The juniors and their families at my school are feeling anxious about how the college application process will unfold next fall. The fact is that no one really knows what the fall will look like. The colleges with which I have had conversations all plan to open as usual in September and expect to host campus visits, group information sessions, tours, and to offer interviews. They also readily acknowledge that in spite of their best efforts to plan for a return to normalcy, no one really knows what our world will look like next fall.
There are a few things on which almost all college representatives agree. Evaluating applications for admission will have a different context than in the past. Many colleges and universities have already modified or eliminated their testing requirements. Every admission representative from whom I’ve heard has indicated that they expect the final quarter grades of students’ junior year to look different -- and they will adjust the way they evaluate transcripts in light of those changes. They also know that activities in which students have customarily been involved were often not available to them.
Most college admission offices engage in a holistic application review. They consider the context from which a student is applying. They look at the opportunities to which students have been exposed and the extent to which they have taken advantage of them. They recognize that family and personal circumstances vary widely and they take that into account as they review candidates. They read essays and recommendations carefully to develop the best sense they can about what is special or different about every student who applies.
In a webinar I attended recently with more than 800 college counselors from around the world, representatives from Saint Anselm College, the University of Rhode Island, Mount Holyoke College, and Brown University forecast that personal statements from students, and recommendations from teachers and the college counselor are likely to take on an even greater level of importance in the selection process. They were suggesting that the lack of or limited standardized testing results and changes to the way final-quarter grades from junior year will be reported will make comments from classroom and school personnel, while always valuable, even more significant.
In the post-Coronavirus world of college admission, I suspect Waring seniors will have a distinct advantage as they submit their applications. Here’s why:
Our small size has always given us the ability to get to know our seniors especially well and to do an outstanding job presenting them and their special qualities to colleges. In the post-Coronavirus world, our size and commitment to tell each senior’s unique story should give them a distinct advantage in an otherwise uncertain process.
Postscript: I produce a Word Cloud from the recommendations I write each year. Here is the Word Cloud for Waring's Class of 2020.