The Journal of College Admission

NACAC’s quarterly flagship publication, The Journal of College Admission, offers readers resources from thought leaders tracking the pulse of college admission counseling; the foremost authorities on trends, data, and research; and members dedicated to ethical college admission.

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Featured Articles

More Than Grades - Fall 2024 Issue

By Melissa Brock

A push for holistic admission is making headway. An initiative called Reimagining College Access under NACAC’s oversight will push this work even further.

The traditional process for assessing students’ college readiness often is quite one-dimensional. There’s a transcript of grades and sometimes test scores, and it can leave admission officers wanting more.

“One of the things that I’ve heard most consistently in my years with NACAC is that admission officers seem to crave more context. They want to know more about the students,” said David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer at NACAC. Hawkins has been with NACAC for almost 25 years.

That’s where the Reimagining College Access (RCA) initiative comes in. RCA began in 2017 when the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), a research and policy group, along with the consulting firm EducationCounsel, created a task force of individuals and organizations to explore the value of looking more deeply into a student’s body of work from secondary school to help inform higher education admission, placement, and advising decisions. The task force ultimately recommended doing so and using performance assessments — additional ways beyond grades and test scores for a student to demonstrate their abilities — to help college admission officers evaluate students’ readiness for higher education, an initiative that NACAC is now helping to develop.

The intended outcomes of the initiative include developing a broader understanding of student fit and readiness for higher education, overhauling outdated structures to meet the needs of institutions and students today, and redesigning the admission process to be more holistic and all-encompassing of students’ various skill sets.

THE VALUE OF PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS

Performance assessments can take many different shapes, but at their core, they are intended to give students more opportunities beyond grades and test scores to showcase their knowledge and abilities.

“You get content mastery, which is important. But you also get intangibles. How well does this student work in groups? How well does this student advocate for themselves?” Hawkins said. “I think one of the most compelling ones that I saw in all of this work we’ve done is that a young woman at a public high school in California built a voting machine; conceptualized, designed, and built a voting machine.”

Performance assessments give students additional opportunities to demonstrate and receive feedback on their knowledge, skills, and abilities in meaningful contexts. Students can use the process to showcase skills in scientific investigation, mathematical modeling, literary analysis, social scientific inquiry, and many other areas. A key component is often the artifacts that students produce. For example, the voting machine, or perhaps a video, report, experiment, performance, or presentation that showcases a particular skill set of the student.

Larkin Willis, researcher and policy associate at LPI, said many high schools have expanded their instruction to ensure students are more college- ready, but there have been gaps in what gets translated to most colleges and universities. The LPI found that through performance assessments, institutions could track competencies like deeper learning and higher-order thinking skills in addition to the traditional assessment of grades, test scores, and sometimes research projects.

“Performance assessments have enormous potential to speak to the holistic work and assets and strengths that are so often left behind at the high school door,” Willis said.

Based on findings from pilot projects in New England and Colorado, the LPI determined that performance assessments also could encourage better teaching and learning strategies, said Willis. However, it can be challenging to determine what performance assessments should look like and how to help districts develop performance assessments in the context of admission. In its design of high-quality assessments, the LPI recognized some general tenets:

Assessments for everyone: Assessments in the system are not predetermined by race, ethnicity, culture, gender, English proficiency, immigration status, socioeconomic status, or other factors.
Developing competencies: Key competencies are related to academic and social-emotional benchmarks.
Teaching and learning: The system prioritizes teaching and learning systems designed to develop students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities aligned with curriculum, assessment, and instruction.
Teacher review: Performance assessments prioritize students’ ongoing development, including teacher review based on student outcomes.

INTEGRATING K-12 AND HIGHER EDUCATION

Since the RCA launched, more than 100 organizations have implemented these evaluation processes. Momentum also was created around holistic admission practices as colleges and universities eliminated or adjusted traditional requirements like standardized testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michelle Fine, distinguished professor of psychology, urban education, liberal studies, women’s and gender studies, and American studies at City University of New York (CUNY), helped develop and implement a pilot program through CUNY and the New York Performance Standards Consortium to research the impact of performance-based assessments on 30,000 K-12 students. The schools serve low-income students of color, students with disabilities, and youth living in temporary housing.

Noticing that consortium students often were redirected to community colleges despite their capabilities, students submitted work samples instead of SAT scores. The approach provided a more holistic view of student potential, and the pilot suggests that performance-based assessments can effectively identify students with strong potential, initiating further conversations about holistic admission criteria.

Fine also has seen success with underrepresented groups such as female students, racial minorities, first-generation students, and low-income students. Performance assessments help evaluate students in historically underserved communities.

“The preliminary data suggested to us that by using a performance-assessment system, the schools had higher graduation rates, lower racial disparities in graduation (rates), higher college-going rates, and lower racial disparities in college-going for Black males. Then once they got to CUNY, they had higher GPAs and persistence rates than Black males coming from test-driven schools,” said Fine.

Overall, consortium students showed a strong capacity for revision, seeking help, and leveraging peer feedback, all essential skills for college success.

Blaire Moody Rideout, director of undergraduate admission for the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, said her team has leveraged and integrated high school performance assessments into their admission process with great results. The team at Ross created and launched the Ross Admissions Portfolio as a required application component for students entering the Bachelor of Business Administration program, beginning in fall 2017.

The Ross Admissions Portfolio includes a business case discussion question, an artifact and description, and examples of successful student applications that prospects can peruse prior to applying. By incorporating these additional performance assessments, the admission reading team can then evaluate students’ applications for context into an applicant’s environment and how they learn, which allows the school to seek applicants more intentionally.

Moody Rideout said that with high application volumes and selectivity, everyone looked indistinguishable under their old application model. “(We wanted to find the) type of student who will thrive in our community and who will contribute to our community,” she said.

The Ross Admissions Portfolio gives the applicant a feeling of more ownership over the process because they can showcase what they’ve done. After all, this is a generation of content creators, she said.

Since adopting the portfolio system, the school has seen an uptick in the enrollment of female students, first-generation students, and students with limited incomes. The new process has also admitted at a higher rate students with diverse interests, such as nonprofit management; social entrepreneurship; and students with interest in data, technology, and the social sciences.

“When you can adapt your admissions processes and it’s truly more holistic, I think you can diversify your class, and that’s what we’ve been able to do,”

Moody Rideout said. Moody Rideout said she also sees evidence of students who are more collaborative and team-oriented, rather than simply students in a highstakes, competitive business school environment. She has also seen a gradual broadening of the types of industries students pursue, as well as students who are more professional and empathetic and possess intercultural competencies.

HOLISTIC ADMISSION PRACTICES

When parts of something interconnect, they can be explained only by reference to the whole. In other words, performance assessments provide an information highway not just in admission, but also in the handoff from admission offices to student affairs to academic advising.

“There’s a certain desirability, a certain educational justification, for having a rich and detailed record of where a student has been, and the kinds of things that could help inform the advising and student affairs processes to the benefit of the student,” Hawkins said.

In Hawkins’ own undergraduate advising story, his academic adviser, who was a professor of physics, asked him, “Did you get an ‘A’ in physics in high school?”

He had, so his advisor put him in an advanced lab.

Hawkins said it was a disaster. “I ended up electrocuting myself about six times over the course of a semester, and there were other students who were in the basic lab who were doing so much better than I, and they were so much more capable in physics,” he said.

Had there been a richer conversation or assessment of his comfort level and his high school physics curriculum, Hawkins mused, he may have received a more fitting placement.

“When you imagine students that have lots of barriers and difficulties coming into college, that could be particularly important,” Hawkins said, adding that performance assessments can add a more comprehensive understanding of student competencies, including intellectual engagement, critical thinking, and persistence.

At CUNY, Fine said they’ve been able to use data from performance assessments to shape curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment.

“The students from the consortium schools really think those large lectures are just bad teaching. They can’t believe people stand at the board and write on the board with their backs to the class. They can’t believe there are no questions,” Fine said.

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT ADOPTION

Institutions can decide how they incorporate artifacts from assessments and what they want to measure, even going as far as to evaluate persistence, creativity, and content mastery.

LPI has worked with a company called Portmoto to develop an online dashboard that could facilitate the incorporation of performance assessments, including adding information and artifacts into an admission interface. Educational Testing Service (ETS), a private educational assessment organization, also is working to develop and distribute tools that measure skills acquired from inside and outside of the classroom. In May, ETS acquired Mastery Transcript Consortium, an education and talent solutions organization, to expand upon its capabilities.

The question might linger in timestrapped admission directors’ minds: Will performance evaluation take longer for admission offices?

Like Ross School of Business, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a creative portfolio process students can complete. Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services, reported in a webinar that it is time-intensive, requiring faculty members and others with technical abilities to review the work.

However, many colleges already use a process to review student work, and Hawkins hopes the process can be streamlined to seamlessly incorporate other complex items.

FUTURE OF COLLEGE ADMISSION

While high schools have expanded their instruction to ensure students are more college-ready, performance assessments can offer a natural bridge between high school achievements and college admission.

NACAC has a vision for a less-complicated, more student-centered admission process that’s holistic, equitable, and innovative, and which can capture students’ strengths and potential. Under its new home at NACAC, the RCA initiative can transform the landscape to match students with institutions where they can thrive and make the college application process less transactional. Hawkins looks forward to all the possibilities and making them happen through NACAC.

“Higher education can be very cumbersome when it comes to change. This center that we’re developing is really focused on trying to capture and perhaps spark innovation where it’s happening across the country. We build communities of practice around those innovations and then provide education and good practice standards to the community at large. Hopefully that’s a sort of continuous cycle where new ideas and ideas that get adapted over time can continue to flow,” said Hawkins.

Melissa Brock is an editor, freelance writer, essay and college coach, and founder of College Money Tips. She spent 12 years in college admission as an admission counselor and senior associate director of admission at Central College (IA).

Admission Guaranteed - Summer 2024 Issue

By Rachel Williams

Direct admission programs are on the rise with a handful of states now implementing their own iterations of the concept. These programs benefit both students and institutions, primarily by reducing barriers.

One of the students Emily Owens helped counsel this academic year was certain she would leave her home state of Minnesota for college. That changed, though, when the high school senior received a letter with a lengthy list of all the in-state colleges and universities where she was guaranteed admission.

That letter came from Direct Admissions Minnesota, a state-run program launched in 2021 that offers guaranteed admission into Minnesota public and private colleges to the state’s public high school students based on their academic performance through their junior year. Programs like this — generally known as direct admission — are on the rise across the country, as states are seeing impressive results.

“The biggest point is that a lot of students feel like college is more possible when you tell them that, ‘Hey, you can be directly admitted to these schools; applying isn’t a waste of your time because you’re already admitted. All you have to do is apply,” said Owens, director of college and career counseling and alumni support at Venture Academy (MN).

Through direct admission programs, barriers to attending college are reduced. The stress of the admission process — particularly, the time and money spent with no guarantee of success — is no longer applicable. Students know the effort of applying will be worth it.

Idaho was the first state to implement a direct admission initiative in 2015, and other states including Minnesota, Georgia, and Wisconsin have followed. More are expected to join the movement, too.

How it Works

In the 2023-24 school year, more than 34,700 applications to Minnesota colleges and universities came from students participating in Direct Admissions Minnesota.

Early in their senior year, students from 115 participating high schools received a letter with no less than 29 higher education institutions where they were guaranteed admission. For students with top-tier GPAs, their letters listed up to 55 in-state institutions — including public, private, and tribal colleges. All institutions were given the choice to participate in Direct Admissions Minnesota and were able to select a tier based on the GPA cutoff students needed to be automatically admitted to the institution.

“A tiered model allowed institutions to come in at the academic level that they felt comfortable with,” said Wendy Robinson, assistant commissioner for programs, policy, and grants at the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. “I think that gave them some comfort of like ‘Hey, we’re still looking at the same population of students that we would probably want to admit anyways.’”

After receiving their letter, students then decide if they want to submit applications to any or all of the institutions listed. Just like in the traditional college search process, students can apply to numerous institutions, but through Direct Admissions Minnesota, applications are free and often don’t require additional information like essays or standardized test scores.

“There were a few colleges that were concerned that it isn’t really a holistic process. No, it’s not holistic in the way that we have defined holistic admissions before, but it’s also drilling down into the thing that we know really carries the most weight in the admissions process and has the most predictive value,” said Robinson.

In the smaller state of Idaho, the Idaho Campus Choice initiative is similar but with its own unique elements. Students receive a letter their senior year of high school with at least six — and up to eight — institutions where they are automatically admitted. Then through an initiative called Apply Idaho, students can submit a free common college application that’s applicable to all eight direct admission institutions, plus two additional private institutions. Last year, more than 24,000 Idaho high school seniors received invitations to apply to colleges and universities through Idaho Campus Choice.

“There are some really great programs out there, around the nation, which I think is so cool,” said Jessica Eby, Apply Idaho program manager. “It’s been really fun connecting with all the different states and seeing what everyone’s doing and their different flavors.”

The Benefits

When Minnesota launched its direct admission program, it was among the top states in the country in terms of adults with college degrees. Yet, despite that feat, it still had room to improve.

“When we disaggregate that by demographics, we know that we also have some of the largest attainment gaps by racial categories of any of the states in the country,” said Robinson.

Direct Admissions Minnesota is helping to narrow those gaps.

Overall, students participating in the program had higher FAFSA filing rates and higher college enrollment rates compared to non-participants, and this remained true when disaggregated by sex, race and ethnicity, and eligibility for free or reduced-price meals, according to state data.

For example, students participating in Direct Admissions Minnesota who identified as Black or African American had FAFSA filing rates of 83 percent, compared to 51 percent among their Black or African American non-participating peers. A similar trend rang true for Hispanic or Latino students: Those who participated in the direct admission program had FAFSA filing rates of 63 percent, compared to 28 percent among their Hispanic or Latino non-participating peers, data show.

“It’s a way of trying to make sure that we’re really promoting access and opportunity for historically underserved or historically excluded student populations,” said Robinson.

Direct admission programs also can help encourage students to stay in-state for their higher education and their careers — something that the state of Georgia hopes to see as an outcome of their new program, Georgia Match. This fall semester, Georgia institutions will see their first batch of students admitted through the state’s direct admission program.

A motive “was very clearly workforce development and an understanding that we had to get more Georgians to get credentials and get college degrees,” said Scot Lingrell, vice chancellor of enrollment management and student affairs for the University System of Georgia.

Georgia Match is a state-run program with the university system, the Technical College System of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Education, and the Georgia Student Finance Commission all partnering together to make it happen.

