North Shore College Consulting was invited to the WGN-TV studio on Monday, December 23rd to discuss how to navigate the college admissions process. With this being a particularly stressful year for high school seniors, we were more than happy to help answer their questions.
Having been instructed to arrive an hour early, we had a chance time to spend in the Green Room. Ample seating and snacks were there to make nervous guests as comfortable as possible, but the Bozo the Clown portrait had to have the most calming effect on those of us who can remember growing up with him in our living rooms.
Everything at the studio was timed to perfection with sound technicians and cameramen (and women) appearing at all the right moments. With only 4 minutes available for the interview, Steve Sanders asked some great questions that we were only able to begin to answer.
We started out discussing what has made the college admissions process particularly stressful this year. Of course, it is always a stressful process for high school seniors, but with the change in the Common Application along with some programming glitches and a tremendous learning curve, students, teachers, counselors and colleges were all sent into a frenzy as deadlines approached and solutions did not seem to appear fast enough.
There were several other stressors high school seniors faced this year but unfortunately, we needed to move onto the other questions. Since we have had several requests for this additional information, we thought we would share some of it here.
Social media also seemed to cause a lot of problems for students. The increase in Twitter, Facebook and other social media users has inevitably led to comments going viral in a matter of minutes and students never really knowing what is truth and what is merely rumor. On the other end, students also learned that many admissions officers will actually look a student up online to discover more about them then they presented in the application. The internet has a long memory and some students learned this lesson too late.
Additionally, admissions decisions are harder to predict these days. It used to be so much easier to guess who was getting accepted to which school. Often, you knew if you had a certain GPA and a certain standardized test score, you would be accepted. Today, colleges look at so much more: activities, essays, demonstrated interest to name only a few variables. No one really knows exactly what a school may be looking for in any particular year.
With the Common Application and admissions decisions becoming harder to predict, students are now submitting more applications than ever before. In fact, 8-10 applications per student is common driving up the competition in an already fierce game.
Last, but certainly not least, are the soaring costs of higher education making the competition for merit aid and scholarships intense. In addition to finding academic safeties to apply to, students need to find schools that fit their family’s financial situation.
The interview then moved on to discuss what students who are deferred and/or denied should do next. To find out the answers to these timely questions, be sure to watch the entire interview here.
If you have other questions for North Shore College Consulting, visit us online at www.nscollegeconsulting.net or email us at info@nscollegeconsulting.net.
We wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a very happy and healthy New Year.
