewise, good news doesn’t mean they liked the student’s application.
During my three years in Haverford admissions, I voted to deny students over whom I lost sleep. I also voted to admit students who failed to wow me.
I vividly remember the application of a young woman from New Jersey. She had done amazing volunteer work with imprisoned women, many of whom had been unfairly incarcerated for defending themselves against violent male partners. She had one of the best interviews that year, earning the highest score possible. “This young woman is amazing,” I remember thinking. But there was one issue: a combination of slightly low scores and a very challenging, but not the most demanding, curriculum lowered her academic rating below the threshold for admission. Without reaching this threshold, I wasn’t even permitted to bring her to committee. Begrudgingly, I cast my vote of deny, wishing there was a way to convey to her how impressive I regarded her application. But there wasn’t.
During another admissions cycle, Haverford received eight applications from a high-profile independent school in the Bay Area. I quickly voted to “admit” one and voted to “deny” four others whose academic credentials were below Haverford’s admission threshold. Two other applicants were academically borderline, but their personal stories resonated with me, so I sent them to committee for further discussion. The last was the son of a Haverford trustee. Of the eight applicants, he was the weakest academically. He was as bright as he was lazy—phenomenal test scores accompanied a nearly straight-C record—but the college president asked that we strongly consider admitting him. I was horrified that he would be admitted while the two going to committee remained in limbo. Yet, I understood the importance of this trustee’s relationship to the college and cast a vote of “admit.” It wasn’t my job to determine the college’s priorities, but to ensure those priorities were met.
As we’ve said in the past, admissions is not a meritocracy. For our students’ mental health, it’s important we don’t speak as if it is. Doing so creates feelings of invalidation and the misperception that admissions decisions are correlated to student achievement and strength of character.
2. Your student never knows what’s in someone else’s application, even if they think they do.
Every year, seniors compare themselves to each other and students in prior classes. In one conversation a few winters ago, a senior explained that he assumed he’d be a competitive applicant at a particular university because his friend, whom he is much alike, was admitted the prior year. They had similar grades, classes, and scores. There was substantial overlap in their activities. Both were strong writers.
But the senior was unaware that his friend was a passionate humanities student who had taken summer philosophy and religion classes whereas he was interested in computer science. At this university, like many institutions, humanities students--especially male humanities students--are in high demand.
Within Lakeside’s community, they “looked” similar. To the university, they were distinctive applicants because of their academic directions.
As students try to understand decisions, they often express confusion about why another student was admitted over them, claiming that they know their application was equally strong. To protect students’ privacy, the college counselors can’t discuss other students’ files. But in almost every situation, there are dimensions of the other students’ applications that they just don’t know.
3. There aren’t quotas or limitations to how many students a college will admit from one high school.
Every year, a few students email their college counselors, panicking. They’ve applied early to the same school as their friends who are institutional priorities. “They’re all going to get in, which will shut me out, right?” is the usual question. The answer: “no!”
Colleges generally try to sustain the same percentages of students who fill institutional priorities from year to year (with some minor variations). Those students who do not fulfill an institutional priority compete for the remaining spaces. Therefore, the students who don’t fill an institutional priority are being considered for a separate category of spaces from those who do.
A few years ago, 11 Lakesiders applied Early Action to MIT, which typically admits fewer than 10 percent of applicants, even in early. Some applicants were hooked while others weren’t. Our students were panicked, convinced that the three hooked applicants would fill Lakeside’s “quota.” Ultimately, MIT admitted the three hooked and three unhooked students, more than half of the early pool.
There have been some years when only the institutional priorities were admitted from among many applicants at a college. This wasn’t because those students filled all the spaces allotted to Lakeside, but because the students who did not meet institutional needs were not strong fits for the university that year.
During my career, I have seen huge variations in the number of students admitted to particular institutions. In 2011, at my former school, 11 of 14 ED applicants were admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. A year later, only two were admitted. Similarly, my first year at Lakeside, all six of our ED applicants to Brown were admitted. A year later, only two were. Two years ago, Stanford admitted eight students in the early round, and then five last year.
4. It’s especially competitive for “unhooked” applicants at the most selective schools.
It’s important for students to remember that admissions is a process through which competing institutional interests influence whom admissions officers choose as they build a diverse class. Filling institutional priorities (informally known as “hooks”) is an important responsibility of every college admissions office.
Each school’s needs are extensive. Over dinner with the college counseling team a few years ago, Colorado College’s dean of admissions shared that almost 60 percent of every freshman class is hooked. Yet, most applicants are unhooked. When I visited Northwestern, their dean shared that almost 75 percent of admitted students that year were hooked.
Colleges’ priorities in a given year, and whether a student fills them, is out of the student’s control. This is yet another reason why it’s important that, as adults, we don’t speak of admissions decisions as directly correlated to student achievement and strength of character.
5. Just because a student applies doesn’t mean they are a viable applicant.
A few years ago, none of our seven applicants were admitted ED to Brown, prompting some students to ask, “what went wrong?” While we advocated strongly for our applicants in our recommendations, each student, minus two, had been advised by their counselor that Brown was a big reach. Thus, we weren’t surprised by the decisions, but could not publicly share that only two of our applicants had been competitive from the start, leaving some students erroneously surmising that something had gone awry.
