STUDENT-CENTERED SOLUTIONS FOR COLLEGE PLANNING

Do you know you have rights as a college applicant?

Well, you do. As you apply to colleges, you have the right to certain information about them including information about how much it will cost you to attend. According to the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC), a member organization that includes more than 11,000 college access professionals, you have the right to:

• “Receive factual and comprehensive information from colleges and universities about their admission, financial costs, aid opportunities, practices and packaging policies, and housing policies. If you consider applying under an early admission plan, you have the right to complete information from the college about its process and policies.”

• “Be free from high-pressure sales tactics.”

• “Wait until May 1 to respond to an offer of admission or financial aid.”

In order to make good decisions, you need good information and, quite often, a reasonable amount of time in which to consider your options. Toward that end, NACAC further stipulates that:

• “Colleges that request commitments to offers of admission and/or financial assistance prior to May 1 must clearly offer you the opportunity to request (in writing) an extension until May 1. They must grant you the extension and your request may not jeopardize your status for admission and/or financial aid.”

• Candidates admitted under early decision programs are a recognized exception to the May 1 deadline.”

It is important to note that May 1 is regarded as the “Candidate’s Reply Date”—the date by which admitted applicants must make their final college choices. That date was established years ago to allow students a reasonable amount of time to consider their college options and to give colleges a date by which they could begin the registration process (course selections and housing) for the coming year. If you are not an Early Decision candidate, then, you should be afforded time to process admission decisions and financial aid awards that you receive from various colleges and universities.

That said it is easy to fall prey to pressures to make enrollment commitments before you are ready. For example, you may have already encountered enticements such as early or “priority” application deadlines associated with scholarships or housing preferences. Some colleges may offer you scholarships that you can only claim by enrolling well ahead of May 1. And, if you applied to schools that offer “Rolling Admission,” you may be offered admission with the expectation that you will submit a non-refundable enrollment deposit—as soon as possible!

If you feel uncomfortable about the conditions that seem to be placed on your admission status, there is probably a good reason to proceed with caution. Listen to your instincts. And recognize the circumstances for what they are. The colleges in question are attempting to secure as many enrolled students as early in the process as possible.

If you don’t feel you are in possession of the information necessary to allow you to move forward comfortably with a particular college, ask for an extension. It’s not likely that your enrollment opportunity will be withdrawn if you miss a deadline (May 1 is the possible exception). And communicate your concerns with your college advisor as well. If the college remains insistent, ask yourself whether this is the sort of place with which you want to be associated for the next four years.

NACAC has produced a number of important documents that help to define ethical behavior for everyone involved in the admission process. To learn more about your rights and responsibilities as an applicant, go to the Policies and Statements page of the NACAC website. Click on Student Rights and Responsibilities in the College Admission Process to download a pdf brochure. In addition, you may find the Statement of Principles of Good Practice (for the enrollment cycle of 2009 and 2010 academic year), a document that guides the actions of colleges and universities, to be instructive as well.

The college admission season is now in its last days and I thought it might be interesting to give you perspective on why the May 1 deadline is so important to colleges and how it effects those who monitor the enrollment efforts at those colleges.

The last 10 days of April can be the most maddening of the year for deans of admission as the May 1 National Candidates’ Reply Date draws near. After two years of exhaustive recruiting and then months of intensive credential review, the next entering class still hangs in the balance for colleges and universities. In my own experience as dean of admission, while my colleagues and I were confident each class would materialize as surely as a rite of spring—history offered that assurance—we never felt secure in that knowledge until the last enrollment deposit was received.

We could imagine the fully formed class but we still couldn’t see it. It remained a work in progress on a very tight schedule and that only added to the angst. Twice daily trips to the campus mailroom didn’t produce more immediate results and, at times, only added to the frustration. And, yes, there were times when misplaced mail pouches caused near meltdowns among anxious observers.

Adding to the angst felt in the admission office was the seemingly incessant and increasingly impatient stream of calls and emails from the “higher ups” on campus regarding the status of the class. “How do the numbers look today? How does that compare with last year at this time?” “When will we know if we need to go to the Wait List?” “How many scholars have enrolled?” “How does the yield look on our financial aid offers?”

So many questions for which there were, at best, partial answers. We were always confident in the credentials of the students we had admitted, however, we knew they would be attractive to our competitors as well. We admitted these students because we saw them as good fits for our campus. Now, we had to convince them that our school was the best fit for them.

The offers of admission had been made weeks earlier and financial aid awards followed soon after. The open house for accepted students had been a success. Now, phonathons featuring our most engaging students and faculty worked overtime to make accepted students feel welcome and wanted. And families continued to visit the campus for one last look before making the final choice of a college.

Unfortunately, no amount of hard work or worry on the part of the admission staff could hasten the outcome. While our history told us that the class would indeed materialize, it also told us that 75-80% of the non-Early Decision enrollments would arrive after April 25! All we could do was “hurry up and wait.”