“In its first year, we really felt it was important to just get it running,” said Lingrell. “But we are working on identifying high-demand career fields and gaining an understanding of how we may be able to direct students into them (through this program).”

More to Come

This year’s rising high school seniors in Wisconsin will be the first to utilize Direct Admit Wisconsin — the state’s own version of direct admission.

With 75 percent of the state’s high schools and 10 of the 13 Universities of Wisconsin (UW) institutions opting in, the initiative is launching broadly across the state.

“I think the more we can get everybody on board with this — as many of the UWs as we can and all the Wisconsin high schools — the more we’re removing barriers,” said Julie Amon, associate vice president for enrollment and student success for the Universities of Wisconsin. “All the steps that students must take to get into college can create a lot of angst. I’m hopeful that by removing those, we’ll see more students going to college.”

An element of Direct Admit Wisconsin that’s relatively unique is the amount of automation throughout the process.

“We heard concerns about high school staffing and capacity,” said Corina Diaz-Suazo, strategic enrollment and transfer specialist with the Universities of Wisconsin. “We went into this with different high school student information system vendors on board to automate the process as much as possible.”

Another feature of Direct Admit Wisconsin is that students will not have to submit a traditional application to the UWs to which they have been directly admitted. Starting with the class of 2025, students will receive a standardized letter with a list of up to 10 UW institutions where they qualify for automatic admission, which will be determined by which tier their GPA falls within. From there, students will log into an admission portal with a form to complete, which will already be prepopulated with their high school data. There, they’ll be able to select which institutions they wish to connect with and upon doing so, their high school transcript will be sent to those UWs.

For colleges and universities, “that’s their trigger to reach out to the student with next steps,” said Diaz-Suazo. “They can send information to the student about campus visits, scholarships, housing, and everything else. Then it’s up to the student to make their final decision about which UW they want to attend.”

An Evolving Community of Practice

While Amon and Diaz-Suazo are focused on getting their direct admission program off the ground, they know that one day they’ll be able to look back and reflect on how the initiative is changing how institutions recruit and enroll students.

“I think there’s a lot to keep our eye on in terms of changes and opportunities,” said Diaz-Suazo. “I think there will eventually be an opportunity to ask, what has this meant?”

Nine years since its launch, Idaho is still asking itself that question and fine-tuning and updating its direct admission program.

“We are looking at strategies on how to connect with students at a younger age, and we are also looking at how to increase communication and awareness with parents, such as sending out periodic newsletters or emails about information to be aware of,” said Eby. “As much as we hope that students are impacted by their direct admissions letter their senior year, we also know that to make better-informed decisions, students and families need to start having conversations earlier, and parents need to be better informed about the college process.”

In Minnesota, state officials are continually analyzing their data and the feedback they receive on their program and anticipate that one day they may consider if it continues to be an opt-in program or becomes a state mandate, said Robinson. In Georgia, state officials are looking at how to introduce more automation into their Georgia Match program, said Lingrell. And in Wisconsin, they hope to one day look at financial aid opportunities that can go along with the direct admission program, said Amon.

In each state where direct admission is in place, conversations regularly are happening about how to improve upon the process, and state officials are leaning on one another for support and insight.

Direct admission representatives from Minnesota, Georgia, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Connecticut meet every few months to share about their programs, their successes, and their challenges, said Diaz-Suazo. It’s a growing community of practitioners who share their best practices with each other in the name of access and opportunity.

The Business of Saying ‘Yes’

All of the work is making an impact on students and counselors.

“We’ve been using it with our lower-school students; we’ve been advertising direct admissions with our ninth, 10th, and 11th graders to show them the different GPA points they need,” said Owens of Venture Academy. “We’ve been using that to have conversations with students about credits, graduation tracking, and more.”

Owens also has noticed that it’s changed the nature of talking about college with students. Primarily, it’s given them more hope.

“Direct admission just shows our students that it’s more possible for them,” she said. “Life happens, and students may have a bad semester or a bad year, but the good thing about direct admission is that even if you slip up, there are still colleges that will look at you. There are still colleges that accept your GPA. Direct admission just puts more weight behind our words.”

Robinson echoes this sentiment, and she hopes direct admission will help change the narrative around going to college.

“I’m frustrated with how we talk about college admissions in general in the United States. There’s so much disproportionate attention paid to the highly selective institutions, but really, they educate such a small fraction of our students in higher education. I think that students and families wildly overestimate how difficult it is to get into college and underestimate how difficult it is to get through college,” she said. “I really hope that the direct admissions model, as it spreads across the country, provides a little bit of a narrative correction and reminds folks that there are plenty of schools that really want you. They are excited to have you apply. They are in the business of saying ‘yes.’”

Rachel Williams is a content editor and writer at NACAC.

Facing FAFSA - Spring 2024 Issue

By Melissa Brock

As school counselor Mike Campanelli takes the 45-minute train ride from his house to Urban Assembly Green Careers High School in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he thinks through what the day might bring: transition planning for the next school year, a few meetings, schedule planning for students, and something new — chronic FAFSA hiccups.

Since the soft launch of the new FAFSA form on Dec. 30, 2023, school counselors and admission professionals have been dealing with a series of unforeseen challenges: the FAFSA was only open during limited windows of time; periodic maintenance issues locked students out while others remained on hold; the U.S. Department of Education didn’t send student records until the first half of March, much later than in a typical admission cycle.

As a result, the traditional National College Decision Day on May 1 has been postponed at numerous institutions and, as it stands, first-year students across the country have yet to commit to a school.

Coast to coast, school counselors and professionals at colleges and universities have struggled with what messages to send to students and families; how to help students make the right college decisions; and overall, how to ensure they are putting those who matter — students and families — first.

Here, professionals in college admission counseling share their experiences with the FAFSA rollout, plus the tools and solutions they’ve utilized, and continue to utilize, along the way.

New York

With a shake of his head, Campanelli said that financial aid is a huge determining factor in where his students go.

“The school I work in is a public school in New York City with first-generation college students; 85 percent free and reduced-price lunches,” Campanelli said.

His annual FAFSA night, where students and families are invited to the high school to have assistance completing FAFSA, didn’t go well this year.

“We had a fair turnout of parents, but about half walked away not being able to complete the FAFSA, for whatever reason.”

He added that undocumented parents have had the most difficult time getting through the FAFSA.

To try to alleviate these burdens, he reached out to a handful of colleges in the hope of getting some answers. They all said similar things: “We know as much as you know. We’re not expecting things to happen in a timely sense.” “The CSS profile schools aren’t as worried about the FAFSA. You can tell your students we understand what they’re dealing with.”

“(The FAFSA challenges) are adding to the anxiety that people feel around the process,” Campanelli said. “Some parents are able to accept that, but for a lot of families, it’s difficult.”

To help alleviate some of the uncertainty, Campanelli said he’s been in contact with NACAC, New York ACAC, and the College Access Consortium of New York for resources and guidance. He’s utilized general information from these sources and attended events hosted by the groups to learn about critical updates and news.

All in all, he describes this FAFSA cycle as “one step forward, three steps back.”

“It’s just a frustrating process for everyone to know that this was three-plus years in the planning, and this was the best thing we could come up with.”

Rhode Island

Jonah O’Hara, director of college counseling at Rocky Hill Country Day School in East Greenwich, has felt a double whammy this year. He’s helping his son navigate the college admission process, as well as helping all the other senior students and their families at his school.

O’Hara advised families to wait until mid-January to begin the FAFSA process, as he figured the December rollout would be buggy. What he’s noticed in the past few months is that low- and middle-income families have suffered even more, in ways people might not think of.

For instance, these families struggle with whether to make campus visits.

“Most families who need to wait for need-based aid awards for students to decide where they will deposit are families who have limited resources to travel to visit campuses where they were admitted,” he said. “Families are forced to decide if they should invest in visiting colleges where their student was admitted but where they are unsure if they can afford, or wait for their need-based award and miss the open house events. This is just another way in which low- and middle-income families are further marginalized in the college application process.”

Along the way, O’Hara has gotten his information from a variety of sources, including through visits to colleges and universities with his son. He noticed some colleges have been innovative. For example, St. Edward’s University (TX) created its own FAFSA tool to send to all admitted students, turning around a financial aid package within five to seven days.

“This initiative felt like a win-win, addressing both student-centered and institutional practices. It provided families with more information sooner, reducing waiting times and potentially increasing enrollment deposits,” said O’Hara.

He also used College Aid Pro, a for-profit service that hosts biweekly lunchtime calls for counselors. O’Hara said hearing other counselors ask questions has been beneficial. He also found the College Admission Counselors Facebook group, which includes school counselors, independent counselors, and admission professionals, to be a valuable crowdsourcing tool.

Another challenge he’s seen students and families face — which was just recently corrected by the Department of Education — is not being able to submit corrections or add colleges to their FAFSA.

“My senior added a college to his list in late January after we had submitted his FAFSA, but there is no way to let that college know there is a FAFSA out there for him,” he said in regards to the previous issue.

About 50 percent of O’Hara’s students stay in New England for college, and 50 percent leave the region. About 25 percent attend public universities, and the rest of the students attend private schools and most rely on financial aid to foot the bill.

He applauds colleges that have pushed back their deadlines and hopes they will remain flexible over the next phase.

“These are the kinds of partnerships we all need as a gesture of compassion and understanding in the face of so much uncertainty,” O’Hara said.

Looking ahead, he can’t tell if it’ll be any better for the class of 2025. He’s looking forward to announcements over the summer about when the FAFSA will be ready to launch in October.

However, he wonders what’s going to move the needle.

“Is it communication from school counselors? Petitions out there reaching out to congressmen? Maybe we need to write to members of Congress to make this a high, high priority, to make sure it’s ready in advance of Oct. 1. Grassroots efforts may move the needle a little bit,” he said.

There is one silver lining: “When my student and I sat down and did the FAFSA profile together, I found the FAFSA actually really easy to complete, if we’re looking for any upside to this,” O’Hara said.

Texas

St. Edward’s University developed a workaround with the help of Human Capital Research Corporation, a financial aid consultant, which created a website for students that functioned like the FAFSA. The form asked families to pull information straight from line items on their tax return for the most accurate financial information possible. Human Capital then created a preliminary offer for prospective St. Edward’s University students who filed the FAFSA simulation. The preliminary offer looks just like the school’s regular offer, though the preliminary offer may change once the university receives complete data from the federal government.

“It took students about 20 minutes to complete. It’s been a really great way to serve families who have had technical glitches with the FAFSA and still cannot complete it,” said Tracy Manier, vice president for enrollment management at St. Edward’s. “The answers aren’t instantaneous, but it gives us some insight into student behavior and their engagement with the university.”

In time, all students will receive an official, stated offer, said Manier, who added that the drop in FAFSA-filers across the country — 40 percent fewer students — is staggering to her.

Oregon

Jon Boeckenstadt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University, lives by a simple motto: “You’ll never go wrong when you keep students and parents first.”

Boeckenstadt’s team emails every applicant and parent, and he answers some families himself. He and his team have relied on traditional and social media, the Department of Education website, and almost daily discussions with the university’s director of financial aid to stay on top of what’s happening with the FAFSA.

Boeckenstadt acknowledges that there are changes and challenges in every admission cycle but said his team has had to roll with the punches more than usual this year — just like everyone else.

“We’ve always had the FAFSA deadline at the end of February; we moved that to March. We always had a deadline of May 1 for tuition deposits, and we have moved that to June 1,” Boeckenstadt said.

The institution made changes to its orientation days, too. Students could start registering for orientation on May 2, but the university will cap those spots to 50 percent until June 1 to allow for additional students to register as they make their decision.

“The fact that you don’t need financial aid doesn’t give you a better housing spot and orientation spot,” he said. “It’s just one of those years we’re trying to do everything right that we possibly can and we’re facing occurrences outside of our control that we can’t do anything about.”

He admits that June 1 may be untenable, but the university will make decisions as they come.

He added: “We were first during COVID-19 to extend the deposit deadline, and the messages of gratitude and appreciation paid off in a lot of goodwill.

Obviously, in this business, you never get ahead by not focusing on students.”

California

Blia Yang, executive director of undergraduate admissions at the University of California San Diego, said that at the first FAFSA simplification announcement, she tried to focus on the positives — that the changes were supposed to make the process easier.

“We all really welcomed that,” she recalled.

Yet, like at many other institutions, the first round of records they received were problematic, making it clear that turning around financial aid awards likely would take even longer than anticipated.

“When the Department of Education does something like it did recently — announcing yet another change, then pulling it back regardless of the reasoning — it’s not only devastating for our staff, but for families,” said Jim Rawlins, associate vice chancellor of enrollment management at UC San Diego.

Since the first announcement, he has been mindful of the university’s most vulnerable families.

“We keep having to balance out what’s possible for us, but we’re always going to be mindful of the student first during this process,” he said. “We’re drawing heavily on data put out on the FAFSA website that gives a periodic update on how FAFSA submissions are going at the high school level. I have asked my outreach teams to know which high schools to focus on regarding extra FAFSA workshops, encouragement, and more.”

Rawlins said that not all colleges can continue to extend their deadlines, and that at all schools, it puts undue pressure on financial aid professionals. He said that families may ultimately feel pressure to withdraw or deposit at more than one school, and admission professionals must work together more than usual.

Silvia Marquez, UC San Diego’s executive director of financial aid and scholarships, is on the board of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). Rawlins said that connection has helped himself and Yang in terms of information and awareness. In addition, campuses in the University of California system work closely with one another and benefit from system-level colleagues who help coordinate federal relations and other considerations.

“While we get information from the Department of Education, we’ve quickly learned that it is not completely reliable,” he added.

Yang said, “The conversations that we’re having reminds me of when the pandemic hit. Campuses across the nation worked together and focused on good outcomes for the students and families, even if it was harder for the institutions. We’ve been through difficult times before and I think we will get through this. If we look two to three years in the future, the simplification will come to fruition and be wonderful for families and students.”

Virginia

Stephanie Dupaul, vice president for enrollment management at the University of Richmond (UR), has been waiting patiently.

“It’s been an unexpected adventure,” she said.

However, she has a tool in her back pocket that not every school uses — the College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile. The CSS Profile is an online application created by the College Board, which colleges use to award non-federal institutional aid. Dupaul’s team uses the CSS Profile to package financial aid for admitted students to provide them with their grant and scholarship aid now, giving them the financial information they need to understand their net price long before they need to make their enrollment decision.

“We don’t know what the Pell Grant is going to be, though. But using the CSS Profile, we’re confident in the data we have,” she said.

However, that still means her team has to review every financial aid package twice.

