I have a professional crush. His name is Rick Clark. He spent many years as the Director of Admissions at Georgia Tech and started an amazing blog on his views on college admissions. I recommend you look up the blog and read some of the ones in the archives. He is now the Executive Director of Strategic Student Access at Tech. Lucky for me he was the keynote speaker at the convention I attended in June, and he did not disappoint. The only thing I regret was not getting a selfie with my crush. In any event, he is focused on the college applicant experience and offers sage advice on reasonable approaches to find the best fit school. So what was my biggest take-away? “Don’t apply where you would not go!”
It’s that simple. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and eliminate the schools from your list where either geographic, academic, financial, or social considerations would keep you from attending. Why? Because you can play a part in controlling the legitimacy of admission rates. How often have you or your parents been shocked to see an admissions rate that was way lower than expected? Has that school become “better?” Because that is what we tend to think, a low admissions rate means it’s an academically stronger school. When, in actuality, it is probably merely the result of an increase in applications. If the size of its freshman class has not grown and it is experiencing a rise in applications, for whatever reason, then the ratio will show a lower admission rate. This is simple math involving numerators and denominators and is irrespective of quality of academics.
Rick Clark also said in his keynote address that applicants should not apply to 10 schools with admit rates of 10% thinking that that increases their chances to 100%. “That is not how math works!” More “reach” schools does not increase your chances for admission, but it does increase your chances for heart break. Trust me, it hurts every time you find out that you didn’t get into a school. No matter how resilient you think you are or how many times you say that you knew it wasn’t going to happen, it is painful to open an email that says, “We regret to inform you…. We wish you the best of luck.”
On the flip side, don’t apply to too many “likely” schools, either. Pick two or three that you are genuinely interested in and can see yourself attending. Make sure that it is truly “safe” by looking at the numbers and not relying on hearsay or what your parents remember from their application days. One good tactic is to apply early to a school with rolling admissions. Generally, you will hear back in a short period of time and then you will, hopefully, have an acceptance in your back pocket. One reason not to go overboard with these applications is out of fairness to the school and to other applicants. In addition to throwing away money, you could be taking a spot from someone who needs it and wasting resources at the university as they try to persuade you to enroll.
Your college list should have just a few dream schools and a small number of schools where you are likely to be accepted. The bulk of your applications should be going to the schools in the middle, the target schools. This is the sweet spot. This is where your hard work can truly pay off reaping the most colleges to choose from next spring. I think Rick Clark would agree.
