S10 EPISODE 1
One App, Many Options
Lee Coffin:
From Hanover, New Hampshire, I'm Lee Coffin, Dartmouth's vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid. And this is the season premiere of Admissions Beat.
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Just like pumpkin latte at Starbucks, I'm back. It's back to school and it's time for the pod to roll again. And we're going to pick up the story for the high school class of 2027. We're going to really focus on the ins and outs of applying. How do you tell your story with clarity and confidence to the places that are on your list where you see yourself possibly enrolling next year?
So, to start the conversation, Season 10, I've brought in the nation's expert on all things application. When we come back, we will say hello to Jenny Rickard, Chief Executive Officer of the Common App. Big job. We'll be right back.
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So, joining me this week, as always for the season premiere, is my friend and recurring co-host, Jacques Steinberg. Hi, Jacques.
Jacques Steinberg:
Hi, Lee. It's great to be back for the fall and looking forward to digging in on behalf of seniors and juniors and their parents and their counselors.
Lee Coffin:
For people meeting Jacques for the first time, he was what I call the founding father of the admission beat, little A, little B, back in the 1990s when he was a higher ed reporter at The New York Times, covering all things college admission where he launched the blog The Choice and put this topic on the mainstream media's radar. And so, for better or worse, Jacques, I always say it's your fault. You started everybody talking about admissions.
Jacques went on to write The Gatekeepers, which to this day, over 25 years later, I still think is the best book I've ever read about selective college admission where he went undercover at Wesleyan and spent a year watching the admission staff do its thing. And then he wrote a really lovely book exploring how a selective college office does what it does. If you haven't read it, go find it.
And a couple years ago he published book number two with my friend and colleague Eric Furda, former dean of admission at Penn. That one's called The College Conversation, a guide for parents through this thing called The College Search. And Jacques, you picked up a new gig recently where you are now a contributor for US News & World Report.
Jacques Steinberg:
Yes. I seem to be on their radar and contributing every so often, digital or technical or technological innovations that they feel higher ed leaders should know about.
Lee Coffin:
So, the founding father has a new trick up his sleeve. And joining Jacques and me this week is our friend, Jenny Rickard, as I said, the CEO of Common App. Hi, Jenny.
Jenny Rickard:
Hey Lee and hey Jacques. Great to be here.
Lee Coffin:
Nice to have you back. Jenny was one of our first guests on Admissions Beat five years ago. And Jenny, in addition to her job at Common App where she's been since 2016, is a two-time dean of admissions herself at Bryn Mawr College and at University of Puget Sound in Washington. So, she draws from that experience as an admission officer and now, over a decade, leading the Common App, which is a membership organization with over 1,100 colleges and universities around the world. And Jenny, Common App just celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
Jenny Rickard:
It did. And I loved the opportunity to be able to celebrate the history. That was actually a grassroots effort of college admission deans and college counselors who wanted to streamline the admission process. They were seeing that students were starting to apply to more schools and that the barrier of the friction, if you will, of having to fill out your name and address over and over again was a challenge in addition to essays and activities. And they stewarded this organization for 50 years. It was really a labor of love of college admissions deans and college counselors. And I think that has what's contributed to its staying power.
Lee Coffin:
I wanted to give that a shout-out, because I think it does surprise people to know that the Common App has been around for half a century at this point. So, Jacques is going to emcee us and I'll join Jenny as a guest speaking as a dean along with Jenny. But before Jacques takes over, Jenny, I wanted to give you a moment to reflect on your own college search. So, go back to high school and share the journey of Jenny from home to Swarthmore.
Jenny Rickard:
Okay. So, I grew up in Palo Alto, California, home to Stanford. And despite that fact, I really hadn't been through the process before, just like other kids my age and wasn't really quite sure how to go about a list. I knew I would apply to UCs or a UC. And so, I ended up applying to the one that way back when actually did a direct admission approach based on my ... Somehow, they had my grades and scores and said that I would get in if I applied. And I thought, "That sounds good to me."