“We use our institutional methodology: Here’s your institutional grant, here’s your Pell Grant, with the dollar amounts. Because we aren’t 100 percent confident it’s right, once we have the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), you’ll get a second letter that will say more specifically what the grant funding is,” she said.

She knows that FAFSA-only schools bear a much larger burden — they’re getting asked how much it’ll cost, and the institutions can’t answer the question. The lack of data severely limits them.

“My trust in deadlines has eroded. We were told about January, and there was a meeting with some university presidents who said mid-February, and then it would be in the first half of March. It went on to say it would take time for the ISIRs to roll out. My faith in deadlines is soft,” she said.

While waiting for FAFSA records, the University of Richmond made contingency plans, Dupaul said. In the event that the university does not receive the records before payments are due for summer school, UR will take the necessary steps to ensure that continuing students who need federal aid for summer school are still able to enroll and attend. The university used the CSS Profile to help make decisions about each award package. Now that her team has received the information and can process the data, they have also begun talking to colleagues at other schools to see if they are seeing the same error rates and issues.

Dupaul has used the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification page, Banner/Ellucian updates, and Department of Education resources to sift through updates, but she said those don’t always provide real, boots-on-the-ground information. She said her professional and personal networks have been incredibly helpful — Dupaul has learned about delays and changes from colleagues long before receiving official notification from the Department of Education.

“Our priority is supporting students in their college decision-making process by ensuring that they know UR is committed to meeting their full demonstrated financial need, and by providing them with their net price and grant aid now. Our financial aid team is standing by to work individually with any new students and parents who have questions. We don’t want the FAFSA delays to delay their enrollment or to take away from their celebration of admission,” she said.

Now Seeking: Adaptability - Winter 2024 Issue

By Rachel Williams

By 2031, 7.1 million net new jobs are expected in health care and professional and business services. Experts say the No. 1 skill counselors should help students attain in preparation for these careers is adaptability.

Nearly 20 years ago when Nicole Smith was forecasting jobs, she saw the trend that software development was on the rise. Nowhere in her report, though, did she predict app developer was going to become a popular job. Nowhere in her report did the words app developer even appear.

“Nobody knew what an app developer was; nobody knew what an app was,” said Smith. “But there was a trend that we could observe under software developers, and the demand for them kept growing. Eventually, they birthed the app developer occupation.”

Now as a research professor and chief economist at Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), she’s forecasting the next decade’s major areas of job growth: health care and professional and business services. These two sectors are expected to grow so quickly that most annual job openings through 2031 will be for completely new positions, rather than re-filling existing ones like in other industries, according to CEW’s job-projection report that published in November. And while this growth signals there will be job security — and likely a great amount of interest from prospective college students — there’s an element of the unknown, as many of these industries’ jobs have yet to be created, similar to the case of the app developer.

Here, experts share what trends they’re seeing emerge in these industries, what skills students should know to be prepared for their projected job growth, and how school counselors can support them in the process.

HEALTH CARE

By year 2030, all baby boomers will be at least 65 years old, meaning one in every five U.S. residents will be of retirement age, according to CEW’s report. That alone is creating a greater need for health care in America, which is predicted to create an increase of 20 percent, or more than 4.2 million, net new jobs as a result, according to CEW.

The health care services sector spans more than just hospitals and jobs for doctors and nurses. It also includes nursing and residential care facilities and social assistance facilities, creating a need for occupations such as radiation therapists, exercise therapists, sonographers, and others that require a significant amount of training on machinery, equipment, and software, said Smith.

Yet, rapid technological innovations and drug advancements are constantly changing the industry.

“Technical tools are going to change. The first tool they use when they graduate will be different than what they use in three years or in five years,” said Brooke Buffington, assistant vice president of the Student Professional Development Center at Elon University (NC).

Buffington also predicts the increasing demand for health care services will spawn more adjacent organizations, and that providers will be competing against each other more than ever before. As such, there will be a greater emphasis on how to improve the client experience, she said.

Jessica Hillman Williams, professor and director of the undergraduate health care management program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), also predicts more businesses adjacent to health care will pop up, particularly around how to support the elderly as they age in place. One example she’s already seen is concierge services that deliver vaccines straight to patients in the comfort of their homes.

“We’re even seeing Amazon coming into the health care space,” said Williams. “We’re reimagining how health care is delivered. There will be more players in health care as we know it with more innovation.”

Williams also said data and data visualization is taking hold in the industry.

“We recently had a meeting with our advisory board and one of the things they repeatedly talked about was the importance of data and data visualization,” said Williams. “With the rise of home monitoring, Fitbit, and Apple Watch, I think being able to communicate what the data are saying to help make decisions is going to be a growing need.”

Buffington is seeing the same trend, adding, “Analytics and being able to work with data (will be important). These organizations will need storytellers — those who can go to clients and explain what the data is saying.”

Beyond data visualization, other technological innovations like artificial intelligence and simulation tools are carving a space in the health care sector.

J’Aime Jennings, associate professor and director of the Residential Master of Science in Healthcare Administration at UAB, said leaders in the profession are pondering how to determine AI’s place in the industry, especially in light of its myriad rules and regulations, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

“How powerful are these tools? How do we maintain integrity in thinking through the use of those tools? This is all bubbling up,” Jennings said.

Simulation, meanwhile, has a strong foothold in helping to teach students and professionals. At UAB, students learn CPR from a computer-operated mannequin that tells them if they’re not pressing hard enough or doing enough reps. UAB also has developed a computer-based simulation to help train providers on bias and equity in health care, said Williams.

These technologies and others on the horizon are certain to continuously reshape the health care industry, putting students in a unique position of having to keep up.

PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS SERVICES

By 2031, the professional and business services sector is expected to grow by 13 percent, creating nearly 2.9 million net new jobs. The sector already has nearly 23 million jobs, and with this projected growth, it will become the largest industry in the country by number of jobs, according to CEW.

Work in this industry includes consulting, temporary staffing, technical support, and network computing and communications support — the types of jobs that support the increasingly complex and global nature of how companies operate and produce their products. Such examples are supply chain and human resources — areas that are more often being outsourced to contractors than ever before.

“It’s those service-type jobs that to some extent require degrees, but also require certifications,” said Smith. “If you think of the computing field, it often requires a bachelor’s degree but there are many credentials that require licenses and certifications, too.”

Heather Byrne, managing director of the Career Development Office at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, said she’s hearing companies will be looking for people with more specialized skills in the future, but students must not forget that they still need to know about everything else pertaining to their job area.

“Sustainability and the supply chain, in particular; we’ll continue to see those specialty areas grow,” said Byrne. “But students will still need to understand how the supply chain fits into the overall business model.”

Data visualization, AI, and machine learning also are changing the nature of these roles.

“We’re seeing more emphasis on digital skills within nondigital roles,” said Brittany Tyree, managing director of career education and coaching at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. “For digital occupations, we’re seeing more emphasis on soft skills. Our students need to be able to work with people anywhere due to remote work, have interpersonal skills, teamwork, and communication. These are more important than ever.”

According to CEW, future growth in the professional and business services industry will be driven by companies’ need for consultants and contractors. Smith added that these roles used to be part of firms, but the trend now leans toward hiring individual contractors for auxiliary business services.

As such, “communication and being able to articulate, being able to inform people, and communicate your value — that’s what employers are looking for,” said Byrne.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR COUNSELORS

As counselors help students prepare for careers in these growing areas, experts all agree: Flexibility and adaptability will be the most sought-after skills, and students need to ensure they develop them while they can.

“There’s a difference between someone who can adjust, but they resist it. They have an attitude about it. There’s a difference between that person and another who looks at it as an opportunity,” said Byrne.

And while students certainly must learn the technological trends that are shaping these industries, Byrne said employability and success still comes down to a student’s own interpersonal skills and mindset.

“Companies will always need people. You shouldn’t be concerned about AI taking your job; you should be concerned about the person who knows about AI taking your job,” she said.

Smith added: “The type of skills that are nonreplaceable are higher-level thinking, critical thinking, analytical skills, and rationalization.”

Counselors can help students acquire these skills through a variety of means.

Liberal-arts schools, where critical thinking, dealing with ambiguity, and learning how to gracefully have difficult conversations and how to fail are taught, can help prepare students for success.

“We encourage faculty to give students assignments that don’t have clear answers,” said Buffington of Elon University, which emphasizes liberal arts and sciences. “We also work to create a campus climate where failure is accepted. We teach students what it means to fail and why it’s important to fail. We know they’ll face failure in the workplace, and they need to be able to learn from it and become more resilient in the process.”

Experiential learning opportunities such as internships can help students develop these skills, as can something a bit more unique: improv.

“Improv is a great opportunity to learn how to think on your feet and be in the moment,” said Byrne. “Improv is a great way to be present but also to learn how to have command in a room at the same time. We put a lot of emphasis on things like AI, but we have to be focused on everything else, too. How someone walks into a room and shakes your hand, how well you can persuade, how people listen to you — those are key indicators of success.”

Encouraging students to explore and try new things also can promote continuous learning and curiosity — a mindset that will help them when they’re expected to adapt to new and emerging tools.

For counselors, it can be daunting to keep up with the rapid pace at which technology is changing these industries. To stay informed, Tyree suggests reviewing industry reports, such as those with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“They will shed light on what’s happening in the job market,” she said. “One of the best things counselors can be doing, too, is networking with each other — counselors and colleges; counselors and admissions. Each school has a different value-add in terms of how they support students, and I encourage them to network and learn more about their offerings.”

Rachel Williams is a content editor and writer at NACAC.

The Identity Generation - Fall 2023 Issue

By Rachel Williams

Today’s college students cherish spaces that celebrate their unique identities. Coupled with cultural and social movements like #MeToo, this has elevated the study of women and gender issues, and even increased interest in women’s colleges. Here’s what that means for counselors.

Sophia Volpe has been interested in gender since the early days of her education. While participating in middle school debate, she would receive feedback from judges that the tone of her voice was too high and distracting compared to her male counterparts. She also found the dress code, which mandated that girls cover up, hypocritical and advocated to change it.

“I went to a private school that was pretty progressive; they preached equality a lot. But I thought it was hypocritical that the dress code was built around not distracting boys,” said Volpe. “It placed the responsibility on girls to cover up, rather than on boys to take responsibility for their own education and their own actions.”

She’s been interested ever since in how gender structures — particularly for females — have shaped society, and data show she’s not alone.

According to Data USA, which compiles education and workforce data from the U.S. government, interest in women’s studies programs has been on the rise. From 2012 to 2021, the most recent year of data available, there’s been a 10 percent increase in the number of women’s studies degrees awarded. There was a spike in 2018, which saw a 13 percent increase in degrees awarded, compared to 2012. Experts point to 2016, when the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse was strengthening, as a key factor contributing to that spike.

“I think what happened in 2016 — the rise of Donald Trump, the retrograde misogyny that got more play — a lot of the young people coming in and people who identified as women or genderqueer had experienced the idea that we weren’t really as far along in equality as we thought we were,” said Gwynn Thomas, chair of the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo (NY). “This is beyond Roe v. Wade being overturned, or the Supreme Court. It (inequality) had been happening before.”

Interest has remained steady in the study of women’s issues with the overturning of the U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, ending the federal right to an abortion in 2022. Greater awareness of the pay gap between women and men and the lack of women representation in many industries and leadership positions also has sustained interest in studying women’s issues.

Another reason is students like Volpe, the generation of college students today, grew up keenly aware of women’s rights issues. Volpe, 19, a sophomore at the University of Georgia double majoring in women’s studies and biology, was in middle school at the height of the #MeToo movement.

“Generally, we’re seeing an uptick in applications, in part (due) to women’s issues being elevated culturally and socially,” said Nichole Reynolds, dean of undergraduate admissions at Bryn Mawr College, a women’s college in Pennsylvania. “Younger generations understand that identity-based spaces are important; that’s no longer a hurdle we need to clear.”

As women’s issues and issues of equality continue to take hold in national conversations, counselors should be equipped to advise students who express interest in studying these areas.

The Evolution of Women’s Studies

Women’s studies gained a footing in higher education in the 1970s, when colleges and universities started responding to the social and cultural climate of the feminism movement of the 1960s. These programs established the “study of women, but also women as producers of their own knowledge,” said Thomas, who’s been a Buffalo faculty member since 2005.

In Thomas’ nearly 20-year tenure, she’s seen attitudes around the discipline change. In 2005, she recalls “a belief that the battle had been won;” that girls could do anything, and all the doors were open to those who worked hard. Students were less likely to identify as feminists, she said.

Now, women’s studies programs — often known for their inclusivity — have become safe spaces for more than just women, and students generally more often identify as feminists, she said.

“As the field developed and feminist theory developed, we’ve seen more emphasis on gender and how knowledge and power were being constructed,” said Thomas. “A lot of departments have broadened their focus to gender studies.”

Many departments also have broadened to include sexuality studies, due to the rising focus of LGBTQ+ issues.

“The drive is always to be inclusive, and that’s been reflected in the name,” said Thomas.

At the University of Georgia’s Institute for Women’s Studies, students tend to mostly be women, but also nonbinary students and students across the gender spectrum, said Patricia Richards, director of UGA’s institute, adding that women’s studies often becomes the academic home for students who have questions about their own identities.

At UGA, the Institute for Women’s Studies offers a Bachelor of Arts, a minor, and undergraduate and graduate certificates. Compared to the 2014-15 academic year, UGA now has 16 percent more students enrolled in a women’s studies major or minor. Like national trends, UGA’s women’s studies also saw a spike from 2016-18, with 37 percent more students enrolled compared to 2014-15. The institute’s minor and certificate programs are the most popular, partly because of the interdisciplinary nature of women’s studies.

“Students are really seeing the value-added of doing an interdisciplinary certificate program on top (of what they’re studying),” said Richards. “Students are facing a challenging job market.”

“Adding that feminist, gender-studies lens in which to look at the world — it’s applicable to any job they want,” said Elise Robinson, PR and program coordinator of UGA’s women’s studies institute. “I think that’s a big appeal.”

Take Volpe, for example, who ultimately aspires to attend medical school or earn a Ph.D. in population health sciences.

“Especially if I go into medicine, identity is such an important factor in patient outcomes and doctor-patient interactions,” said Volpe. “There’s discussions on intersectionality and reproductive justice and all that, but women’s studies can also be a lens in which you look at any issue.”

It’s as simple as this: Diseases can manifest differently in women versus men, and without the study of women’s issues, we’ll never know that and those outcomes, said Volpe.

An Impact on Women’s Colleges

While women and gender studies programs have students examine the world through a gender lens, women’s colleges generally have been doing that since their inception in the mid-19th century.

