STUDENT-CENTERED SOLUTIONS FOR COLLEGE PLANNING

It is that time of year when the outcome of Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA) applications becomes known. While many applicants receive good news that assures them seats at places of their choices, others are left wondering about next steps in the application process. Let’s take a look at the possible outcomes along with recommendations for moving forward in each case.

1. You’re accepted!
This is great news—now you can exhale! As you do, however, remember what this means. In the case of both ED and EA, you have been assured a place in the entering class at the school in question. Is it a guarantee? Well, sort of. In not so small print, most acceptance letters remind you that the offer of admission is contingent on your completion of the senior year at the same level of performance that won you admission. The admission office at that school will continue to track your performance through graduation all the while reserving the right to withdraw its offer (and your place in the class) if you fail to live up to your end of the bargain. So…

• Relax and have fun, but keep going to class and perform at the highest level possible.
• Resist the temptation to “modify” your academic course load for the balance of the year.
• Make sure any subsequent changes in program or performance are addressed in updates to your application file. You don’t want admission officers to have to guess about any unexplained irregularities that materialize after you have been admitted.

Honor the commitment. While both ED and EA offers of admission bring peace of mind, the ED offer also requires you to take action by completing the enrollment process. As an admitted ED candidate, you must:

• Withdraw all other applications including those at schools where you might be under consideration for any type of scholarship. Your ED commitment means you have agreed to forfeit those other possibilities.
• Submit your enrollment deposit by the designated date in your acceptance letter.

Your next steps if financial aid is involved: If you have been admitted ED and are an established applicant for financial aid, i.e., submitted the required forms in a timely fashion, you have the right to see—and accept—your financial aid award letter before withdrawing other applications and submitting your enrollment deposit. If you operated in good faith with regard to applying for financial aid, make sure you understand and are comfortable with the financial aid award that has been offered.

On the other hand, don’t expect an extension on your enrollment deadline in order to complete the financial aid forms (if you are starting that process after the offer of admission has been made) or to compare financial aid awards with other schools. Similarly, you might be expected to enroll before learning your status with regard to scholarships for which you have applied at that school.

2. You have been deferred or denied.
Frankly, any decision letter that doesn’t start with “Congratulations!” can’t be delivering good news. Rather, the words are telling you that you can’t have something that was very important to you. While the message is bound to hurt, let’s examine it further.

If you have been denied, the outcome is clear. There will be no further review. It is time to move on.

If you have been deferred, the admission committee is demonstrating its reluctance to commit to you now. It wants to see more information (updated grades, new accomplishments, etc.) from you and to see how your credentials fit in the overall candidate pool before making a final decision. As a result, you still have “hope” for a positive outcome. Generally speaking, however, deferred candidates don’t fare as well later in the admission process. The dynamics of ED at most places are such that if an admission committee thinks it might admit you as a regular candidate, it most often will admit you as an ED candidate.

In the case of either deferral or denial, you are effectively being set free from any commitment. You are a “free agent” able to re-focus on other schools on your short list that presumably represent good fits for you. Things will work out. Some of these places will even resurface as strong suitors encouraging you to think about converting your application from “Regular” admission to Early Decision Round Two at their schools. This is a viable option, however, be careful not to react emotionally to such opportunities. Make sure you are embracing a healthy, positive, constructive opportunity rather than rebounding from a situation that resulted in great disappointment. Early Decision, even through a Round Two option, still involves a commitment. Make sure it’s the right place for you.

Believe in you! In the mass mayhem of ED and EA, self-worth seems to ride on the coattails of each outcome. Just as you might be flying high with a letter of acceptance, it is also easy to feel like you have somehow failed if you are not admitted to the school of your choice. Don’t succumb to that notion. That school has simply made other choices based on agendas, seen and unseen. In the process, it missed an opportunity to choose you.

You will find wonderful opportunities at other schools if you only allow yourself to see them. Don’t ever stop believing in you. As long as you don’t lose sight of who you are and what you hope to accomplish in college and in life, you will be fine.

I received a phone call last week from a young man who was trying to sort out an Early Decision opportunity. A competitive athlete, he had been approached by a recruiting coach from an NCAA Division III (non-scholarship) school with the suggestion that he convert his application for admission from Regular Decision to Early Decision (ED). Moreover, the coach had assured him that if his application for financial aid did not produce the desired assistance from this institution, he would not be held to his commitment to enroll if accepted ED.