So, I decided to apply to UCLA and I liked UCLA very much. And then I just listened to friends. I applied to one place for an academic interest, which was more a career interest to be a newscaster. And I applied to Cornell's Agriculture and Life Sciences School where their communications program was. So, that was the only one I did based on that. And then I applied to Stanford, because that's what you do when you go to Palo Alto High School. I applied to Yale because I liked that. Then Wesleyan, I had a friend who had gone to Wesleyan. I'd submitted five applications.
And my mom grew up in the town of Swarthmore and had suggested that I apply to Swarthmore, which was, of course, the reason why I would not apply to Swarthmore. So, I didn't apply to Swarthmore. But Swarthmore at that time had a February 1st deadline and these two guys in my English class both got an early decision and they were just saying what a great school it was. And they were so excited that I thought, "Okay. If Tom and Kurt like it, then maybe I'll do it." And I was getting nervous because it was January 25th, their deadline was coming up, so I applied to Swarthmore.
I always like to say where I didn't get in because that really helps people. I didn't get into Yale. I did not get into Stanford. I got waitlisted at Wesleyan. And then I got into Swarthmore, UCLA and Cornell. And decided that when I got the brochure and the letter from Swarthmore admitting me, I thought, "Oh, I should take a look at this." And I loved it. I loved what I read. And I don't think I had really processed that when I went there that it was this liberal arts college of 1,300 students that was smaller than my high school. And I didn't really think about that.
And that ended up being so transformational for me, because I was able to do so many different things, both academically and as well as outside of the classroom. That experience actually led me, believe it or not, to wanting to be a dean of admissions so that I could help people to go to college if they wanted to go somewhere, because it was such a transformational experience. So, it's a funny story how you get where you're going.
Lee Coffin:
No. I've asked every guest at some point to share their version of that story and it's always fascinating to me. Jacques, as you hear Jenny recount her senior of high school, what jumps out at you?
Jacques Steinberg:
What jumps out at me is I think it's really important again for our audiences of high school seniors and juniors and their parents is that the adults involved in this process, the people quite literally receiving, shepherding and considering your applications, they each have their own story and have also had their own disappointments. I love, Jenny, that you talked about where it didn't work out for you. And I think that's not the worst image as students sit down to finish their applications to have a mental image of a human being reading this who has been where they've been.
Lee Coffin:
Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate both the serendipity of a search where things come your way that you weren't expecting and you have to be open to that. And I say to everybody who's going through a search, don't lock things in because you're going to have aha moments when you least expect them. And also, the role of friends. I mean, you mentioned that several times, friends at Palo Alto High, friends in your life giving you advice and counsel and you listen. So, I think that was wonderful on so many levels.
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. And ultimately listened to my mom.
Lee Coffin:
Mom got you right back where she started.
Jenny Rickard:
Exactly.
Lee Coffin:
So, with that preamble, Jacques, take the reins and lead Jenny and me where you would like us to go.
Jacques Steinberg:
I want to stay on the subject of emotion. I use the word "empathy," that you both can empathize with where listeners are, whether they are applying or in the early stages of the search or maybe not quite thinking about this yet. But let's start for a moment thinking about those high school seniors listening or their parents who are listening. What emotions would you imagine they are feeling right now mid-September with early decision and early action deadlines on the near horizon and then regular decision deadlines after that, enrolling applications live, Common App live, FAFSA Soon live? What are they feeling and what advice would you have for them in terms of noticing and addressing those emotions?
And let's start first with the seniors themselves. Jenny, you've been there and you receive all their applications quite literally at the Common App. What do you see and what would you tell them?
