The Pilgrim College Guidance Blog
News, trends, insights, and the occasional self-indulgent fluff piece
Photo credit: Jen Jordan Photography
Bold Predictions for the Future of College Admissions
I play fantasy baseball religiously. I enjoy the stats and being able to play fake GM with no real-life consequences. We’re well into the baseball season now, but I’ve always enjoyed the time before the season where people get to share their “bold predictions.” Most of these are super unrealistic, and that’s by design. It’s just fun to think about. That was the inspiration for this post. It’s been a while and I’m probably not going to be writing as often as I used to moving forward (it’s rec letter writing season already). However, I still get intrigued by what is happening (and not happening) in my field. So here are my bold predictions for the future of college admissions.
Not A Normal Year
There’s something about the first week of school that never gets old. After a summer of personal transition and relative idleness, being around the energy of students again is a nice change of pace, even as application season looms. College admissions also never seems to get old, but for very different reasons. For such a cyclical process, no two years are ever alike. I’m not sure what a “normal year” would even feel like, but it’s definitely not this year. There are major changes that were announced a while ago, and a few that are more recent developments. Here are a few I’d like to highlight.
Is it Possible to “Game The System?”
I’ve been getting asked a lot recently, “So how did this year go?” I know the real question is “Where did students get in?” And the real question is “Did students get into ‘good’ schools?” Without getting too much into specifics, I was pretty pleased with what I saw directly, despite another crazy, record-breaking application season. I also understand the overall sentiment. When something is hard to get, it just makes it that much more appealing, despite what the personal reality may be. But with the chase comes the feeling of doing whatever it takes to get that thing. I’ve seen it from students trying to write the perfect essay or being involved in some activities for the wrong reasons. I’ve found over the years that this has extended into the application process itself, as if there was an edge or angle wait to be utilized. It comes up often, even more so this year for some reason, so I’ll go ahead and address it.
What Should High School Juniors Be Doing Right Now? – Spring Edition
I’ve always considered February to be a transition month. When I was a school college counselor, I would see symptoms of senioritis start to kick in as the juniors would begin their annual annexation of my office. It was always a fun time of year as the excitement of a new class would begin to manifest itself. February is kind of my September. But to juniors, this is still the middle of their overhyped yet still important year. I want to revisit a fall blog post about what I said high juniors should be doing. In this spring edition, you’ll see that many of the fall tasks have extended to the spring, but now we’re getting to the real work.
What Should High School Juniors Be Doing Right Now?
It’s approaching late October and I feel for high school juniors. The seniors who are applying early are well into the application process by this point. Meanwhile, the juniors are well into their “dreaded” junior year as they say, which is hopefully not as bad as people make it out to be. Maybe it’s a little too early to do anything college related. Or maybe not. Juniors, as your senior classmates and counselors are working hard right now, you might be taking some mental notes, but there’s a lot more you can actually do a year ahead of your time. Here are some things to consider.