“The mission of women’s colleges is more critical and more relevant than ever,” said Reynolds of Bryn Mawr. “Our mission has been to confront these hurdles.”

Among the hurdles she’s referring to are underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, in STEM, and in public policy, as well as the wage gap, where women make 82 cents to every dollar a man makes, according to Pew Research Center. These hurdles often exist because of stereotypes, such as that women are not as strong as men in STEM subjects.

“At best, that creates anxiety. At worst, that creates a lack of women pursuing opportunities,” said Reynolds.

Students at women’s colleges are more likely to study STEM, said Laura Stratton, director of admission at Scripps College (CA), because they know they belong in that space. They don’t have to worry about being the minority in a male-dominated classroom.

As women and gender issues have claimed a stake in the national conversation, some women’s colleges report seeing greater interest from prospective students. Younger generations are more engaged in the political issues of the day, leading to a renewed interest in women’s colleges that hasn’t been seen in a decade, said Reynolds.

At Spelman College (GA), for example, a historically Black liberal arts college for women, applications have been up by about 80 percent since 2019, said Chelsea Holley, director of admissions. A big reason why is racial reckoning in the United States, but also because of elevated women’s issues.

“I will say being in Georgia, one of the states where reproductive rights have been stifled, we get a lot of interest from that as well,” said Holley.

What This Means for Counselors

Hugh McIntosh, a Washington D.C.-based independent counselor with Marks Education, said he’s noticed more and more students involved in advocacy work. While that doesn’t necessarily mean students will pursue that as their career, there are options available to them to explore in college.

One option is to take general education classes that align with their passions. In women’s studies, for example, introductory courses often satisfy the general-education humanities requirement.

“Thousands of students have gone through our introductory course,” said Richards. “That impact shouldn’t be underestimated. You’re introducing new ways to thinking about the world.”

The University of Buffalo is experiencing similar levels of interest.

“Our level 100 classes that we sometimes struggled to fill up 10 years ago are now all doing really well,” said Thomas. “What used to have 20 students now has 60 students a semester.”

When it comes to women’s studies, and even women’s colleges, counselors often need to be ready with information that debunks common misconceptions or eases fears, said Stratton with Scripps College. A common point of concern is return on investment.

Stratton suggests that counselors and others who help guide students through their college decision engage with staff from women’s colleges for help in addressing students’ concerns about these institutions. In addition to return on investment, common concerns are about the culture and social life of women’s colleges.

“When we look at our critical sectors, (women’s college graduates) are overrepresented,” said Reynolds. “Twenty percent of women in Congress went to a women’s college. One-third of Fortune 1000 board members are women’s college graduates. Our students are more likely to graduate in four years and are less likely to transfer.”

Women’s studies programs also often have to plead their case.

“One of the real frustrations among faculty in women and gender studies is there’s a general disparagement of this field,” said Thomas. “‘What would you ever do with a gender studies degree?’ My students tell me they still hear this. It’s not true that our graduates can’t get jobs. They continue their social activism. They work toward making the world a better place through health care, law, and politics. They come with a perspective of how things aren’t fair and how they can be changed. They think critically, communicate their ideas, defend their ideas, and work in groups. They have real, in-demand skills.”

Women’s studies and women’s colleges aren’t for everyone, of course. Just 2 percent of college students, on average, attend private women’s colleges, said Reynolds. They are students who are OK carving their own path. Students in these spaces also tend to be intellectually curious, are willing to cross traditional boundaries of humanities and sciences to be interdisciplinary in nature, and ask lots of questions, said Thomas.

“Often when I tell people that I’m studying this, I get questions about what kind of job I can get and what I will do with it,” said Volpe. “I wish that people would have a little more expansive idea of what getting a college degree looks like. Women’s studies have been one of the best parts of my college experience.”

Rachel Williams is a content editor and writer at NACAC.

Artificial Intelligence Comes to College Admission - Summer 2023 Issue

By Melissa Brock

Admission professionals and school counselors weigh in on AI and the admission process.

It’s easy to picture: A frustrated student stares at a blank cursor under the header “My College Essay.” It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to envision the student pulling up ChatGPT or another similar tool to do something—anything—to get moving on that essay that’s perhaps due in about nine hours.

ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, and other artificial intelligence tools like Bard, can generate text based on prompts, creating human-like responses through text data from the internet.

Teachers and students are using ChatGPT. A total of 51 percent of teachers reported using ChatGPT, according to data collected by Impact Research on behalf of the Walton Family Foundation. Teachers use it for a wide variety of tasks, including lesson planning, developing ideas for classes, and building background knowledge.

Thirty-three percent of students between the ages of 12 and 17 say they’ve used it; of the students who have used it, 79 percent say it’s had a positive impact. Some teachers even encourage their students to experiment with tools like ChatGPT. A total of 65 percent of students and 76 percent of teachers agree that integrating AI will help students in the future and allow both students and teachers to learn more and balance their schedules.

An informal poll of Stanford University students conducted earlier this year by the institution’s student-run newspaper, found that 4,497 Stanford students—approximately 17 percent of all respondents—used ChatGPT to assist with their fall quarter assignments and exams.

All of this begs the question: How is artificial intelligence (AI) being used in college admission by admission professionals, students and parents, school counselors, and others directly or indirectly involved in college admission? Furthermore, how should students use it, particularly for essays?

AI in Action

“I got hooked on the AI bug because I’m an efficiency junkie,” said Jeff Neill, director of college counseling at Graded, the American School in Sao Paulo in Brazil. “AI allows us to have mundane tasks evolve and do them in less time.”

He says that ChatGPT is good at summarizing, outlining, and creating drafts of work to assist him in his broader goal of educating students. However, he warned, “It’s a tool, and we need to respect it as such.”

Neill says he and his colleagues use AI to help them write student recommendations. For example, he says that AI can take 10 bullet points with a narrative introduction and conclusion and give it two or three middle sections, adding academic highlights, cultural differences, and family factors into the recommendation.

He said this time saving naturally introduces the question, “What are you going to do with that recouped time?”

Neill says he and his colleagues spend more one-on-one time with their students. In fact, they have restructured their curriculum in part because they can streamline their processes using AI.

In addition to streamlining and prioritizing tasks, writing sensitive emails, reading survey feedback, and even summarizing meetings he cannot attend, Neill says he uses AI to create responses to concerned parents by asking ChatGPT to maximize kindness and empathy.

Brennan Barnard, director of college counseling and outreach at Khan Lab School in California’s Silicon Valley, said his staff are beta testing Khanmigo, Khan Academy’s AI chatbot tutor with a college admission and financial aid navigator feature. One goal of the tool is to harness AI to pinpoint college options for students with varied skills, interests, and desires. A student strong in molecular biology but looking for a dance program, for example, could ask for help building a college list and Khanmigo will offer some suggestions.

“It’s allowing students to access programs more than they could previously,” Barnard said.

Rick Clark, assistant vice provost and executive director for undergraduate admission at Georgia Institute of Technology said his team is working to train chatbots to answer students’ questions about the university. They will also try to gain some traction on using AI to read alongside admission readers. No final admission decisions will be made by AI this year for Georgia Tech—they will run a full pilot to determine its accuracy.

AI will change how staff work, particularly admission counselors who have to come off the road to read applications, Clark said. AI has the potential to free up admission professionals for more relationship building and one-on-one time with potential applicants.

Mike Dunn, dean of college and career counseling at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Estes Park, Colorado, said parents have jumped into the fray. They’re aware that AI exists and some parents have expressed concerns about how students use it in school, necessitating the need for clear school policies about when and how to use AI. “It really is important for schools to deal with that in order to teach students how to use it and the ethics of how to use it. People are going to think that responsibility is on the schools,” he said.

What About Admission Essay Authenticity?

Jim Jump, academic dean and director of college counseling at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Virginia, said, “I think the big question is, ‘What does it do to the student essay?’ Is the essay truly the students’? If you can’t be sure who the author is in the essay, how much credence can you give the essay in the admissions process?”

Dunn believes that colleges also need to come up with a stance as soon as possible within their admission processes, but he believes it will be hard to have a hard and fast rule about what happens when a student submits an AI-generated essay.

Clark’s office is working on that. He said, “To me, the positive is that there’s no more staring at a blinking cursor on a blank screen. A lot of people struggle to start writing.” Clark says his office will offer AI guidance for essays and will actually encourage students to use ChatGPT. The university’s communication office has not yet finalized the language they’ll share with applicants, but it will indicate something along these lines: “We encourage you to incorporate the use of AI such as ChatGPT and Bard. Use it as a learning experience for accurate, helpful reflections, but do not copy and paste out of AI. The work you submit is one that you’ve created.”

In other words, students can use AI to “discuss” potential ideas prior to creating their essays. For example, ChatGPT may name individuals who have endured great hardships in their lives that students can use in their essay. It might help students come up with parallels to their own lives. However, it’s important to recognize that students, counselors, and parents must understand that ChatGPT has been known to make things up.

Submitting some of your thoughts and ideas and asking for constructive feedback is another way for students to use ChatGPT. However, Dunn says many of his students have deemed the language prediction tool “not worthwhile,” as it’s not scouring the internet for scholarly articles, which may require more nuance and deeper analysis than what ChatGPT can churn out.

“What we’re hearing from experts is that it’s a fool’s errand to tell whether or not a kid has used AI,” Clark said, so he says it doesn’t make sense to police students. However, it doesn’t change what he’s looking for in essays—colleges are still looking for essays to be personal, specific, and use a unique voice.

Jump wonders whether the essay’s overall importance will wane in time. “I think the essay is overrated,” he said. At present, there are only a few colleges where the application essay is “as important to the admission process that most of us believe it is.” he added. “I think it causes colleges to think about, ‘What exactly does the essay do for us in terms of the admissions process?'”

Chat GPT, he added, is “good enough to write a cliché essay…I’ve never seen a case where it wrote a great essay. A great essay is personal and nuanced and has a voice—and I haven’t seen it do that yet.”

Barnard says that he believes it is important for students practice how to use the tools responsibly. He said, “I think one of the challenges is going to be a road where there are so many of these tools…One of our jobs as counselors is going to be to help students weed through what’s useful and what’s not. We’re going to have to help students have the skills to interact with these tools. How do we work with students to understand how to utilize the power of these tools?”

Jump agrees. “I think there is the potential to use it as an instrument for rough drafts of essays or iterating ideas. If a student is trying to include certain things in an essay and having trouble finding a direction of an essay, ChatGPT can give interesting takes on essays,” Jump said, adding, “not for the final product, but the initial ideation process.”

Essays: Will Changes Occur in the Future?

“I don’t feel as fatalistic as some people do about this. I don’t think it’s going to change the college essay. For decades, students have had access to tutors, people to help them with their essays,” Barnard said. “A chatbot can’t tell a student story. It can’t make up a student’s story.”

“I think the future of the essay is certainly in question, and we’ve said this for years,” said Clark. He said that no student ever benefited from “banging their head against a wall.” He said it begs the question, is it important for their character development to experience that type of frustration?

Barnard said that colleges normally don’t use the essay as a platform to say, “Wow, this student’s a really great writer.” Rather, they use it to learn something new about the student.

“We may not know necessarily whether they’re using AI, but I’m hopeful about reimagining the college application and I’m hopeful that this will accelerate the idea of allowing submission of (student essay content) in mediums where they’re comfortable,” Clark said. “They live on their phones and online, and if what we’re looking for is voice, we just want to hear your voice. Figuring that out going forward is really important. ‘Here’s 60 seconds of what I want you to hear me say.’…It allows for real voice and engagement in a way that a static essay never really has.”

Universities like Georgia Tech get so many applications for so few spots, and with perfect scores and perfect GPAs, it’s difficult to discern the differences between students. Clark says that reimagining the essay could be the way to bridge that gap.

Clark says InitialView could hold the answer. It gives applicants a chance to record live, unscripted interviews and upload them to create a digital elevator pitch of sorts. Admission professionals can use InitialView on the Slate platform and use the submissions to review an applicant’s communication and soft skills. Accessing InitialView is free for institutions; students pay to use the platform. The Glimpse feature offers an additional paid option for unproduced short clips from students.

“We’ve used them in the last decade internationally and I see this new option for domestic students as a possible future path for many students and colleges. Several colleges have been using it in the last few cycles, and Duke (University), Northwestern (University), Rice (University), and others are coming on board this year,” Clark said. “There could be some value in this idea that a kid gets to do a quick video and whatever they want to say in 60 seconds.”

Dunn, meanwhile, said he doesn’t believe AI will change the essay. However, he believes that colleges will start asking more specific questions that AI cannot easily address.

Looking to the Future

Tools like ChatGPT will continue to advance, with larger and more powerful models that can better decipher complex text and better understand the context of the materials it pulls from, allowing for more accurate and appropriate responses. In the future, AI may have these potential attributes: enhanced interactivity between the AI and the user, adherence to ethical guidelines that have been programmed into the AI, domain-specific expertise (i.e., an AI that specialize in personal essay writing). The sky’s the limit for what it can achieve in the years to come, and Dunn encourages parents, school counselors, and others to check ChatGPT out to understand what they’re engaged with.

Dunn said, “It’s a revolutionary language model, and so if you consider that, then you have to understand the next step from ChatGPT is going to be revolutionary and it’s not going to end anytime soon.”

Clark said, “We look at how things have changed over time because of technology. Technology has continually evolved. Pick your thing—the calculator, the computer—there’s always been technology change with an impact that we’ve never seen before.”

Barnard encourages everyone—admission professionals, students, parents, and school counselors—not to fear it. “We need to embrace it, because it’s here and it’s going to stay. We need to lean into how to prepare students for their futures and their college life. How do we teach them responsible engagement of technology rather than thinking about banning it?”

We also need to find ways for technology to open opportunities for humans to talk to each other more, rather than to replace human interaction, Barnard said. Ironically, AI can help do that, he said. “It has real power to take up some of the busy work of the process and open up to human interaction.”

Melissa Brock worked in college admission for 12 years and is now a freelance writer, copywriter, and editor/founder of CollegeMoneyTips.com.

High School Math and College Admission - Spring 2023 Issue

By Jeffrey Gittleman

“Sadly, our present system of mathematics education is a nightmare. In fact, if I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul-crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.” – Paul Lockhart, A Mathematician’s Lament, 2009

New York State best illustrates this nightmare described in A Mathematician’s Lament (above).

Many students need to pass the New York Algebra I Regents exam to receive a high school diploma. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a student needed a scaled score of 65, which translates to correctly answering only 30 percent of the questions, to pass. Since 2020, that scaled score has been reduced to 50; the passing percentage is now 18 percent for students who have also passed their Algebra I class.