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. What I see is, unfortunately, sometimes the process is fraught because students are worrying about that they're going to be judged. There's the undercurrent of this is actually, "I'm going to leave home." This is kind of a big step that's the undercurrent, but you can distract yourself that I need to apply to these schools. And then you also have the anxiety around you of all your friends are going through this and parents are going through this and people are asking you about it. People focus on where and people worry about they're judging even where you're applying. Not only is it anxiety-producing with your peers around you, it also is with the media. It's so much more than when it was non-existent when I applied.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, what's one tip, Jenny, for those who are noticing the anxiety and maybe can't even put their finger on exactly what it is that's making them feel anxious, but how can they just take a breath and as you say, have the confidence that it is going to work out though it may not work out the way they imagine in mid-September?
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. I would say that there are so many colleges and universities, let's say there are 2,000 four-year colleges and universities and you're going to apply, I don't know, to eight to 10, and you're pretty darn selective doing that. You're more selective than any of those institutions. So, you're really in the driver's seat if you think about it that way. And also, as much as you can, try to tune out the noise of what is someone else's first choice. I mean, I listened to Tom and Kurt, but I also did research about it. End up thinking about, "Well, what feels right versus what others think is going to be right."
I remember working in admissions and when I worked at Swarthmore in admissions, letting people know I went to Swarthmore, but they also knew I grew up in Palo Alto and they'd say, "Oh, well, you didn't go to Stanford." And they're like, "Why not?" And then I said, "Well, I didn't get in. But I'm really happy I'm here. I can't imagine any place better for me to be." And I think that's the thing that's hard for people to understand, and I get it, but it is going to work out. You're going to find a great place and it's going to be great for you.
And also, when you're telling your story in your application, you're the person that knows the most about you than anybody else. And so, you really can own that telling that story.
Jacques Steinberg:
Lee, when Jenny talks about tuning out the noise, previous listeners of the pod have heard you say that very phrase. And sometimes that noise is not just from media and external, sometimes it's the noise inside our own heads and hearts or noise at the kitchen table. But what are a couple of your go-to tips, Lee, for just noticing those emotions and trying to quiet them?
Lee Coffin:
I think the emotion that haunts so many students in this selective college process is self-doubt. And it's curious, because so many of the students who are afflicted with that self-doubt are high-achievers, well-rounded, good do-bees, people like them, they're going in the right direction. And yet the anxiety Jenny describes is both the noise that's around us, but also this little voice that says, "Am I good enough?" And I've heard family members say that to me like, "Am I really good enough?" And I say, "Yes." And the opportunity is always tell your story in your own words and let the places where you apply meet you.
And so, the advice on this self-doubt is to do the best you can to avoid the newsfeed in this contemporary space that tells you others are happier, more successful with a clear definitive path. Nobody knows. And I think as we move from late-September when this episode airs into October and the early deadlines start winking at us rapidly, everybody doesn't need to apply early. But I think the self-doubt pulls people towards this premature moment of decision where it's like, "If you're not ready, you're not ready. It's called regular decision. Hurray."
So, I think one of the ways to control the itch to doubt yourself is to just look at your own extracurricular resume, your report card, your testing if that's part of your application, talk to your teachers and just wrap your arms around your own wonderfulness. Doesn't mean you're cocky about it, because a lot of wonderful people like Jenny don't get into Stanford and Yale. That's not surprising. The volume proposition there, we can't say yes to everybody that is terrific.
But as you move across the rainbow of colleges, there are a lot of great places that don't say no to everyone and don't overlook that part. So, I think that's the two things is just do what you can to avoid the pull of comparison. When I was in high school, I remember people, we'd get our tests and papers back and it was immediately like, "What'd you get? How'd you do?" And I had one classmate who never told anybody how she did, and she was doing quite well, but none of us knew it, because she stayed in her own lane. And I think as application lists develop, there's no need to share that news with anybody except your parents and your guidance counselor.
Jacques Steinberg:
You are more in control than you think.
Lee Coffin:
Yeah.