In fact, every year, there are some schools that don’t admit any Lakeside applicants early. In 2020, Duke admitted none of our eight ED applicants, some of whom were very strong (a year later, they admitted three).
6. Early round decisions don’t always portend what will happen in regular.
Every year, some students receive bad news in the early round from multiple schools. Understandably, this is unnerving, but doesn’t necessarily mean that the regular round will bring only bad news. There will be some students who don’t receive admissions offers from any of their early schools. If they have listened to their counselor when building their lists, they are highly likely to have multiple offers in the regular round. As tough as receiving bad news early might be, students with a balanced list should be confident that their list will ultimately produce options where they’ll thrive.
This also applies to colleges: the set of decisions in the early round doesn’t necessarily suggest what regular will look like. For example, last year, for the first time in my 14 years at Lakeside, none of our applicants were admitted in the early round to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Then, in the regular round, seven students were admitted.
7. There are demographic shifts every year, which produce some unexpected outcomes.
The college counselors can project but not predict outcomes and trends (neither can colleges!). Every year there are shifts, producing small numbers of surprising outcomes, particularly among foundation schools (this is why the counselors suggest that students have multiple foundation schools).
For many years, Purdue was a foundation school for many Lakesiders. Then, with the steep spike in STEM applicants, especially in computer science in one year alone, Purdue ceased being a foundation school for many computer science students. During my first 12 years at Lakeside, Loyola Maymount took almost all Lakeside applicants in the early round. Then, last year, a significant application increase, coupled with the implementation of an ED program that eliminated spaces from EA, turned Loyola into a reach school for some Lakesiders.
There’s no way to fully know what shifts will occur this year, but like every year, there’ll be some. Last year, because of Loyola Marymount’s unexpected shifts in their applicant pool, some students for whom the counselors considered Loyola a foundation received bad news. This isn’t because they did anything wrong, but because of demographic changes beyond their control. (This is also a great example of why the counselors recommend that each student has multiple foundation schools on their list.)
8. Colleges don’t “dislike” high schools.
Every year, there’ll be some pools in which all the Lakeside applicants receive bad news. This isn’t because those colleges don’t “like” Lakeside, but because our applicants weren’t the right matches at that exact moment.
During my first 11 years at Lakeside, we had students admitted early to Harvard annually. In some years, there were as many as four early admits. Then, three years ago, none of Lakeside’s applicants were admitted early, prompting students to ask, “why does Harvard no longer like Lakeside?”
When colleges, including Harvard, review Lakeside applicants–or applicants from any high school–they don’t ask, “which students from this school should we admit?” No high school, including Lakeside, is entitled to or guaranteed spaces at any college. All applicants are compared to the entire applicant pool. Two years ago, despite our Harvard applicants being top students, the university didn’t feel those students filled its needs at that moment.
9. Being “denied” rather than “deferred” doesn’t mean your student’s application was weak.
Often, students say, “I can’t believe I wasn’t even deferred. I guess I wasn’t a competitive applicant.” This is incorrect. Defer versus deny is not a statement on the strength of the student’s application.
Colleges manage their applicant pools differently. For example, Georgetown defers all students it doesn’t admit in Early Action, ensuring that they’ll be reviewed again in spring. Harvard defers most applicants.
On the other hand, most colleges only selectively defer students, usually those who have unique circumstances that might make them competitive in the regular pool. Unlike the late 20th century when colleges deferred all students they didn’t admit in early, most colleges today strive to provide students a final decision in the early round to avoid “stringing students along.”
10. There’s nothing more your student could have done.
Each year, upon receiving disappointing news, students ask, “what more could I have done? What else did they want from me? Were my essays not good enough?” It’s helpful to remind students that gaining admissions isn’t about merely meeting a certain standard or threshold. Many students, both at Lakeside and globally, will meet colleges’ admissions standards and thresholds. They’ll have great essays. They’ll be admissible, but not admitted.
In many university systems worldwide, entrance is determined by exams. If the student meets the standard on the exam, they’re admitted. In these cases, there aren’t limited seats or finite spaces. Everyone who meets the standard is admitted.
In U.S. admissions, colleges have finite numbers of spaces in their classes. There are always more students who are admissible–who have met their standards, written outstanding essays, done everything right, and even far exceeded the standards–than there are spaces. Colleges’ final decisions aren’t a reflection of “who did it right” and “who did it wrong,” but a selection of students that fill their needs and priorities from among the many thousands of applicants who “did it right.”
When students receive disappointing news, it’s common and understandable that they ask, “what was wrong with my essays, and how do I improve them to ensure I get better news in regular?” If they wrote thoughtful essays that they reviewed with their counselor(s), they should feel confident and proud of what they submitted. Remind them of this.
As students receive bad news, ensuring them that there is nothing more they could have done–that they are indeed “enough”--is paramount.
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The next week can be an emotional roller coaster for the senior class, but with the partnership between you, their advisors, and our office, I am confident our students will make it through resiliently. If your student wishes to talk about their decisions, please encourage them to reach out to their college counselor.
Ari B. Worthman
Director of College Counseling