This is preposterous, yet it is symptomatic of the need to significantly change not only how we teach high school math but also (more importantly) what math content we require to be taught.

College admission officers and high school counselors can, and should, play an important role in bringing about this important change. They should understand that the traditional math sequence is not necessarily teaching our kids the quantitative skills or content they should be learning.

Rigorous and relevant content such as mathematical modeling, probability, statistics, data, and financial and computational skills need to be incorporated in our math instruction at an early age. Simply providing more specialized math content pathways in the final years of high school is not good enough. The long, and longstanding, checklist of content standards of the traditional algebra-to-calculus sequence should be shortened to leave room for better pedagogy and for more rigorous and relevant material. If there were fewer topics to teach, curriculum developers and teachers would have more space and flexibility to provide far better learning experiences.

Students will be more engaged if they believe that what they are learning has meaning outside of a math class. Rather than students spending their early high school years learning the rote and seemingly meaningless skills of manipulating polynomials in algebra class or proving the congruence of triangles in geometry class, they should be exposed to topics such as correlation, causation, and randomness, or should be learning how to carefully read the charts, graphs, and maps that are ubiquitous in today’s world.

Change would not amount to a dumbing down of the curriculum; to the contrary, it would add much-needed rigor and promote student curiosity. Shouldn’t math class provide our kids with the skills to think creatively and to analyze and evaluate relevant problems? Sadly, it does neither; rather it teaches us to solve problems by remembering procedures rather than by thinking creatively. Ask someone a quantitative question and chances are good that you will get a response such as “I don’t remember how to do that.” Assuming, of course, that you don’t first get this even more typical response: “I was never good at math.”

Of course, the defense of the typical algebra-to-calculus sequence might go something like this: “Yes, maybe I don’t use the math I learned in high school very often but doing those math worksheets has made me a better thinker.” I disagree and would respectfully ask the defenders of the current system who want our children to learn geometry proofs to provide us with their own proof that learning traditional math content positively impacts problem-solving, abstract thinking, engagement, and curiosity.

To those defenders of the status quo who say they use either algebra or geometry concepts on a somewhat regular basis, I would suggest that those concepts were likely learned at either the elementary or middle school levels. I would urge a close look at this list of high school standards and these recent New York Regents math exam questions in Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II, as well as the AP Calculus exam to determine just how meaningful these high school topics and problems are to those outside of a school setting.

How should we think about the relevance of our math curriculum? Should relevance depend solely on whether knowledge and application of the content will be necessary in future high school math classes? Or in future college (math or nonmath) classes? Or for a potential job or career? How does a high school math teacher best respond to students questioning the relevance of math class content?

Should relevance matter for all high schoolers or just college-bound students(keep in mind that more than 60 percent of adults do not hold bachelor’s degrees)? Or only for future STEM majors in college (to the extent that a high school student has any idea of their future college major)?

I would also ask the defenders of the traditional sequence, who claim that the existing math content is necessary for those who one day might major in STEM in college, to do their own rigorous math and calculate the small fraction of all the ninth graders taking algebra who actually end up graduating with a college STEM degree. Even if more STEM degrees are somehow a societal goal, that still doesn’t mean that the early high school math content shouldn’t be significantly revisited and improved. Who knows, maybe if those introductory math courses were more student-friendly (not only at the high school level but even at the college level) we might wind up with more STEM majors, or at least fewer high school or college dropouts.

Of course, the understanding and appreciation of numbers, shapes, and patterns, and of broadly defined “algebraic thinking,” is important, and there are quite a few topics in algebra, and beyond, that are relevant. But there remain far too many content standards that fail to support that understanding and appreciation.

I have taught math at the middle and high school levels and now co-teach a math modeling course at Harvard College that serves as an alternative to introductory calculus. As a former attorney and investment professional, I have a different background and perspective than many math teachers.

Here are just a few of my personal observations of the pitfalls of our math curriculum:

I’ve observed appalling math pedagogy: from the “keep-change-flip” recipe that fifth graders memorize for dividing fractions, to a song that ninth graders learn to memorize the quadratic formula, each without any underlying conceptual, practical, or analytical understanding whatsoever. Similarly, many of my college students memorized in high school the procedure for finding the derivative of a function yet have no idea of the meaning or purpose of a derivative. I’ve observed the many ways that our math requirements and policies adversely affect students of all ages. Middle school students stress about the impact of their middle school math placement on their future college application. Postcollege non-STEM majors who want to go to grad school in a non-quantitative field are required to take the GRE, which tests knowledge of the high school math content that they never encountered in college and will not need to know in grad school.

I’ve run programs where high school students from well-served communities tutor their counterparts in underserved communities for the SAT and ACT and have witnessed the staggering difference in math content familiarity between the two groups. The math course offerings at the underserved schools I have worked with didn’t teach much of the material tested on the SAT and ACT nor did many of those schools offer advanced math courses, thus highlighting the inconsistency of the math content available to students and the resulting unfairness of using those college admission tests as indicators of student potential.

I’ve looked at countless math curriculum designs that purport to add a real-world component to math class but utterly fail to do so because either the component is not actually a real-world problem, or because, in the real world, no one would ever use classroom math to solve it.

On the other hand, I’ve designed and taught middle school math curricula where fifth graders program spreadsheets to discover the Fibonacci sequence, sixth graders use graph theory to explore alternative routes for the New York City Marathon, and seventh graders apply concepts of randomness to build financial Monte Carlo simulations.

My current college students use spreadsheets to model the carbon dioxide impacts of electrical vehicle rollout plans. They use basic geometry and statistics concepts to decide the fairness of states’ gerrymandering efforts. They use modeling techniques, strategic thinking, and basic numeracy skills to determine whether an online retailer should repeat a holiday discount promotion. I have seen the excitement and curiosity of students at all levels when they encounter the beauty of math or when they see that math can actually be relevant to solving real problems— not the made-up problems of the typical classroom.

My current college students do not need much of the math content they covered in high school to be successful in our math class. They need only a basic understanding of various algebra topics to understand some basic calculus concepts we explore. Some of my students took calculus in high school but often don’t remember much of what they learned. Even if they did remember, it is unlikely that those high school calculus classes prepared them for the conceptual and practical components of calculus we discuss in our class.

The problems we explore in our college class require some statistical and computational content knowledge that few of my students learned in high school. They would have been much better off if mathematical modeling, statistics, data, computer, and financial literacy topics were integrated into their math classes throughout their entire high (and middle) school experiences. Importantly, our most successful students are those willing to engage in problem solving in areas for which they have not previously been provided a playbook.

It is incredible to me, having watched my former fifth grade students master spreadsheets and coding, that our policymakers don’t insist that spreadsheets and computer programming languages become an integral part of the math curriculum starting in elementary school.

So why do we cling to a system of pedagogy that fails to foster creative thinking, and of content that was developed generations ago to teach students to perform the calculations and manipulations that are now better performed by machines, particularly in light of rapid advancements in artificial intelligence?

How can college admission officers and high school counselors help implement the needed change?

College admission preferences and choices shape students’ high school experiences. Students, parents, teachers, and education leaders all want students to have the best opportunities and often look to college admission standards when designing high school requirements and curriculum. Unfortunately, the focus of high school education and experiences is all too often on college admission rather than on actual learning.

College admission officers should gain an understanding of the precise quantitative skills and content knowledge required, if any, by each of their schools and departments, whether that comes about with direct conversations with other faculty or with their administrators. Appropriate admission standards based on that feedback could then be developed and clearly communicated to other stakeholders. Importantly, admission offices should check in with all faculty, not just the math department, to gain that understanding.

For example, would business school faculty prefer that their incoming students have rigorous and relevant financial literacy or statistics courses in high school rather than coordinate geometry, college algebra (aka Algebra II) and, dare I say, calculus? Wouldn’t college political science departments prefer that students spend their high school years understanding the statistics and data science behind ranked choice voting and political polling rather than memorizing trigonometric identities? For that matter, shouldn’t all students
better understand the math that underlies their financial futures or the functioning of our government whether they plan to become physicists or physical education teachers? Are college faculty simply treating calculus as a signal that a student can do a certain level of work without truly understanding what that level is or whether the college coursework actually requires knowledge of the underlying calculus content?

Of course, if a college determines that the lower-order thinking skills tested on the SAT, ACT, AP Calculus exam, and forthcoming AP Precalculus exam are not the skills that are required, or preferred, by their college faculty, then that college can alter its admission policies with respect to those tests which will, quite obviously, go a very long way in giving local school districts more freedom to craft the math curriculum that they think is best for their students.

Colleges should not explicitly endorse the current sequence that requires, or prefers, calculus for admission. The University of Chicago and Harvard College admission websites were recently changed to assure students that high school calculus is not required for admission and to encourage alternative and rigorous high school math courses.

Many colleges have quantitative reasoning requirements that can be fulfilled by alternative courses outside of their math departments. Just as those colleges have alternatives to fulfill math requirements for graduation, so too should admission offices at those colleges accept a variety of rigorous quantitative high school classes as alternatives to traditional high school math classes.

As the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin points out, “Doesn’t it make sense that your family members, coworkers, and community members should have an opportunity to develop (quantitative) skills, regardless of whether they are a STEM major or not? One of the problems in how we view quantitative reasoning courses may be how we look at the hierarchy of math curriculum and the vague notion of ‘mathematical rigor’. It’s time that we rethink our perspective on quantitative reasoning courses. If we know the types of knowledge and skills that we want people to have, it’s imperative that we do a better job of prioritizing learning in those areas.”

Upon the arrival of the Common Core a dozen years ago, The New York Times op-ed page published these two pieces on math education: “Is Algebra Necessary?” and “How to Fix Our Math Education.” Both argued that math education needs to include more relevant topics. That argument is even more important today.

Math education policymakers should speak with all stakeholders to best decide what math content should be replaced and with what to replace it. Who are those stakeholders? Unfortunately, math educators play an inordinately important role in determining math content standards. Policymakers need to include others in the conversation. With all due respect to my fellow math teachers, many of them seem to overvalue the traditional math content.

College admission officers are major stakeholders; students and families often take their cues and make their decisions based on hopes for admission to college. Admission officers need to take that responsibility seriously by not continuing to rely on traditional admission testing, by not assuming a student who takes calculus is somehow better prepared for college, and by not relying on their math faculty to be the sole determiners of high school math prerequisites.

Local and national policymakers should not only better understand the math required for college but should also better understand the math requirements outside of the academic setting. Conversations should take place with workers and employers in a variety of occupations. Policymakers should speak with those in STEM fields about the importance of the traditional math sequence.

Importantly, policymakers should include students in the conversation.

Math content requirements should be coordinated with a district’s graduate profile—a list of ambitious competencies for high school graduates. A typical graduate profile sets goals in areas such as digital, financial, and economic literacies; critical thinking; civic engagement; and collaboration. Quantitative reasoning underlies all these profiled competencies and required content should be developed to build these competencies at the beginning of high school, if not sooner.

I sit on a committee formed under the Launch Years effort through the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences. Though the CBMS clearly makes the case that college admission officers should not treat Algebra II as a signal of rigor and relevance, the CBMS effort only deals with the math pathways leading to college and doesn’t address the first years of high school math. It is time that the math policy debates specifically include the seemingly untouchable early high school content in algebra and geometry, if not before.

Of course, it will take a huge effort to make these changes, particularly when it comes to providing math teachers with the necessary support and development. Hopefully at some point in the not-too-distant future, that effort will be undertaken so that we no longer center our early high school math education around a firstyear algebra course for which a New York high school student can pass a test by answering only one out of five questions correctly.

Quoting A Mathematician’s Lament once again: “Everyone knows something is wrong…The only people who understand what is going on are the ones most often blamed and least often heard: the students. They say, ‘Math class is stupid and boring.’ And they are right.”

Jeffrey Gittleman, a Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Senior Fellow, has co-developed and co-teaches a new mathematical modeling class at Harvard College (MA). Gittleman is an attorney who also worked in the finance and real estate industries before becoming a math teacher.

Mental Health and College Admissions: How Counselors Can Serve Students Better - Winter 2023 Issue

By Melissa Brock

In recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, a greater number of students are experiencing mental health issues. The college admissions process can seem overwhelming as is, but increased mental health challenges can exacerbate a transition that is already stressful. School counselors and admissions professionals are attuned to more students needing mental health support as they navigate their college admission journey.

Any student who has ever struggled with a mental health disorder or illness would likely agree that beyond psychological well-being, mental health also affects how you think, feel, and act; how you live your life, and how you interact with others. Mental health can affect high school and college students in all areas of their lives.

Mental health disorders affect children, teens, and adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 50 percent of individuals will receive a mental illness or disorder diagnosis at some point in their lifetime. In fact, one in five Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year. One in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.

In a 2021 study from the National Institutes of Health, nearly half of Americans surveyed reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, with rates of anxiety, depression, and substance use disorder increasing. About 10 percent of respondents felt their mental health needs were not being met.

Student mental health has also changed. The Healthy Minds Study from 373 campuses nationwide found that student mental health has deteriorated. More than 60 percent of college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem and almost three-quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological distress, according to the National College Health Assessment from the American College Health Association.

Students have been looking for mental health support services in high school and college, and those who work with young people (school counselors, admission professionals, and independent educational consultants) have responded to the charge.

Students: Looking for Mental Health Support

A.J. Williams, director of transfer, athletic, international, and undergraduate admission at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, said that as students were initially coming off of two years of being at home after the pandemic, mental health concerns were prevalent on campus.

“When we first came back to having students on campus, we had a really rough fall term. We had three student deaths,” he said. “Two were from suicide and one was very public and affected many people.” Williams says that the pandemic has exacerbated learning differences, mental health issues, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), and more.

School counselors, admission professionals, and independent educational consultants have worked with students seeking mental health support. Students have also been looking for the right mental health support on campuses.

Jill Madenberg, a certified educational planner who founded Madenberg College Consulting, said she’d always prioritized mental health in everyday conversations but has seen more now in terms of acknowledgement from both kids and parents. It used to be that as she got to know students and parents and they began to trust her, then they would let her know about their mental health struggles.

“Through my decades of experience as a school counselor, admissions counselor, and author of Love the Journey to College, I used to have a sprinkling of students with mental health concerns,” said Madenberg, who is based in Lake Success, New York. “Now, many of my students have them. The pandemic has caused a significant uptick in these issues and it’s part of nearly every conversation I have with my students and their parents as well.”

