Our Seniors are wandering through that “no man’s land” which separates their application to college from the eagerly anticipated “thick” envelope offering admission or dreaded “thin” envelope denying same (increasingly it’s an email). Rallies, athletic contests, retreats and Churro sales in the Dining Hall keep them from obsessing about what Fate will bring to their mailbox; but it’s fair to say that the wait can feel excruciatingly long.
The burden of “getting into the right college” has been a central element of the adolescent experience since the time the first SAT was administered to high school juniors. And, as selectivity, based upon SAT performance, narrows the pool of potentially “right colleges,” high school seniors are hedging their bets by applying to more and more schools. Ironically, the lingering effects of the “Great Recession” have not impacted the total number of college applications being submitted. The National Association of College Admission Counseling reports “a record increase in applications submitted per-student” - meaning that the fear of not getting into the “right college” fuels a scatter-shot approach to the college admission process in which more applications is seen as better than less applications. NACAC reports that 25% of all enrolled freshmen applied to seven or more schools in 2010.
The law of “unintended consequences” applies here as colleges must offer more students admission in order to compensate for their declining yield rates - caused by the explosion in the number of applications per-student. NACAC reports the yield (students who accept the offer of admission) for the 266 national universities (schools that offer a full range of undergraduate majors, as well as master's and doctoral degrees, and tend to emphasize research) was an average of 36%. At the 233 national four-year liberal arts colleges (primarily undergraduate education) the yield was even lower - 30%. While the yield rates at Harvard and Stanford (76% and 70%, respectively) reinforce the general perception that elite colleges are out of reach for the average high school senior, a comparison of yield rates for a wide variety of colleges and universities would generate a fair degree of surprise to the casual observer. Claremont McKenna College, for example, at a 49% yield rate, beats the much larger (and presumably more prestigious) UC Berkeley at 38% and UCLA at 37%. Universities and colleges that rank below the average yield of 36% and 30%, respectively offer more surprises for the casual observer. Azusa Pacific University, for example, has a yield rate of 29% while the more nationally known and prominent; Boston College yields a mere 23% of admission offers. (At the high school level, by way of contrast, La Salle continues to enroll students in the last three entry points at a yield rate between 40% and 60%; however this is down from a yield rate of 66 % prior to the onset of the “Great Recession.”)
The point of this comparison is to remind seniors and their parents that there are a series of “right” colleges out there for every college bound student - if the universe of options is seen broadly and in light of the individual needs of each high school Senior. Yield rates, along with profiles of applied and admitted students, enable parents and students to assess their chances of being admitted to a wide variety of prestigious and regional universities and colleges.
This leads me to ponder a recent op-ed piece by New York Times columnist Frank Bruni; who recently expressed concern that his niece - like most college-bound students - “gets too distracted by rankings, ratings, (and) brands” For Bruni (and I must agree), his niece’s understanding of college has unfortunately become the arbiter of life’s chances after college; when the traditional mission of higher education has always been to expand opportunities to explore after college. And yet, the 2010 Census reports that only 30% of the workforce possess a college degree (up from 26% in 2000); college graduates, regardless of major and/or “brand,” continue to enjoy an employment advantage over their peers who stopped their formal education at the end of high school. So why not explore the possibilities colleges have to offer, rather than becoming boxed into one “brand,” major or career track? Here’s Bruni’s advice to his niece:
… treat your undergraduate education as a rare license, before you’re confined by the burdens of full-fledged adulthood and before the costs of experimentation rise, to be tugged outside your comfort zone.
The good news about the relatively low yield rates of a broad spectrum of colleges and universities is that a knowledgeable Senior can target a school in which his/her profile matches their published profile of the average applicant with a reasonable assurance that an offer of admission will be forthcoming. So, why not approach the college selection process with a willingness to move out of an adolescent comfort zone? Bruni puts it this way;
… I can think of no better talents to pick up in college than fearlessness, nimbleness and the ability to roll with change, adapt to newness and improvise.
Needless to say, for Southern Californians, this might mean a willingness to experience snow (and not the skiing kind) or a rural area or a skyscraper city or the humidity of the South (and not the Texas kind). Bruni hopes that high school students “ask themselves not which school is the surest route to riches but which will give them the richest experiences to draw from, which will broaden their frames of reference.”
The good news for those of us who share Bruni’s view of higher education is that regardless of what college or university our Seniors enter next Fall, they will be stretched by the experience and begin to acquire the ability to roll with change and to adapt to newness and to improvise.
And, as they settle into their new college, they will look over their shoulder and wonder what all the fuss was about last March.
