COLLEGE ADMISSIONS AND COUNSELING
College Admission is Not a Competition By Grace Cheng Dodge grace@dodgeconsultants.com
Our schools are used to having strong college-going cultures, and families may be choosing to apply to and attend our schools based on the historical college admittance track records of previous graduates. However, instead of understanding that the college admissions process – especially to US colleges and universities – is based on the concept of individual “fit” with each institution, the entire college admissions process has morphed into one competitive game that is unfortunately driving up anxiety, stress, and mental health issues of not only our students, but our entire school communities. What may be factors not under anyone’s control has now turned into a lucrative external industry trying to make sense of decisions that only colleges and universities know why they were the right ones to make in crafting each new freshman class. At the EARCOS Leadership Conference 2023, I presented a session titled “What Heads Need to Know About US College Admissions”, as a crash course on how US institutions make admissions decisions and how schools on the K-12 side can help calm their community’s anxieties through understanding the work of admissions officers and the crucially important work of their own counselors. Counselors who work at secondary schools are the primary liaisons with universities, with the critical responsibility of acting as each student’s advocate and making sure the secondary school and all its unique offerings, grading policies, and graduation requirements are introduced to colleges and universities around the world. It is a key distinction that should be highlighted in your communities that 36
EARCOS Triannual Journal
school counselors are the real college experts, many with extensive experience having worked in a college admissions office or another secondary school’s counseling office, and are the only individuals who have direct access to admissions colleagues who will read your students’ actual application files. Experienced counselors also know how to help a student (and family) manage expectations throughout the process. For example, the entire set of Ivy League institutions in the US should be categorized as “far reach” schools for all students around the world, simply because of the high volume of applications these institutions will receive. No one is guaranteed to be admitted, nor should be led to believe they are entitled to be admitted, or that someone else is “taking their spot”. Counselors are also responsible for ensuring students apply to a balanced list of colleges, and to continually confirm that a student is equally as excited to attend all the schools on the list, no matter the selectivity. This is why researching schools thoroughly before filing an application is so important; sadly, this part of the process is usually rushed or overlooked when students make up their college lists, especially when there is too much outside influence. Students then end up applying to schools without knowing why they would even be a good fit with a particular institution. Not knowing why a college would genuinely be a good fit automatically puts a student’s application at a disadvantage, as any essay questions about perceived “fit” turn out to be incredibly difficult to answer and painfully generic to read.