She added, “For 30 years, mental health has been at the forefront of my work with adolescents but it’s unmistakable how much it is now a crisis in our society. I’ve seen a general rise in mental health (concerns), with many of my students and (in) those seeking support. I work with a lot of different kinds of families and students, so a lot of times, from the high school perspective, families will call me when they’re in crisis and anxious about something. From the college perspective, I’ll have former students reach out to me.”

Anne Scholen, school counselor at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, said mental health awareness has both become more common and that kids are more open about it, even boys, who she says were generally not as forthcoming about mental health at the beginning of her career.

“The pandemic sort of brought all that out in the open. I have kids talking about supports on college campuses and where to find them. I think it’s affected how far they go. Some kids don’t want to go far from home,” Scholen said.

Social Delays and Mental Health

Madenberg says she thinks how mental health shakes out for students depends on many circumstances, including how a student and family were impacted during the pandemic. “I think mental health and the pandemic are definitely intertwined, but I think that it’s a very personal thing and your personal experiences reflect that,” she added. “I’ve been a champion for this for decades, and maybe the pandemic is shedding some light on that. I’m looking at silver linings, but that could be one: The acknowledgement and understanding that people just get burnt out and burn out is a real thing. Social media plays a big part, especially for girls.”

Scholen’s school has banned cellphones during class. Anecdotally, she has seen an improvement in behavior, attention in school, and other benefits. She noted a biological reason for keeping cellphones away from students’ hands in class—when students engage in social media, their brains receive a flood of dopamine and send it on reward pathways.

“They’re on it from the time they get home till they go to sleep, but at least there’s a break,” Scholen said about her school’s decision to ban cellphones in class.

Scholen’s school sent out a ninth grade needs assessment and found that 35 percent of students reported having anxiety, 22 percent reported depression, and 37 percent reported needing help solving problems and making good decisions.

She said that these ninth graders, who were middle schoolers during the pandemic, have endured some social delays. The challenge is addressing these social delays and helping them meet crucial developmental milestones. She said this year is better than last—getting further away from the pandemic seems to help.

Scholen said of her students who are seniors, “I have a number of students who have significant anxiety, so their decisions are based on, ‘Can I live away from home? Do I need to start at community college and then move on? Can I take care of myself ?’ I see kids with more anxiety about going further away. They don’t feel ready to navigate the world on their own.”

Madenberg said that when the pandemic first started, she was particularly concerned with the kids who had social challenges. She did outreach with those kids right off the bat because she knew it would be easy for them to get comfortable at home. She did a lot of meetings with those students and their parents within the parameters of what each family felt comfortable doing.

Madenberg said about a recent student meeting, “I just had this yesterday—the mom opens with, ‘It’s been a battle after the pandemic with my kids. They’re struggling emotionally.’” Madenberg says she focuses on how to reduce the challenges of applying to college.

“I have a senior who is very bright and capable but has major mental health problems. I was able to talk to her about her mental health challenges and where she can find a school that is more supportive and a support system to her if she needs it. It took time but her parents are really supportive of that and she got into a college that will be very ideal for her.”

Madenberg has gone as far as to say that she believes that all students, from kindergarteners to 12th graders in America, should have an extra year of school after the pandemic. “I believed it then, and believe it even more so now,” she said.

Professionals’ Approaches in Working With Students

Cigus Vanni, a college adviser from Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, has had more than 40 years of experience in college search and selection, including as a college admission counselor, school counselor, and school psychologist. Vanni says that his approach in working with students hasn’t changed, but he has done more social-emotional connecting that he did prior to the pandemic. “Even as I worked as a school counselor, I made sure my students knew I was their full-service counselor,” he said.

Vanni said he didn’t want students to cut their lives into “slices”—he cared about the other parts, including academics, college, extracurricular activities, and other things they were involved in. However, he said that he now asks students what “keeps them up at night” and checks in if he notices a behavior that is anxiety- or depression-driven.

His clients know that he has a background working for clinical organizations and he notes that he has spent more time talking about mental health with students, particularly during the last few years.

Jason Vallozzi, independent educational consultant and founder of Campus to Career Crossroads in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said he strives to achieve a greater sensitivity and awareness with students, with mental health at the forefront.

“We try to be more sensitive than ever, with a sensitivity and awareness of where students are coming from in the college journey. Our role is to make it a rewarding and positive experience for students.” He and his team try to do that by not putting extra pressure on students, spacing out timelines, and taking away the stress of college by planning ahead.

Vanni says that one repeated source of mental health issues is the stress of getting into college, or the fear that if you don’t get into one of the schools you apply to, you’re not worthy. Vanni says it goes back to what he calls the “external validation business.” But he tells students that their value comes from within and they have something inside that gives them value and worth. He tries tohelp his students see that there are a wide array of choices. “They should really reach out to schools that fit them, rather than fit into a dress two sizes too small for them,” Vanni said.

What Colleges Can Do to Serve Students

Vallozzi says independent educational consultants, admission professionals, and school counselors can do a lot to help students gain awareness of what colleges offer. Vallozzi said countless schools have added to their mental health services. Mental health considerations might be the primary factors for some students choosing a college, and knowing which colleges have robust resources can help students seek out these services during college. Likewise, if a student has learning differences, it’s worth considering the right-fit college for them. As students talk to admission representatives, it’s imperative to have these resources worked into the “admission spiel.”

Vallozzi regularly goes on campus tours to be able to serve his students, and he has noticed a rise in mental health facilities, access, and considerations. Many campuses are thinking strategically about where they place these on campus; sometimes they opt for more quiet, private locations with back entrances, giving students privacy to seek out these resources.

He has also noticed that colleges are intentional in their messaging and services to support students in their college journey.

Madenberg says that colleges and universities should prioritize the money to have mental health professionals on campus. She suggests setting up hotlines and making counseling services readily available and very easy to access.

“I think it’s an evolution for colleges. Admissions officials recognize this and appreciate it on applications when appropriate. They know they need to adopt these services because of mental health issues and provide robust services. Universities are looking to be strategic and build out these services for the long term,” she said.

“I think the sooner students start understanding what they could be doing, what they need to be doing… they could take a ton of stress off their plate. For a lot of kids, we know mapping that out early throughout the process can really take the edge off,” Vallozzi said.

Williams said that this year Santa Clara University doubled the staff in its health center. The university has more learning communities and has trained mental health staff. The university also has two different 24/7 support numbers where students can call if they’re experiencing distress and can schedule appointments more quickly. “It’s a major concern, definitely. I’m on my college’s board and the alarm has been sounded in every single meeting that I’m in,” said Williams.

“Since society is more open to the mental health conversation, students are more aware.

When you have a parent bring a student to a meeting who says, ‘My son has anxiety,’ nobody’s afraid to talk about it,” Williams added.

When applications roll in and many, many students cite mental health challenges on their applications, Williams cautions that it’s important to recognize that students still have to prove their academic qualifications. In other words, they still have to take academics and social aspects into consideration for admission because admission professionals need to make sure students can reasonably excel in college. Williams says they look at mental health in the same way as learning differences.

Williams said colleges can make it easier for prospective students and parents by over-communicating all their options. “I think just making folks aware from Day One, through orientation, and repeatedly hit folks over the head that these resources are here,” he said. “Let them know what’s available to them.”

Melissa Brock spent 12 years in college admission before becoming the Money editor at Benzinga and founder of College Money Tips.

What is the Return on Investment for a College Degree? - Fall 2022 Issue

By James Paterson

In recent years, the public discussion about the value of a college degree has become more prominent. With the average student loan debt at an all-time high and the cost of college continuing to rise, parents and students are asking, “What’s the return on investment?” Admission professionals are now fielding more questions than ever, and colleges and universities are under even greater scrutiny to prove their value.

Jeremy Branch was holding a somewhat routine recruitment meeting in a high school library last fall, although a bit of nostalgia was attached to the session since he had graduated from that south-central Pennsylvania school a few years prior.

He was warmly greeted, and the students and parents listened intently and asked questions familiar to him—about dorms and meals, SAT scores, and the FAFSA.

But when he talked about the value of college—a discussion meant to reassure the crowd that their commitment to higher education was worth it—a man stood up and changed the tone.

“That’s not true,” he said. “My nephew went to your school and he can’t find a job, but he’s still paying off the debt he took on.”

Branch, senior assistant director of enrollment management for Penn State University’s Brandywine campus, calmly noted that each student’s experience is different and convinced the man that his nephew may find things will be better soon. But the interaction stuck with him, and he now believes it may have been indicative of a change in tone he’s found more often as he talks about the value of college with prospects in his upper-middle-class recruitment area.

“That student may have had a C-average and done nothing to enhance his college education besides attend class—and even do that intermittently. But the debt he acquired is front and center.”

Branch said past generations didn’t talk much about college debt and were less likely to question whether a bachelor’s degree was worth it.

“Then millennials came along and wanted to talk about it—a lot. And then the next generation came along and said ‘Oh, we’re not just going to talk about it, we’re going to make it public on every platform available.’”

Branch’s example shows how one big issue in higher education—student loans—has affected how, in two significant ways, the return on investment (ROI) for college is evaluated. There is a perceived value among those considering attending and an actual value for those who graduate and then calculate the cost of their education in relation to their earnings.

And debt is a significant factor in both of those scenarios, but only one of several growing forces determining whether college is actually or perceived to be, worth the time, money, and effort.

Changes Over Time

The issue of college value—a touchpoint in any discussion about higher ed at the kitchen table, the college admission office, or the highest levels of policymaking—has become even more prominent and complex.

It’s now commonly referred to as college’s return on investment, and experts say students and their families more often think of it in those terms rather than considering the value of the college experience or other less tangible ways college attendance matures and expands the thinking of young people.

But beyond that practical approach to the investment in higher education, college enrollment has been buffeted by a series of other forces, including the pandemic; broad publicity about college debt; the expanse of online learning; new thinking that one doesn’t need a degree for success; and generational changes that shift demographics, communication, and attitudes.

“Since the 1980s, postsecondary education has become the most well-traveled pathway to economic success,” says Anthony Carnevale, research professor and director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). He has written broadly on the issue and CEW ranks 4,500 colleges based on their return on investment. “However, today (higher education) is facing some very strong forces that are changing how people think about its value,” Carnevale says.

While data from Carnevale and other sources show that having a bachelor’s degree still results in significantly better earnings and a better life, there is mixed data about how valuable students and families believe it is. Meanwhile, specific pathways are increasingly shown to have a dramatically stronger payoff and students and families are more often becoming educated about those programs and majors—and choosing them.

Michael Dunn, dean of college and career counseling at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Estes Park, Colorado, works with varied-income families with a wide range of postsecondary learning experiences.

“All of the students I work with understand that college is important, but they have a very much less comfortable relationship with debt than people I grew up with and want to be sure it is worth it,” he says.

Research shows that education in specific fields has a better ROI and that students are more aware of those distinctions.

“Now, in response, colleges are touting graduation rates and job placement. But kids are more savvy; they want to know if the university is producing data that includes working at McDonalds or Starbucks,” Dunn says. “They want specifics.”

Chris Horne, director of college counseling and alumni support at Girard College, a K–12 boarding school in Philadelphia that serves students with limited financial resources and with a single guardian or parent, says he’s seen a similar trend.

“In the last five years, I’ve seen students and families examine the value of college more closely than in years past due to several factors. Some have seen people they know either drop out of college or be underemployed and high school counselors are more aware of non-college options that could benefit students, so they’re introducing families to these opportunities.”

The Data

Carnevale points out that the perceived value of college has diminished, though surveys vary on the amount and cause.

“College enrollment is declining, and recent research verifies the public’s skepticism about the value of postsecondary education,” he says. “Just half of Americans think the benefits of college are worth the cost, according to a recent survey.”

That Public Agenda report found that 51 percent of Americans say college is a questionable investment because of “high student loans and limited job opportunities.” It also reported that:

About 86 percent of Americans agree getting a college education can help adults advance their careers, including 92 percent of Democrats and 85 percent of Republicans.
However, 63 percent of Americans say higher education is too time consuming and expensive for working adults.
And two-thirds view higher education as “stuck in the past and unable to meet the needs of today’s students.”

A recent survey by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Bipartisan Policy Center indicates about 60 percent of Americans say a degree from college is worth the effort and cost. It says that results vary widely with political affiliation and age of respondents.

For instance, it reports that around 60 percent of those born from 1996 to 2012—Gen Z and millennials—say college is definitely or probably worth the investment. Only about 54 percent of Gen Xers, born from 1965 to 1980, and 59 percent of baby boomers, the adults born between 1946 and 1964, say it is worth it.

Another recent study by New America shows that overall the number of Americans who believe colleges have “a positive effect” on the country has declined 14 percent since the time the think tank started its annual survey in 2017. However, its research showed that 76 percent of those surveyed somewhat or strongly agree that “education beyond high school offers a good return on investment.”

Carnevale points out that the public’s perception about value often doesn’t match the actual return on the investment, which he has often promoted since becoming head of the Georgetown CEW in 2008.

His research shows that while roughly two-thirds of jobs required no more than a high school diploma 50 years ago, more than two-thirds of jobs require at least some postsecondary education or training today.

“Similarly, workers with postsecondary education now hold a larger share of good jobs—those that pay at least $45,000 at mid-career,” he says. In 1980, almost 30 percent of all good jobs went to workers with a high school diploma or less and now it’s about 20 percent, he says.

He notes that high school graduates, workers with some college education, and those with associate degrees all earn 28 percent or less of the amount earned by those with a bachelor’s degree.

According to Forbes magazine, government statistics show the median salary for workers with high school diplomas is $38,792, with an average unemployment rate of 3.7 percent as f 2019. By contrast, the median salary for workers with bachelor’s degrees is $64,896, and their unemployment rate is about 2.2 percent.

“Over the course of their careers, college graduates can earn hundreds of thousands more than those who don’t attend college,” the author concludes.

Dunn believes that other factors should be weighed in any discussion about college value, including whether it improves the lives of nontraditional students. He hopes scales like the Social Mobility Index will become more prominent.

That scale measures “the extent to which a college or university educates more economically disadvantaged students (with family incomes below the national median) at lower tuition and graduates them into good paying jobs.” It calls for “focusing the chase for ‘prestige’ around lowering tuition, recruiting more economically disadvantaged students, and ensuring that enrolled students graduate into good paying jobs.”

He also believes the new generation of students’ interest in service may be underreported, though some college rankings do offer students information about whether a college makes service a priority.

Other experts believe that colleges have failed at their job and the underperformance has been exacerbated by the pandemic and problems with the economy.

“There’s a key distinction to make between short- and long-term trends. In the short term, we see a hot labor market that’s leading employers to drop college degree requirements from job postings,” says Preston Cooper, senior fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), who has recently completed a detailed evaluation of college ROI for the conservative think tank. “The result is lower ROI and fewer students attending college. But it’s anyone’s guess whether those economic trends will continue.