I offer this perspective because similar scenarios are playing out on hundreds of college campuses around the country—right now! You might find it only fitting that college officials feel the stress and uncertainty of a process that has exacted a similar toll on you and your family. After all, as a college applicant, you have been living the “hurry up and wait” experience for months.

The proverbial “ball” is now in your court and you need to determine your next course of action. After waiting for months to learn of your acceptances, you have to stop everything that might be going on in your life to focus on choosing a college. The timing isn’t great, but you have little choice. You have worked hard to put yourself in the position of being able to make the final choice and no one can blame you for wanting to take full measure of the time available before the May 1 deadline. Nonetheless, you need to act soon.

By the way, May 1 is not an arbitrary deadline set to ease the anxieties of admission officers. College officials have a very short turn-around time after the enrollment process is completed in which to assign academic advisors, set the academic schedule, complete course registrations and order classroom materials for the coming fall. In addition, they need to make housing assignments, verify financial aid awards, set their operating budgets and set up the billing process for a new group of students. As you can see, May 1 is certainly not any more convenient for colleges than it is for the students they admit.

The bottom line: it is important that you honor the deadlines and requirements that have been placed before you. Choose one school and inform the rest of your decision. Resist the temptation to submit enrollment deposits to three or four or five colleges now so you can make your decision later. Instead, follow your instincts to the place that fits you best and begin to invest in becoming a first-year student at that college.

Over the course of a year, no universal deadline looms larger than does April 15 for American taxpayers. But don’t tell that to the hundreds of thousands of families whose children need to make the final choice of a college by May 1!

For students admitted to one or more colleges this spring, the not-so-fine print on the letters of acceptance have instructed them to respond with an enrollment deposit by May 1. This date, the National Candidates’ Reply Date (NCRD), is observed by most colleges and universities in an attempt to bring closure to the college admission process.

If you are an admitted student, the rules are simple. Choose one school and submit the required enrollment deposit by May 1. Colleges cannot insist that you submit the deposit prior to May 1. And you may not submit deposits to multiple colleges. Allowable exceptions involve late (post May 1) offers of admission from Wait Lists that would require you to forfeit an initial deposit at one school in order to enroll at the school that has accepted you from the Wait List. As a matter of courtesy, you might also notify institutions that have admitted you of your decision to enroll elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the NCRD comes only weeks after you received notification of your admission decisions and financial aid offers. After months of anxious waiting, you must suddenly shift gears to make one of the most important decisions of your life. Making matters worse, everyone who knows you will have an opinion about what you should do! There is a good chance you are hearing things like: “Take the scholarship and run!” or “Wow! You got into an Ivy—you’ve got to go!” or “You know your grandfather went there and it would make him proud if you were to choose his alma mater,” or “Their engineering program is ranked higher than the others…” and so on and so on!

All of these good wishes simply add to the growing paralysis by analysis that takes over your thought process. However well intended the arguments and pitches, they don’t really contribute to productive decision-making. You need to summon all of your tact and diplomacy to step out from under the weight of these conversations and refocus on making a choice that makes sense for you. To do so, I recommend the following:

• Re-visit your priorities. Why do you want to go to college? What are the 3-4 things you want to take from your college experience? Get past the clamor of public opinion. This choice is about you and how an educational experience can best serve you.
• Reflect on the five elements of a good college fit. As a reminder, the best college for you will be one that provides:
  1. A program of study that meets your needs.
  2. A level of academic rigor/challenge commensurate with your ability/preparation.
  3. A style of instruction that matches the way you learn most comfortably.
  4. A community that feels like home.
  5. Evidence that it values you for what you do well.
• Create a spreadsheet on which you list the five elements on one axis and the colleges under consideration on the other. Then, rank the each school within each category. In other words, if you are considering five colleges assign a rating of 5 to 1 to each school under each element of a good college fit.
• Visit the campuses. Even if you have seen them before, go back. While the schools will offer tours and information sessions, give each your own “white glove” treatment. Make a point of visiting the academic departments that interest you. Talk with the professors and undergraduate students who are hanging out in that area. What do they like about their experience? What do the professors value in the students who come into their classrooms? How do the students feel about their opportunities to learn and grow?
• Evaluate costs. If money is a factor, create a spreadsheet on which you list all of the schools on one axis across the top. Then, down the side, list total educational expenses, financial aid and out-of-pocket expenses. Be exhaustive in listing all expenses and forms of financial aid. This will give you an objective look at the actual costs of attendance. I created such a template for the April 13 Web-Side Chat and would be happy to share it with you. Contact me (Peter@theadmissiongame.com) to learn more.
• Finally, put rankings aside. In all likelihood, there is very little actual difference in the strength of program at these schools. Besides, your ultimate success has much more to do with how you embrace the opportunities available to you at a given college than it does the name on the parchment that hangs on your wall after graduation!

As you approach the May 1 deadline, remember to celebrate the moment. This is about you, your life and your achievements. Remain true to yourself and you can’t go wrong!