Jacques Steinberg:
Knowing you are not in control of that decision that that admissions dean and their committee is going to make, but you are in control, as Jenny says, and we'll get to it in a moment, of that list that you create. And then as you say, Lee, you are in control of the story about you that you want to tell and how you choose to tell it. And I think a feeling of control can also lessen anxiety a little bit.
Lee Coffin:
Yeah. And I think being overwhelmed too, I mean, one of the things that I think we're going to talk about in this episode is breaking down this thing called the Common App into smaller bites. And each part gives you an opportunity to say something that the other part might not, or it might compliment.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, Jenny, you preside over the Common App with colleagues and it is the passport for entry to, as Lee said, over 1,000 colleges. But let's break it down into those components. So, let's talk first about finalizing your college list. What is your counsel, Jenny, on harnessing that list? And I think I heard you say that while everybody's different, that eight to 10 colleges is not a terrible target to aim for.
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. No. It's really not a terrible target. Common App, students can apply to up to 20, but we don't encourage people to do that at all. I would say the eight to 10 makes sense. And I think something to think about is the competitiveness of the places that you're applying, having a range of institutions that you would apply to from a selectivity perspective, but then might have things in common across those selectivities, things that you have affinity for or a major that you're interested in particular, or a location that you want to be in, or a particular size or an activity or a culture on campus that you've been able to visit.
There are commonalities across ranges of selectivity of institutions. So, that's something that I would really emphasize is to not judge an institution, it's quality, by the percentage of students they admit. And I find it interesting sometimes when people will apply to 10 schools that admit fewer than 5% of the applicants, because that means they deny 95%. Think about what's most important to you academically, socially, outside of the classroom. And as you get those choices, you can actually, when you sign on to Common App, when you add a college to your My Colleges list, colleges can then start reaching out to you if you've agreed to let them do that.
And that's a wonderful way early on to start learning how those institutions communicate with their students, what's important to them as you start to be your own Dean of Admissions about which colleges you're going to end up applying to, which ones are going to be lucky enough to get your application.
Jacques Steinberg:
Lee, I have to say it's such an interesting concept the way Jenny put it a few moments ago, that in choosing from among 2,000 colleges that you are more selective than the admissions officers, that's an aspect of the process where you're in the driver's seat.
Lee Coffin:
Yeah. And as we're talking about selectivity, the acceptance rate of an institution is catnip. My newsfeed is bubbling right now with all sorts of posts saying, "These are the most selective places. These are the most selective places with the happiest students. These are the most" ... No. It's like, "Stop." But what surprises people who aren't admission officers is the idea that the acceptance rate isn't uniform across all dimensions of a pool. You might say, "Oh, the admit rate's 5%, 95% got denied." It's like in that 95%, were they all super qualified or did a lot of kids go down the rabbit hole of, "Well, let's just see what happens. I know I'm not going to get in, but let's see."
And so, you get volume that is never going to make it into the final round of the pool. But at the top of the pool where students have done all the things we asked them to do, the acceptance rate might be 47%. Listeners and parents especially who love to quiz me about the acceptance rate, it is one data point.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, Jenny, we get mail occasionally Admissions Beat, and a letter came in over the summer that referenced this very topic from a listener named Bill, a parent, who said, "I've heard Lee mention a few times that students should not apply to 20 plus colleges."
Lee Coffin:
And Jenny just said it, so I feel that.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, the rationale seems to be that it assumes a buckshot approach to college exploration rather than getting deeply immersed into finding a couple of right fits. Again, what Jenny just talked about. Bill says, "I think the other argument is that spreading one's time too thinly across so many applications ultimately hurts the quality and focus of the applications." Bill says, "This seems like advice that would be quite sound for 1995, but not 2026." He goes on to say, "So, in this world, I would think that students are only acting rationally when they expand their college list to 20 or more schools." Last word from Bill, "Unless you're a world-class darts player, you would want more darts to try to hit the bullseye than fewer."
Jenny, putting you on the spot, how would you respond to Bill?