“In the long term, there’s definitely been a shift in perceptions: More and more students are realizing that not all college degrees are created equal. Students now understand that a bachelor’s degree isn’t an automatic ticket to financial success,” Cooper says, adding that colleges too often have not provided valuable options and the public is just more aware of it today.

FREOPP is highly critical of college costs and college value generally and argues for more direct accountability for higher education and less support.

In the Details

Carnevale emphasizes repeatedly that the actual value of a degree is very much dependent upon the program and college that are chosen and says students increasingly understand that. However, he believes there should be much more transparency about the return on investment of specific programs.

“A bachelor’s degree generally will still be the engine on the train and offer the best return. However, a lot of people will be told that is not true. There is an access-to-information problem here and students and families need to have good information that thoroughly explains how they can get value from a college degree,” he says.

Marie Morris, president of the Higher Education Consultants Association and founder of Beyond 18 College Consulting in Portland, Oregon, says, however, that student performance and student passion for a career is important in college choice and in the value they obtain.

She says data about the best careers for ROI should not keep students from following a career path that interests them or fills a societal need. And it should not cause family and advisers to excessively limit their exploration.

“I believe the college itself will not create a better job or income, it is what the student does with their college opportunity or experience. Outside of a few majors such as engineering and nursing, I am not convinced the major is that important. I think students should major in outdoor leadership because they love it, but make sure to perhaps have an internship or summer job at the bank too. That may be an extreme, but experiences like that make them employable.”

She and Dunn are concerned about an overemphasis on fields where the pay is the highest. They are alarmed by the decrease in students majoring in education, for instance.

“Education majors are being eliminated due to low interest and possibly low ROI,” Morris says. “Engineering will always remain high, especially when mom and dad get more concerned about how the investment pays off.”

James Paterson is a writer and former school counselor living in Lewes, Delaware.

This article originally appeared in the Journal for College Admission’s Fall 2022 issue.

Flipping the Admission Process - Summer 2022 Issue

By Jamaal Abdul-Alim

When 16-year-old Lydia’s high school counselor suggested she create a profile on Concourse—a new web-based platform where colleges can go to find students—she figured she didn’t have anything to lose.

“It was just filling out a couple of questions and I thought, ‘Why not?’” Lydia says. “It was very easy to sign up.”

After answering some questions about her interests, activities, goals, and her planned major, the process was done. Since Concourse keeps applicants anonymous during the initial stages of the process, her counselor uploaded a redacted PDF of her transcript. It was October 2021.

Within about a month, Lydia—then a senior at a charter school in Chicago—was getting offers from colleges throughout Illinois.

“I received about ten different offers with Concourse, and I only had to accept or decline those offers,” Lydia explains. “I wasn’t sure about the offers because there were some colleges I (hadn’t) heard about, so I had to do some research and make sure they were friendly.”

By “friendly,” Lydia said she meant a college that accepts undocumented students, such as herself, and that offers them more financial aid and provides information about other resources they can use. “Lydia” is a pseudonym to protect her identity as an undocumented student.

One college stood out from the rest—it happened to be the one that sent the first acceptance letter she got through Concourse.

“The first acceptance letter I received was from Knox College,” Lydia says. “I saw they offered me a $49,000 scholarship and that certainly is a lot.”

A year at Knox costs $63,585, which includes tuition, fees, as well as room and board.

“In my acceptance letter I got a scholarship of $49,000, but when I went for a college visit, I received my actual award letter with a scholarship of $59,000,” Lydia explains.

“I made sure they had the major I was looking for and even though it’s three hours away from home it has many benefits for me as an undocumented student,” says Lydia, who plans to major in biochemistry with a minor in German studies. Her ultimate career goal is to become a dental surgeon.

One of the most striking things about Lydia’s experience, says Joe Morrison, CEO of Concourse Global Enrollment, a Brooklyn, New York-based firm that operates Concourse, is how quickly Lydia was able to receive and accept an offer compared to the traditional college application process.

“In terms of timeline, the student received her admission offer from Knox College via Concourse on Nov. 19 and completed the ‘interested’ form on Nov. 21,” Morrison says. “Note how much quicker and simpler this is compared to the traditional application process, where even Early Admission/Early Decision applicants don’t get decisions until mid-late December.”

Lydia’s experience is what college admission could look like in the coming years as more and more colleges turn to Concourse to help form their classes of incoming students, and as more counselors use the platform as part of helping students get into college.

Concourse started out serving international students in 2020, but it began serving US students in the Chicago region in fall of 2021. Morrison says Concourse plans to expand to six additional regions this fall—Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Greater New York City, and Philadelphia—and to double the number of colleges it works with from 100 to 200.

Admission experts say Concourse is a game-changer that could simplify the college admission process and make the system more equitable for students from families of lesser economic means. But those same experts also warn that Concourse could create additional work for students and—depending on which colleges participate and how colleges select students—it could also limit student options and leave existing inequalities intact.

“The Concourse approach creates a reordering of the traditional sequence of college admissions and adds a little more transparency about the reality that colleges are seeking students to enroll in their institutions,” says OiYan Poon, associate professor affiliate in the School of Education at Colorado State University.

“Most institutions struggle each year to ‘make their class,’” Poon says. “I think the Concourse approach somewhat—but not entirely—reduces some of the anxiety for both college hopefuls and institutions in the enrollment system.”

Poon notes that research has shown how college-eligible first-generation students of color are sometimes discouraged by counselors and teachers from applying to highly resourced four-year institutions.

“One way the Concourse approach might disrupt this chilling effect is by taking away the requirement placed on students to figure out where to apply, which might subsequently open up wider arrays of college opportunities for these students,” Poon says.

Taylor Odle, assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says it is noteworthy that Concourse “comes from outside the higher education space.”

“This isn’t a consortium of colleges or universities—it’s a private company that’s identified this need and said that students and families can’t wait for institutions to fix the broken admissions system,” Odle says.

Jennifer A. Delaney, associate professor of higher education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says the Concourse model changes traditional college admission in two important ways—being proactive and offering a guarantee of admission.

“The system is proactive in pushing information to students instead of relying on students to search for colleges,” Delaney says. “This reduces the need for social and cultural capital to navigate the college search process and likely makes the process more equitable for students of different backgrounds within the Concourse system.”

Delaney says the offers of guaranteed admission are also of value to students.

“It is important informationally in that students no longer need to guess which institutions will admit them but instead already know where they have been admitted.” Delaney says. “There is also value in the guarantee since it gives students ‘a bird in the hand’ and a clearly defined pathway through which they can enter a postsecondary institution.”

Concourse is not the only organization that takes this approach. As reported in July in Inside Higher Ed, an organization called SAGE Scholars will begin this year to offer some of its member schools a chance to view the profiles of students and admit them directly. But SAGE started out in 1995 as an organization that helps make higher education more affordable through “tuition rewards.” The rewards are paid for by employers who offer Sage as a benefit for their employees to help their children apply to colleges. The “rewards” are then converted into tuition discounts of up to 25%, according to SAGE’s website.

“The main differences between Concourse and Sage are the socioeconomic status of the students, and that the colleges participating in Sage are all private,” writes Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, in a July 11 article.

Odle says he worries that Concourse portfolios may not contain enough information to enable colleges to increase the diversity of the students they admit.

“If the portfolios that colleges use to admit students mainly feature GPA and standardized test scores, we already know these pieces of information fall sharply along racial and socioeconomic lines and have led to much of the inequality we see today,” Odle says. “Similarly, features of students’ extracurricular activities reflect longstanding social and economic inequality given that some students can literally afford to participate while others cannot. Portfolios should work to carefully reflect students’ high school contexts that can be masked by these standardized pieces of information.”

Morrison, of Concourse, says a decision was made to keep student profiles “lean” because most colleges do not have the resources to assess student portfolios at scale.

“GPA and standardized test scores can be a useful tool to narrow a pool of prospective students to the point where an admissions officer can afford to take the time to do a deeper dive on each student,” Morrison says. Students can upload additional materials if they have them, he says, and counselors are encouraged to write notes about each student to contextualize their profile for admissions officers.

“It ensures a low barrier to entry for students by not asking for too much information up front, while still enabling admissions officers to gather the information needed to develop a richer picture of each student,” Morrison says. “Admissions officers can even play a consultative role as they request additional information, helping counselors and students understand exactly what they need. This kind of guidance also bridges information gaps and helps create more equity in the admission process.”

Odle notes that some states—such as Idaho, South Dakota and Hawaii—have begun to proactively admit high school students to colleges based on information the state already has, such as GPA and test scores.

In states that employ this practice, students don’t even need to create a portfolio like they do with Concourse, Odle says.

“Concourse needs to have student portfolios with these data because they do not already have access to student ‘success’ metrics—but states already have that information,” Odle says. “The real ‘game-changer’ would be if more states started actually using that data in a proactive way to equalize the college admissions process.

“I am happy that Concourse is doing this because it represents the type of disruption that we need in this space—but we should always be pushing further.”

Keith Herbert, director of postsecondary outcomes at Civitas Education Partners (IL)—and Lydia’s counselor at her charter high school—says he decided to give Concourse a try after hearing about the platform from a colleague who works at EAB’s College Greenlight/Cappex, a collective of advisers that has a partnership with Concourse. Greenlight’s website says its mission is specifically to increase college access and completion for underrepresented and historically underserved students.

“Part of my job is finding programs that would enhance the postsecondary process for our students and although I didn’t really have much to go on, I was intrigued at the program based on the initial list of schools involved,” Herbert says of Concourse. “These were all schools I put in kids’ lists over the past decade and some would apply, but there wasn’t a real draw.

“This seemed like a way to change the conversation between my (counseling) staff and the kids,” Herbert says. “If there is an easy way to show kids they would be accepted and the substantial scholarship offers were there, we’d have those conversations with kids early.”

Some experts worry that Concourse may limit the number of schools from which students are eligible to choose. Or that the schools may not be of high quality and don’t do a good job of helping low-income students graduate.

Morrison, the CEO at Concourse, says the market will determine if that’s true. “College counselors decide whether we are delivering sufficient admission offers to their students and whether the colleges are good and reputable,” Morrison says. “Counselors that have a good experience getting offers for their students via Concourse will come back and bring more of their students to the platform. Otherwise, the counselors will stop inviting their students. The system governs itself over time.”

Colleges currently can pay a “match fee” of $100 to $250 per student or buy a subscription to Concourse. To prevent third parties from using Concourse to get access to students or student information, a college cannot use Concourse without first making an arrangement to do so.

Herbert, Lydia’s counselor, says Concourse is in fact connecting students with high-quality schools, even if they aren’t well known.

“For us, it changed the conversation with kids for lesser-known schools that are really high quality,” Herbert says. “If as a counselor I know Student ‘A’ not only is accepted, but I also know their scholarship offer, and I can do the math with (federal and state student financial aid)—I can actually tell kids how affordable their options are months before most students are doing that,” Herbert explains. “That gives me and my team plenty of time to work more individually with students.

“In previous years, we were waiting until late February or March and then we have 220 seniors, and everybody is scrambling,” Herbert adds. Civitas manages three charter schools in Chicago.

Herbert says students found the Concourse interface easy to use.

“The other thing it did was gave us a tool to say: ‘Hey, go on Concourse, click on the messaging tab, and ask that question,’” Herbert says. Concourse’s messaging tab, he explained, allows students to ask a college’s admission representative questions directly in a text format.

“The communication tab was similar to texting, and kids felt better about that compared to email,” Herbert said.

Another standout feature is how some colleges on Concourse match certain majors to the information that students provided.

Ordinarily, Herbert says, students might get a list of majors and pass many of them over. “But here they were told: ‘We offer this—check it out,’” Herbert says. “In an ever-expanding world of specific majors being added, this really changes the game for a few kids.”

Morrison, the Concourse CEO, says counselors can still work with students to submit conventional applications afterward if they aren’t happy with the offers they get through Concourse.

Odle, the University of Wisconsin professor, says if a student uses Concourse and still needs to apply to other colleges via their traditional process, “then Concourse itself represents another hurdle students and families have to jump over.”

“Unless Concourse completely replaces a student’s application process, it literally adds (to) the complexity it seeks to reduce,” Odle says. “This does the same for counselors and college advisers. Supporting students’ completion of a Concourse portfolio may add work to an already-strained advising system.”

Herbert says he can attest to that.

Asked if he would recommend Concourse to his fellow counselors, he said he would do so with a grain of salt.

“Like anything, it’s not a fix and with my kids, it didn’t take work off our plate. It actually added to it as it was another thing we as the postsecondary staff had to remind students (about), chase them down, have them click the right buttons, et cetera,” Herbert says. “But I’d still recommend it if a team wanted to find out if this changed the conversation in a way that was meaningful.

“That said, like literally any tech, you have to embrace the messy iteration of implementation,” Herbert says. “I learned a lot from my first year of using it and made mistakes I won’t next year.”

Asked what kinds of mistakes he made, Herbert said he neglected to have all students upload their personal statements.

“It would have taken another five minutes in class to walk them through that,” Herbert says. “Also SAT scores—there was one partner college that only accepted kids with scores submitted. That might have been their processing error or I missed something, but few kids got in.”

Hebert also says he wishes he had all of the students download the phone-based app for Concourse—at least at the end of the process—in order to take advantage of the push notifications.

“Most kids do not check email with fidelity and assume mostly everything is spam,” Herbert says. “Many of the Concourse messages notifying them to check the app got lost in the rinse cycle and remained unread. But also, so did a lot of their acceptance emails and verification requests.”

Herbert says he sees a need for “one central hub for communication” given the multiple application platforms that students use these days.

“Between Slate, the Common App, Coalition, plus the thousands of college portals, it’s too much,” Herbert says.

He says there will always be a need for a human touch.

“It’s really just another tool to manage and needs integration into a program to be a meaningful developmental experience for kids,” Herbert says. “At least for my kids, I could never just give this to them and their parents and expect it to be used with fidelity and to the highest potential. My students are mostly first-gen kids and still need personal support.”

Lydia—who had also applied to colleges using the Common App—says she would recommend students use both. But she is keenly aware of the difference between the two platforms.

“In the Common App you apply for the colleges you want, you look for the college,” Lydia says. “And in Concourse the college looks for you.”

Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a journalist living in Washington, DC.

Serving Rural Students - Spring 2022 Issue

It was only a few decades ago that rural students seemed to be absent from the college admission landscape. But today, rural students are becoming more important to colleges and universities that want to diversify their student populations and improve access to higher education.

