College Admissions is Changing. How can students & families respond?

 

In 2025, application numbers are up, acceptance rates are down, testing policies and practices are shifting, and new political realities are creating increasing uncertainty about what the college admissions process will look like in the months and years ahead.

So what are students and parents to do?

Read on for our approach to taking the guesswork & stress out of college admissions, and be sure to join us on May 15th for a free virtual program: Navigating a Changing College Admissions Landscape by registering here.

What is changing?

We’ve explored the increasingly competitive nature of college admissions in recent blogs that address "Taking an honest look at college admissions”, and the confusion around testing with “What to know about the role of SAT and ACT testing". While uncertainty drives individual applicants to apply to more colleges, it also creates a more challenging landscape for all applicants, as higher application numbers mean lower acceptance rates. With colleges focused on yield, or the portion of admitted students who enroll, these factors make early application options an important part of admissions strategy for many families.

Simultaneously, the political context in which universities operate and conduct their admissions processes is shifting in ways that increase uncertainty about what colleges will prioritize, what applications will ask of students, and how applicants can expect to be evaluated. All of this creates confusion and overwhelm for even the best prepared and well meaning applicants and their families.

But this does not mean all is lost.

How can students make college plans amidst these unknowns?

Even with much uncertainty, students and families can move forward with confidence in choosing colleges and building a good college list. How? By shifting focus from what the colleges ‘want’ to what you as the applicant need. A college process driven by a desire to gain admission to the most selective institutions, above all other priorities, is often a disappointing and exhausting one. However, a process that begins with what a student knows about themselves and the priorities that matter most to them and their family can open doors to a range of great options that ‘fit’ at all admissibility levels.
Through reflection, exploration, and family input, we encourage students to get clear about what they really want and need to not just survive, but thrive in college. These priorities will be unique to each individual, but may include specific academic opportunities, experiences, and support, the activities, traditions, and residential life that will enable you to find your people and build a strong community, as well as the cost, location, and culture on the campus. By honing in on what matters most to you students can see colleges through a personalized lens that helps you assess if a school will support your goals and further your growth. These factors almost always transcend the selectivity of the college, and can be found across a range of schools that will contribute to giving a student meaningful and realistic options to plan for a great college experience.

What do students and families need to know?

Even with a focus on your own priorities, it is important to understand how colleges are making decisions, what they prioritize, and what data points and qualities are shared by typical admitted applicants. Students and their parents need to get savvy about reviewing admitted student profiles, and being relentlessly honest about how a student’s metrics match up against the available information.

Importantly, colleges are not considering these factors in isolation, but in the context of the high school and community a student is coming from. Having a 4.2 GPA does not guarantee admission, and this is especially true when a student is coming from a high school where many share their level of achievement. Digging into the Common Data Set information for a college of interest, and reviewing the information they share on their admissions website about their admitted student profile and the qualities they look for in applicants are good places to begin in assessing your own likelihood of admission.

Understanding how you match up against the data for a college can help empower you to build a list that incorporates a range of college options to give you choices. Every college list should have some schools where a student is likely to be a very desirable and sought after applicant. This requires including colleges where you exceed the admitted student profile. It also requires having an open mind to consider how little an acceptance rate conveys about if a college is ‘good’ and what it has to offer.

How can students best prepare for the application process?

While understanding the realities and data that will shape decision making at a college is crucial, it is also important not to overlook the intangibles that can differentiate applicants. Too often we see students and their families assume that if their GPA and test scores “match,” they are highly likely to be admitted to a particular college. Admissions processes are usually much more complex than this, and that numerical fit is usually the floor, not the ceiling for being considered for admission.

Increasingly, we see qualitative factors as being essential to admission, with the weight of these factors gaining importance the more selective an institution is. This does not mean students should contort themselves to fit what they think a college wants, or heavily engineer their resumes to impress colleges. To the contrary, authenticity has emerged as one of the most defining factors for the students who find success in competitive admissions. To this end, students should identify and pursue their interests in ways that are meaningful to them, and ways that contribute to the world around them. Students should spend time in activities that bring them joy, and make an impact on the communities they are engaged in. Having a throughline of involvements that connect the dots between their curiosity, interests, passions, and possible major and career interests builds a stronger application and supports a young person’s individual development. The best involvements are not driven by what will ‘look good’ to colleges, but what enables a high school student to further pursue who they are and what they care about.

Students benefit from spending time in high school not just earning the highest grades, but learning and exploring who they are, reflecting on their values, and pursuing involvements that are guided by those values. When admissions readers can connect these dots across a student’s transcript, activities, and how a student sees these connections through their essays, they are more readily able to envision that student as a meaningful part of their campus community. In turn, a student who has approached high school in this way also arrives to the college process with more clarity and confidence about who they are and how to embark on this next step.

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