Jenny Rickard:
Well, I would say to Bill that applying to 20 or more colleges and having probably, I'm guessing, half of them at least be incredibly highly selective, loses the point that those 10 schools that may be very highly selective are also very different and may not be a great match. Let's say you're lucky and that dart hits that bullseye and it doesn't hit the bullseye of other places, but it's really not a good fit, because you had the catnip of the selectivity. That is what I would caution.
Applying to so many highly selective institutions that are very, very different culturally, academically, socially, that kind of demonstrates that the homework is not being done. The scattershot approach is the easy way out of actually having to think about where you want to go and what's really important to you other than getting in. And it's really what are you going to do once you get there that is the most important question to be thinking about.
You really need to be thoughtful about where you're applying, and part of that rationale needs to be applying to a range of schools with a range of selectivity that have the characteristics and qualities that you're looking for because they exist. Most people end up going to college to a place that admits more than a quarter of their applicants, and I would want to make sure that you had enough darts to hit some of those great places.
Lee Coffin:
Yeah. Jacques, we've tipped into list shaping, which I think is an undervalued part of the admission process. Now, through the deadlines, some places should be falling off because they just don't resonate, and some places should still be moving towards an application because it's just starting to make sense. And other late-breaking things like Swarthmore in Jenny's story will continue to come into the story.
My niece, when she applied last year, her first-choice place popped at Thanksgiving, which surprised me. But all of a sudden, she's like, "Aha." But that isn't where she ended up going. So, the whole thing just kept going, but this list shaping is really important.
Jacques Steinberg:
I want to pick up on the thread of storytelling and talk about the essays, whether it boils down to who are you, what makes you tick, what do you value, what are the experiences you've had that make you, you, but also in the supplements, why our school? Jenny, what's your ... I would say a two-parter, what's your go-to advice, a go-to tip for the overall who are you essay and also for the why our school essay?
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. I always am self-conscious about the advice that I give, because I realize how it's hard to do what I suggest that you do, which is to listen to yourself and to think deeply about what do you care about, what's important to you? Your story is something that's interesting and unique. What about you helps you talk most authentically about you, what you love, an issue you're really interested in, an event that may have occurred that really revealed some values of yours, but something that you really can feel strongly enough that your voice can come through on that.
Because I can certainly tell you that it's hard to do. But when it's done, it really shines. It complements the rest of the application with something that you wouldn't find somewhere else in the file, you wouldn't find in a recommendation or somewhere else. In terms of the why the institution, I can tell you ... Well, I can't tell you because I never counted, but how many essays I read where I knew that they used find, replace, even if they got the name of my institution in there because it sounded like every other institution and didn't have the student in there. It was facts about the school, but not why that was a match for the individual.
And so, that's the advice that I would have there is like, "How does what the assets of an institution have, whatever they might be, resonate with you personally?" That's the kind of thing that makes a big difference.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, it's not enough to mirror back to somebody like Lee, the specialist in American history in the American History Department. It's why does that resonate with me?
Jenny Rickard:
Yes.
Jacques Steinberg:
And how would I take advantage of having access to those folks?
Jenny Rickard:
Yes. It's like making those your own. This is what I would be doing if I were on campus and I'm really excited about that, which tells me something about you.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, Lee, like Jenny, you've read tens of thousands of these essays, whether it's who are you, why us? What are a couple of your go-to tips born of experience of reading and deciding?
Lee Coffin:
The question a student chooses to answer is relevant. So, the Common App has several different options for a student to complete. On our supplement at Dartmouth, we have two short requireds and then a longer one. By longer, I mean 250 words, so it's really a paragraph. So, one of our supplemental prompts is celebrate your nerdy side. That's a interesting question. And your nerdiness is what you just said, Jacques. It's American history or American political history.