By James Paterson

This article appears in the Spring 2022 edition (Number 254) of the Journal of College Admission

Lorenzo Gamboa has an easy way of connecting with kids from small towns and rural areas as director of diversity, inclusion, and outreach at Santa Clara University in California. It’s his personality and training, but it’s also because he knows all about their experience—he lived it.

Gamboa graduated with just seven others from high school in Aguilar, a remote southern Colorado town of about 450 people where Ringo’s Grocery Mart and the Sunset Tavern are among the few businesses along the four blocks of Main Street.

He finished in the top of his class and became perhaps the only local graduate to ever go on to a private four-year institution, but he hopes he is not the last. He believes as colleges wisely make recruiting rural students a greater focus, they are also finding those students are valuable beyond filling seats and bolstering slumping enrollment—and they will build on those efforts in places like Aguilar.

“Rural students have become the new unicorn that might help us increase numbers, but colleges will also find they offer a lot more,” he says. “There are golden nuggets if they search a little bit for them.”

“The best thing you can do is treat each student as if they are the only one who matters and find out what is important to them. I have rural kids who live on a farm but also students whose parents are double Ph.D.s.”

There are increasing reports about colleges doing just that, but Gamboa and others who work with the population say such efforts may require admission professionals to carefully consider some of the challenges these students face with the process—and their different needs and preferences. At the same time, experts say, it is important to drop some general assumptions about rural regions and the students they produce, recognizing that each area and student is different.

THE STRENGTHS

Professionals who work with rural students say they do, however, generally offer some unique characteristics.

A sense of community is important to them—so they often can become appreciative and engaged members of the college community, Gamboa notes, and they can “add to the housing models of community success that everyone is always looking to improve.”

“They understand what it takes and what it means to work hard, and they may value the degree more at times,” he says. “They have heart, desire, and grit and tend not to sweat the small stuff because they have become masters at
multitasking.”

“For example,” he says, “they may have gotten up before dawn to work on the family farm, prepped for the community board meeting before school, dressed up to be captain of sports or cheerleading teams, and returned home to do it over again. If they order Uber Eats they can appreciate the work it took to get that burger on the bun and cook the french fries They’ve done it.”

While Gamboa’s assessment may be anecdotal, it is backed up by others in higher education who suggest that rural students have value beyond enrollment numbers.

Jon Westover is associate vice provost and director of admissions at North Carolina State University, which has a reputation for supporting rural communities in the state and supporting rural students on campus. He says their recruitment is a key part of his department’s effort.

He sees some of the positive characteristics Gamboa describes, but notes that colleges may not recruit rural students because of misconceptions they have— broad generalities about rural areas, for instance, that can limit the effectiveness of recruitment.

“There is a myth that rural students tend to be white farmers,” says Daniel Showalter, an Eastern Mennonite University (VA) professor who was one of the four authors of Why Rural Matters, a detailed report on rural education and the college readiness of students from those regions. “This may have been true several decades ago, but the demographics of the rural population is shifting quickly and is becoming less white and less agricultural. ‘Rural’ looks very different in different regions around the US.”

Showalter’s research showed that about one in five students attend a rural school but they may not get as much attention from colleges because incomes are generally lower in rural areas and research has shown colleges aim recruitment at areas with higher per capita incomes.

OTHER MISCONCEPTIONS

“There is a misconception that rural students are all poor, also, and that isn’t true,” says Gamboa. “And there is also this idea that rural communities and rural families don’t care about education, but the truth is that schools and education are often at the center of the rural communities and the families there.”

There is also an inflated concern that rural students won’t be happy at a larger school or a school far from home, but Sarah Soule, postsecondary planning coordinator at Union High School in Middlebury, Vermont, says that if they have the right information about a school before attending and the right preparation and support on campus they can be very successful.

She also notes that it may be assumed rural students are less successful academically or less committed to education, which is not accurate.

Showalter’s data does show that about 10 percent of rural students passed an Advanced Placement test, half the percentage of students in urban districts, which may reduce their attractiveness to some schools. In addition, research in the past has shown that rural students are considerably less likely to be admitted a top-50 university, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reports that about 56 percent of rural and urban students enroll in college while about 62 percent of suburban students do.

But research by Showalter’s team also showed that in many states rural students performed better academically; they took the SAT and ACT at a similar rate as those in other areas and dual enrollment courses at twice the pace of other students.

“Region could even be important to talk about,” says Showalter. “Even when we see states ranking high in rural poverty, they’re probably going to have some affluent rural outlier districts in the state and vice versa. Averages are the general trend, but there is quite a bit of variance from state-to-state and district-to-district.

That variation heightens the need to study a variety of factors when considering recruitment in a particular school, district, or state, he notes.

“I suppose the best approach is to spend time in those places, or give rural students a place on campus or in the admissions process to tell their stories and be heard.”

Westover agrees: “There are two pieces of advice we use in recruiting rural students. We try and not generalize about who they are, or what majors they might be interested in,” he says. “It also is critical to get to know the school and the environment. That is why it is so important for us to travel to these high schools and meet their counselors.”

THE CHALLENGES OF RECRUITING RURAL STUDENTS

Gamboa admits that recruiting rural students may require some resourcefulness—visiting a remote school with eight graduates and not a lot of connections to higher education may not, for instance, offer the best return on investment. He says, however, a visit increases in value if admission offices and high school officials believe they are building a college-going culture over time.

“They might provide a program for an assembly to a whole school—even much younger students. Then the payoff can be longer term.”

Gamboa says on such visits they would find that rural students may have different strengths and experiences. They may value membership in the Future Farmers of America, for instance, or Boy Scouts, and college representatives may be
competing more often with military recruiters, who he believes get more attention from students in rural areas.

Often the popular theory that “college isn’t for everyone,” which rightfully gives students the justification to pursue other avenues, can be overemphasized in rural areas, experts say, and limit student aspirations.

Their schools also may have understaffed counseling offices, and not have counselors specifically assigned to help with college access. More students are likely to lack broadband service, too, which makes so much of the exploration and application process challenging—and their ability to get up-to-date fundamental information.

“They may need help with some information and basic steps,” Soule says.

Admission representatives should remember to be sensitive to the differences in a rural school, she says. She recalls that a college representative visiting her school told students to take out their laptops, not realizing that a sizable number of the students didn’t have laptops and several didn’t even have access to the internet.

“It embarrassed them and made her look out of touch,” she says.

RECRUITING APPROACHES

Margaret Jenkins, founder and director of the college consulting firm Palouse Pathways in Moscow, Idaho, says that college representatives and high school counselors should begin working with rural students headed to college earlier than they might with other students.

“Many young high schoolers are open to possibilities, but as they go through high school, they settle into pursuing the narrower range of options more readily available,” she says.

She also says professionals working with them should engage their families in the process early and appreciate that they may need some fundamental information about higher ed processes and structures.

“Don’t assume they know about the CSS, or liberal arts colleges, or other things well known in other college-going communities,” she says. “Don’t assume their parents are closeminded about possibilities but do make sure you talk to them about affordability and safety and support for their student. They have questions and concerns even if they don’t express them.”

Jenkins is also one of the founding members of NACAC’s Rural and Small Town Special Interest Group. That group’s mission is “to bring rural and small town admissions and college counseling professionals, as well as those committed to rural and small town education, together to increase college access and success, promote college-going culture in rural areas, and support counselors and students at rural and small town schools.”

Showalter says that having students and families visit a campus is the best way for them to become more comfortable with the specific school and the college experience generally.

Soule notes that partnerships between high school counselors and college professionals are perhaps even more important in rural areas. She notes that her relationship with a soughtafter private school in upstate New York has brought that college some of her school’s best students and given her a pipeline for students she wants to assist.

James Paterson is a writer and former school counselor living in Lewes, Delaware.

Minimize Gender and Racial Bias in Letters of Recommendation - Winter 2022 Issue

By Safiya Johnson

This article appears in the Winter 2022 edition (Number 253) of the Journal of College Admission

Oh, letters of recommendation—the bane of existence for many adults and students every admission cycle.

I have written a dozen letters of recommendation for my former interns and several more for my Class of 2021 seniors as a postsecondary counselor. As the number of letters of recommendation that I had to write grew, the more I relied on templates to introduce my school and a student’s academic record to admission counselors. I also relied on student intake forms, or brag sheets, to quickly get to know my students. (If you’re seeking inspiration for a brag sheet template, see examples A, B, and C. And know that leading a lesson on filling in the brag sheet and providing examples for students can only help improve the quality of brag sheets they submit.)

Thanks to my years of experience as an admission counselor, I felt confident in my ability to discern what makes a strong letter of recommendation and how to write them well. I spent years reading between the lines to identify warning signs and faint praise.

Unfortunately, I have seen my fair share of letters of recommendation that raised concerns about the learning environment students found themselves in. Letters that hint at racial or gendered bias and barriers within the school. Why did this Black male student have to advocate for years to take Advanced Placement classes? Why is it this young woman had to advocate to be in a STEM cohort? Why was their ability questioned before they could enroll in a curriculum that is heavily favored by admission counselors?

I am ashamed to admit that although I have led approximately 10 letters of recommendation writing workshops as an admission counselor, none of those sessions explicitly touched on gender or racial bias. I hope to right that wrong by sharing how writers can check their implicit and explicit biases during the writing process.

But first, what is implicit bias and what patterns have researchers found?

Implicit biases are unconscious stereotypes and assumptions that lead people to favor those who share their same identities (or in-group members). For instance, why do people favor men over women for certain jobs, assume Asians are foreigners, and associate white people with positive adjectives and attributes more quickly than Black people? These associations are the result of socialization in a gendered and racialized world. These lead to real-world discrimination and privilege-hoarding. For instance, who is admitted into programs, hired, and promoted leads to racialized and gendered gaps in wages and educational attainment.

Research on graduate school, academic jobs, and college admission letters of recommendation have found varying degrees of gender and racial bias that impact admission and hiring outcomes for marginalized people. For instance, letters of recommendation are typically several words longer for male applicants. Writers usually use more communal adjectives (i.e., nurturing, kind, warm, polite, helpful) to describe female applicants than agentic adjectives (i.e., competent, independent, ambitious). Additionally, letters for female and racial minority applicants typically use more grindstone adjectives (i.e., hardworking, careful, dedicated, thorough) to describe them, implying they possess less natural ability or talent (i.e., genius, brilliant, talented, capable).

To help writers catch gender bias, some universities and organizations have created gender bias calculators, which you can find here.

However, I argue that the best way to catch instances of gender and racial bias in your writing is to compare the letters that you write for similarly able white male applicants to white female applicants and to male and female minority applicants. Conduct quality control checks before you hit submit.

Additionally, school counselors—who often guide students on when, how, and whom to ask for a letter of recommendation—should lead discussions on gender and racial bias. If and when you invite a university or nonprofit partner to lead a recommendation writing workshop, be sure to ask them how they will discuss gender and racial bias in their workshop. If they will not, develop your own training that touches on these sensitive topics.

According to NACAC’s 2019 State of College Admission report, 54 percent of colleges place considerable or moderate importance on letters of recommendation when making an admission decision. A lot (i.e., program admission and scholarship dollars) is on the line. I can recall several times when I wrote on a reader sheet, “Recs really make this applicant shine” and often referred to phrases within letters of recommendation when making my case in the admission committee for why a student was an excellent fit for our university. From recommendation letters, I could see what a student brought to the classroom and school community.

This was often true for QuestBridge applicants who were first-generation college students from modest financial backgrounds and did not know how to “sell” themselves to an admission committee. They often left out how impressive their strong grades were in the context of their heavy home responsibilities or lack of certain educational amenities that the typical wealthier student has access to, such as Wi-Fi and a personal computer.

Believe me: Your letters can make a big difference in highlighting which applicants are the standout and beloved students in your community.

So how can you check bias in your letters and write a ringing, bias-free endorsement for every applicant, especially marginalized students?

Avoid invoking stereotypes.
Example: “For a [ethnic group] student, they speak good English” or “She controlled her emotions well while facing initial setbacks” or “Unlike most African Americans, s/he values education.” Hopefully, these examples easily raise red flags. Always ask yourself, if I were to say this to my student or their families, would they be offended? Is this a microaggression? If you’re not sure, ask a colleague who shares the same identity or identities as that student.
Avoid doubt-raisers and negative language.
Example: “While not the best student I have ever had, s/he….” Or “Although I was worried about their ability to perform well in my class, I….”. That language raises concerns: “Well, why aren’t they the best student that you’ve ever had? What concerns did you have about their ability”? Always focus on the positives, even when discussing growth points.
Avoid faint praise.
Example: “They worked hard in my class” or “They have a pleasant demeanor” or “Their work was satisfactory.” See how these are neutral terms that do not elevate an applicant or highlight their uniqueness? It is assumed that students put effort into their schoolwork, follow instructions well, and are collegial in the classroom. Try to highlight different positive agentic adjectives and talents. Speaking of which….
Focus on accomplishments more than personality traits.
As mentioned earlier, research finds that letters written for female applicants often focus on their good community membership traits versus ability and talent. See this article (written for academic job recommendation writers, not college applicants) for additional tips and lists of adjectives to steer clear of and adjectives to use instead.
Ask permission before including sensitive information to avoid sharing irrelevant info.
Before you share sensitive information that would not be evident in the questions that are typically asked on a college admission application, ask your student if they feel comfortable with you sharing that information in your letter. Does this student want you to share that they are undocumented or have autism? A quick conversation or email contextualizing how you plan to share that information (and why!) will suffice and honor that student’s decision.
Share a story (or two) versus listing a string of adjectives.
Always share one or two vivid stories that highlight the student’s talent, ability, and personality. This will bring the applicant to life. These stories should be the bulk of your letter of recommendation. But if time and numbers are not on your side, bullet points that share shorter two-to-three sentence vignettes instead of full-fledged paragraphs will also suffice.
Quality check your letters of recommendation. Read your letters back to yourself and ask yourself, if I changed this applicant’s race, gender, or pronouns would I use different adjectives and examples? Would I write a different letter or avoid bringing up their identities altogether? If so, the good news is there’s still time to change your letter and check the bias that exists within it.

In closing, a recommendation for school-based staff: Discuss racial and ethnic bias every season before students request letters and while your colleagues write and review their own.

Admission counselors: Ask yourself, is this a biased letter? How does this description match (or not match) the others found within the file?

And to all: Always be mindful.

Safiya Johnson is a college and career coach at a South Side Chicago Public Schools high school. Prior to working in urban education, Johnson worked for the University of Chicago (IL) Office of College Admissions as a director of community initiatives and senior assistant director of admissions. Connect with Johnson on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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