The caller was understandably excited—and confused—by this development. While he liked the school very much, he couldn’t say for sure that it was his first choice. Moreover, he needed financial aid and the uncertainty of his financial aid situation had led him to actively consider other schools as well. He understood the underlying premise of the unconditional commitment to enroll if accepted that is assumed of ED candidates. As a result, he was skeptical of the pitch he had been given by this coach.

My advice to the young man was simple: “If you need to make sure you get the best financial aid possible and there is a chance other schools might admit you and give you better offers, then don’t give up your right to see those offers by converting your application to ED at one school. The coach is behaving unethically by making this suggestion. Don’t compound the problem by heading down that road with him.”

As a college applicant you need to be especially vigilant about the ethics of the ED process. The desire to get into favored schools should never put you in a place where you compromise your integrity or the rules governing the process. The coach in question was crossing the ethical “line” by urging the applicant to consider an Early Decision application when he knew the young man could only do so conditionally due to his financial situation. Fortunately, the young man had the presence of mind to step back and assess the situation objectively.

In case you are wondering how this conversation could be taking place since the “round two” deadlines for ED have passed at most schools, welcome to the world of college admission in 2011! These are the days when selective colleges do what they can to strategically manage their enrollments. They want to pump up their “yields” on offers of admission while looking for opportunities to reduce the overall number of students they need to admit and, hence, become more selective. Early Decision affords them a unique opportunity to achieve both goals. Add to the mix the dynamics of athletic recruitment—even at the NCAA Division III non-scholarship level—and the opportunity for late-season Early Decision conversations emerges.

A few other observations are worth noting here. One, the NCAA forbids Division III athletic recruiters from having any conversation about family finances with the financial aid officers at their respective institutions. In short, an athlete’s potential involvement in an NCAA Division III program may NOT have any bearing on the disposition of his/her financial aid status. Two, each institution employs slightly different criterion in assessing a student’s academic strength within the context of its financial aid program. It is not only possible that a recruit’s financial “need” could be read differently from one school to the next, the strength of his academic credential may also result in differences in the composition of the financial aid awards he receives. Whereas a student athlete may qualify for special consideration academically at one school, at others he may not.

The late season ED phenomenon is not limited to recruited athletes. Admission officers at many selective schools will keep the application “door” open past formal deadlines as they troll for high-yielding ED conversions well into February of the admission process. Should you be confronted with such an opportunity, just remember—the rules remain the same. If you convert your application to ED, you are making an unconditional commitment to enroll if accepted.

In Part I of this article, I introduced Lisa, a young woman who is in the midst of the application process. She has high aspirations that led her to apply to six highly selective colleges, including one as an Early Action (EA) candidate. She became concerned, however, when her EA application was deferred and it was at that point she approached me with questions about the process. (See “The Anatomy of An Admission Decision” (Part I).

As my conversation with Lisa continued, it wasn’t long before she and her parents began to see the logic of the decision-making process at the schools to which she was applying. They could now rationalize the EA decision. More importantly, the despair that had hovered over the start of the conversation had given way to an excited sense of possibility as Lisa began to develop a new “To Do” list.

Even at this time of the year, she realized it is not too late to get on the radar screens of the schools to which she had applied. Specifically, she decided to address the misperception that her interest in a given school was random and, instead, convey to the schools a combination of intentionality, commitment and talent that would set her apart from the rest of the competition.
Lisa made immediate plans to visit the campuses of the “high priority” schools on her list and attempt to introduce herself to the person(s) responsible for recruiting in her region. She will make sure they have her most recent grades as well as documentation of a couple of honors that have come her way since she submitted her applications. She also took heart in the possibility that she could still contact the coaches at some of the smaller colleges on her list and make sure they got the videos of her athletic performance.

I admire Lisa for her response to the situation. Rather than hanging her head and feeling defeated about her college future, she is taking steps to affect the outcomes. Realizing that applying to college is a process and not an event, she is asserting herself. In doing so, she will eliminate the randomness that might be associated with her applications.

Will this new-found self-advocacy assure Lisa admission to her favorite schools? Not necessarily. It will, however, give her the chance she deserves. At the very least, the schools on her list now have reason to pause in considering her possible contributions to the communities they are building. Now, they will have a better idea of what they get should they admit Lisa—and they’ll have more confidence that hers is a serious interest that could result in her enrollment if accepted. Finally, if they value her for what she has to offer, they will be more likely to invest in her with financial aid and/or scholarships.

Consider the possibilities as they exist for you. When you apply for admission, take charge of the process. Seize the opportunity to build relationships with decision-makers (admission officers) at the schools that are important to you and be sure to tell your story. Give the admission officers every reason to want to include you in the communities they are building as they admit their entering classes!