College admissions pro tips: Early decision, financial aid and more – Houston Chronicle

More than 31,000 students competed for fall 2023 admission to Rice University, and fewer than 2,400 got accepted: 8%.

They encountered similar odds at other elite institutions. Emory College: 10%. Brown University: 5%. Stanford University: 4%.

The college admissions landscape is brutal, with selectivity reaching new levels each year. A senior might be qualified based on near-perfect standardized test scores or GPAs, but so are thousands of students. With more great applicants than spots at the most sought-after schools, they have to be strategic. They have to stand out.

“It’s a really stressful process these days,” said Dan Lee, co-founder of the Solomon Admissions consulting group. “Especially for kids who are applying to a lot of the top schools, it’s almost like a part-time job.”

Individual students sometimes apply to dozens of colleges and universities in their quest to find the perfect – or most prestigious – fit. The process is more navigable with financial resources and family support, and some hire independent coaches to guide them through their applications. Those who are less privileged or have less know-how surrounding admissions might feel at a disadvantage.

What do admissions offices like to see from applicants? Do test scores matter? How can I make my application the best it can be?

Here are some insights from admissions pros.

Ivy League and other high-ranking institutions review students holistically and make determinations on the sum of their aptitudes, achievements and characteristics. The less selective or moderately selective schools – where most U.S. students actually attend – might review students holistically when they don’t meet the standards for automatic admission, which are usually minimum class ranks, GPAs and test scores.

In holistic admissions, colleges and universities try to consider how students might fit into a particular class and overall community, and they have different priorities that determine what might give one student the edge over another. These aren’t usually publicized and can change in any given year.

Schools like Massachusetts Institute of Technology look for students with extreme achievement in STEM fields, whereas other schools might not prioritize STEM over the humanities as often, Lee said. Universities might look to increase their populations in certain fields of study, or from particular geographical regions and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Grades and standardized tests are dropping in importance because of grade inflation and test-optional policies during the pandemic, said Sasha Chada, founder and CEO of the Ivy Scholars consulting group. That means extracurriculars and essays are being weighted more, he said.

With both, admissions officers look for a love of learning that shows initiative outside of the classroom.

“Just doing well in your classes fails to be enough now,” Chada said. “Admissions officers will often say … ‘This student seems very smart but I don’t think they have the initiative for us.’ Or in one case, ‘I don’t think this is a Harvard woman, she’s not going to be a future leader.’”

Top-tier institutions want students who are the “best at one thing,” not people who appear the most well-rounded, Lee said. Admissions officers like seeing areas where seniors show perseverance and leadership, said Hank Ewert, former director of admissions at Austin College.

The activities they focus on matter. Dance and band, for example, are not that impressive because they are common, but something like being a grandmaster in chess would carry more value in an application, Lee said.

Many students also make the mistake of inflating their titles in the “activities” section of the application, Chada said. Their descriptions of activities are vague or they have nothing to show for them – a red flag for admissions officers who look for measurable returns, such as increasing membership of a group or raising a certain amount of money. 

Students sometimes drop activities their junior or senior year to make room for others – but Lee said that isn’t always the right call.

“Colleges do like to see continual involvement in the same activity or the same class,” he said. “If you take three years of Spanish and you don’t take a fourth year, that looks weird to colleges. Same for mathematics.”

But dropping activities can be beneficial if they have a low return-on-investment, Chada said. Large group activities like band or dance take up massive amounts of time that could be spent elsewhere, and students can usually maintain those interests through independent study or private lessons.

On the other end of the spectrum, adding a bevy of clubs and extracurriculars late in the game is an obvious tactic that doesn’t work, Chada said. Students need a two-year lead on activities to build candidacy for Ivy League schools, and at least a one-year lead for other competitive schools like the University of Texas at Austin.

“We know what a Hail Mary looks like,” he said. “Nobody is persuaded by you rapidly changing course at the last second, especially because there’s not time for you to get real stuff done.”

The essay can be one of the most crucial elements of an application because it’s a student’s chance to speak directly to the college, said Ewert, who has also worked as a high school counselor and a college planning consultant.

