I agree that colleges look into each students as individuals. They look more than just numbers on the transcripts or standardized test results. Personal essays submitted by students do tell the personal side of applicants and should be honest and sincere and should show passion for higher learning. Check out this blog http://topcollegeprep.com A blog written by a parent for other parents on the issue.
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College web sites, publications and applications transmit a lot of information, some subtly and some plainly, yet students can miss cues because they haven't directly communicated with any single college until late in the process. Sometimes they read individual application instructions for the first time right on the deadline. They may have neglected to interview or visit the campus, which could shed light on a candidacy for the college while simultaneously providing the student with a fuller sense of the institution. When a student lives a mile away from our campus but never visited, interviewed or communicated prior to submitting the application, I wonder, why not?
Not all admission processes are as selective as the press would have us believe. For the class that entered in fall 2007, approximately 70 of the more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States offered admission to fewer than one third of their candidates. Admission rates describe raw numbers and percentages, but digging a few levels deeper into those figures may allow individual students to see where they fit in the statistics. The lower the overall admission rate, the more likely it is that grades and scores are not the point where a final admission decision will be made by admissions officers. Candidate pools at highly selective colleges tend to be self-selective and academic ability is almost a given. Everything matters, but what draws attention may be something unexpected.
One former Pomona student worked as a garbage collector on Long Island for a couple of summers rather than pursuing more-prestigious internships or travel. He earned much higher pay than his classmates did in their internships, and learned a lot about life from the work and his co-workers. Immediately after graduating from Pomona, he got a job as an investment banker. Was he admitted to fewer colleges or offered a lesser job because of his summer experience? Apparently not.
In the last few years, many students have routinely applied to more than a dozen schools, a huge increase from a decade ago when three to five was more common. This skews the process down the line—and ultimately hurts students. Application numbers rise (far more than population increases should suggest) and rates of admission drop, potentially stimulating even more applications the following year. Waiting lists grow and April notification may become May or June or July notification. As students submit more applications, they inevitably and perhaps necessarily may communicate less with each college where they submit an application and may dig less deeply into the information available that could help them target their real needs and interests.
Students and their families have a wealth of information available about colleges and the admission process, and should take advantage of the resources. Understanding your talents and interests while working to understand the academic structures and offerings of a college is a vital step. Gaining insight into the social fabrics, geographic and even political environments of colleges should help students think more clearly about their own interests as they align with realistic possibilities. It takes hard work and real thinking. No student should have to look at a handful of bad news in April because he didn't take the admission process seriously enough or had insufficiently developed his college list. And none should be left on May 1 with complete confusion and an inability to decide among multiple offers. In this case, homework is not busywork. It is time very well spent.
Poch is vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.
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