And you find a way in that nerdy answer to show us why American history is your jam. Who? Why? What have you read? What do you like studying? What aha did you have in US history that made you go, "I want to do more of that?" Or I've advised kids to take out a pad and paper, a pad and paper, old-fashioned, and write down some adjectives that describe themselves. What words do you want me as an admission officer to use by way of introducing you to the committee? Then make sure your essay and the other parts of your application, give me evidence of that.
So, if it's creative, great. How do you illustrate creativity in your file? Don't just say I am creative. How do I conclude? "Hey, she is creative or analytical." Or you're interested in civic engagement or you are an environmentalist and you're showing me, I keep using the word "show" versus "tell," you're showing me evidence of that part of your story. Doesn't mean you have to have the answer to the story. Doesn't mean you have to have done it yet. Maybe you have. Most people haven't. Where do you see yourself being happy? When you land on a campus, what groups will you join and what kind of person will you be in that group?
Those are the kind of questions we're asking, especially if we're a residential campus where we are looking at this cast that we need to put together and say, "Okay. Who's the ringleader? Who's the person behind the scenes getting everything done? Who's the quiet but analytical one? Who's the life of the party? Who's all of those things?" That's your opportunity to just say what essay, long or short, helps me do that.
Jacques Steinberg:
A question that I know is top of mind for parents and students right now is whether, and if so, how to incorporate AI into the dynamic, the process that you both talked about.
Lee Coffin:
I knew you were going there, Jacques.
Jacques Steinberg:
It would be irresponsible not to. It's everywhere and it's everywhere so quickly. But Jenny, starting with you again and your role as CEO of the Common App, for a student who says, "I'm wondering whether to use AI to help with my writing both who am I and why your school," what's your counsel to students on whether and if so, how to incorporate that technology?
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. It's a great obviously and very timely question. One of the things students should know that there's an affirmation when you're submitting your application through Common App that you attest to the fact that the essay and the content is your own work, basically. And we urge you to look at the policies of the schools to which you're applying about what their recommendations are or requirements about how you use AI in an application process for writing the essay.
But my general counsel would be, I loved how Lee phrased "show versus just tell". And when I think about the use of AI, it's just a bunch of words that a bot is putting together based on loose information it might have on you. And maybe you can use some of that for brainstorming. But when those bots start telling you, giving you encouraging words about how great that essay is that they wrote and how much it reflects you, I wouldn't believe it. It doesn't know you and I just really wouldn't recommend using it at all for writing that essay. It won't help you. It will get lost in the shuffle.
I've talked to some students who've experienced either having interviews that were done by bots, online interviews.
Lee Coffin:
Awful. Awful.
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. They though it was awful, because they weren't talking to a person. The essay is about a person. You're the one that knows the most about you. You're also the one that speaks in your voice or writes in your voice. And those are the things that, believe it or not, really shine through when an admission officer is reading a bunch of applications, the ones that have the clarity of just being unique and an individual that as they're putting the pieces of the application together, help them make sense out of it, makes the difference. And I wouldn't turn that over to anyone but yourself.
Jacques Steinberg:
Lee, what would you add?
Lee Coffin:
I was going to riff off of something Jenny just said. The essay is about a person and I just wrote down "a class is a group of persons." I mentioned a cast. It's like we have a play and we're putting people into the roles in the play and we want to meet the person. College is an academic institution. The admission officers represent the faculty of that institution and we are a place of learning. How do you learn? How do you express yourself? How do you think? Where are you messy? Where are you starting to show your ambition? And that's what we're trying to do, and you can't outsource that.
I've started to think of artificial intelligence as digital intelligence. I don't know if it's artificial or not. I'm not opposed to AI and I think I use it in a very minimal way, mostly through my phone on the Google feature. But it helps me gather information quickly. I was in a restaurant. There was an awesome piece of cake. I took a picture of the cake. I said, "Can I find a recipe for this amazing orange tort?" And it gave it to me. I thought that was helpful and I saved it. I still have to bake the cake.