The applicant should pick a topic that’s truly important to them and shows an investment in something – whether it’s about their family or their favorite Russian novel, Ewert said. Some topics are taboo, like politics, but might be appropriate if they show “the real you.”

“If there’s a quirk you want to write about, write about that quirk,” he said.

But as important as the essay is, students sometimes hurt their chances when their work is too finely tuned – it should show their voice and be in their own writing.

“College admission people are more expert at noticing essays that have been edited by too many adults,” Ewert said. “They’re better at that than students and even counselors are aware.”

Letters of recommendation can push students over the line in selective college admissions, but students need to be careful in who they pick to vouch for them.

“If you’re trying to get into Princeton or wherever, you want to pick teachers that really know you and can write eloquently about you,” Ewert said. “Students are often pretty stupid about that. They’re really good at math … so they pick the math teacher even if the math teacher just hears them get the right answer in class.”

A good recommendation can also alert application readers to places in an application where something is amiss, Ewert said. Application readers might suspect that a student inflated some of their listed activities when a recommendation letter focuses heavily on a couple of them but doesn’t have anything to say about the others.

Visits to selective colleges can help students in the admissions office’s “maybe” pile, because they show that students might accept the acceptance, Ewert said. Not visiting can hurt students in the pile, too.

Admissions officers want to see that students are interested in research, Chada said. But doing research with a professor isn’t as impressive as being published, Lee said.

Pre-existing peer-reviewed publications are the only way to go, Chada said. Admissions officers don’t have the time to assess whether research is legitimate in the “peer-reviewed” student journals that parents are increasingly paying to get their child published.

At many schools, students now have the option of submitting their SAT or ACT test scores, but admissions professionals say the choice boils down to individual circumstances.

Average test scores have increased at most top-30 schools over the past several years, and there are more people testing high than there are slots. Admissions officers say they do not use the absence of test scores against a candidate, but for overrepresented applicants – meaning white or Asian students – “it’s definitely not test-optional,” Lee said.

Overrepresented students frequently make the mistake of not submitting test-scores when they should, he said. Lee and others have also seen students apply to increasing numbers of schools because of test-optional policies.

Applicants from underrepresented backgrounds might find it in their interest to omit scores if they are not competitive and don’t reflect their potential, admissions consultants say.  

Applying through the “early decision” deadline – which is legally binding – statistically increases a student’s odds of admission, especially if they are from an overrepresented demographic, Lee said.

Admissions offices have typically gone after more targeted populations at the early action and regular decision deadlines, which usually have close to the same number of spots but many more applicants, the consultant said.

Submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, almost immediately after it opens, Chada said. (The application for 2024-2025 will open by the end of December, two months later than anticipated because of changes that are expected to streamline the form.)

The need-based awards are distributed on a rolling basis, so the later a student waits, the higher a chance they won’t get what is required for them to attend school.

 “They get swallowed up fast,” Chada said.

Students also need to think about how much merit aid a college or university will give them. Middle-income students shoot too high on merit aid at Ivy League universities, which won’t negotiate, Chada said. Schools that are still highly ranked but maybe not as selective have more wiggle room – and students might benefit from contacting those offices early and writing letters explaining any special circumstances.

“Ask yourself, do you want to shoot for academic prestige?” Chada said. “Or is it more important for your family right now to shoot for merit aid? In which case, you should really look for the honors program at Texas A&M. You’ve got real leverage there, because they’d be worried about losing you to Dartmouth or Cornell.”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ban this summer on affirmative action in higher education means that institutions can no longer use race as one factor in admissions decisions. (The most selective institutions were virtually the only places to do this in recent years.)

Ewert said he expects many admissions offices to figure out students’ race and ethnicity, however. Colleges and universities are still allowed to ask students to explain how their background has informed their experiences, and many have separate short answer questions on the topic. Consultants are suggesting that students talk about their diverse backgrounds in their essays, because colleges’ priorities for increasing diversity have not changed.