But I think for students who are seeing AI as the easy way to apply, I think it's a lazy way to apply. And I think Jenny's advice about brainstorming, great, if you want something to read what you wrote. An interesting thing to me is when you write an essay, what have you told us about yourself? I read an essay for someone once and I said, "Okay. If this were in my applicant pool, this is how I would diagram it." And she said, "Oh, that's not what I wanted you to know about me." I went, "Well, that's what you said." And I said, "What would you want me to know?" And she said something very different. I said, "Then that's the essay you have to write because you didn't give me that."
Jacques Steinberg:
Yeah. Jenny used the word voice. I was a journalist for 25 years. Voice sure is hard to replicate in a machine. And I mentioned that you both have read tens of thousands of essays. You both have and colleagues have a keen ear for voice. I think you know when you're reading an authentic 17 or 18-year-old voice. I think you know when you're reading a 40 or 50 or 60-year-old voice. And I think you might know when you're reading, to use Lee's word, a digital voice.
Lee Coffin:
And here's the thing that people are always amazed when I meet someone on an airplane or a social event and they say, "Oh, you're dean of admission." And they always want to know, "How do you read them all?" I said, "Well, we do." And as you read your queue, however many it is in a given admission cycle, you start to understand how 17 and 18-year-olds express themselves. And when that vibe isn't there, it's very clear.
Jacques Steinberg:
Jenny, across the span of the next few weeks and months, Admissions Beat will touch on many aspects of this process, and I don't want to try to stuff them all into our opening episode. So, there's all kinds of things that I think in the interest of our listeners' time and yours that we'll save for another day, including standardized testing, recommendations.
But I do want to ... Two last questions, one for you both and then one for Jenny in particular. Let's not leave before we talk about time management. Lee promised at the top of the episode that we're going to talk about the mechanics of the application. Let's assume that a student is applying to 8 to 10 schools over the course of this fall. How do you pace yourself and how do you stay on task, but also how do you continue to be a student with a life both inside and outside the classroom?
Jenny Rickard:
It is possible. And you start with where are you applying and what are the deadlines and where do I need to apply first? But also, who's going to recommend me? Just starting to think about the pieces of the application, what's under your control, essays, my activities list, the form, adding my colleges, adding colleges to your list. And then who else do you need to rely on? And you need to rely on recommenders, you need to rely on your registrar or whoever sends transcripts, the counselor, and you have to see what the testing requirements are for an institution and that you need to do actually early, pretty early.
So, you might want to ... If you're going to apply to a school that requires tests, make sure that you start that actually probably your junior year to start thinking about that or start signing up. So, putting it into chunks, we were talking about putting the application into chunks. It's like how do you put the process into chunks and what needs to be done by when? And the nice thing with Common App, you have this common portion of the application that is one piece.
But you also need to know, and very early on, understand what the college's supplemental questions might be. So, that when you get to that deadline, and you're hopefully not doing it at the last minute, that you actually aren't surprised by seeing another essay from a school that you're applying to. So, start early with what the requirements are going to be. Schools have deadlines. All year, there's rolling admission. There's a whole bunch of different ways that you can apply to college.
Lee Coffin:
I think for seniors, they have to think of applying to college as the extra period in their schedule every day. When I was in high school, there were seven periods. This is period eight, and it doesn't mean you do it every day, but it has to be a block on your weekly calendar where you're doing something. And I think Jenny's advice about looking at the document in its respective parts, break it apart, the biographical section and the extracurricular section and the personal statement and the school report and the teacher recs and the supplements, it's like those are all documents within the document.
And some of those a student does herself, personal statement. Some of them you have to give to someone else. School report goes to the guidance counselor. Teacher rec goes to the teachers. So, that's part of your plan. I have a way of thinking about the application is a menu of you. You go to a restaurant, they give you a menu, it's got all these different entrees and things you might order.
The app is the same thing. It's a menu that has lots of different representations of you. So, on the parts you control, some of it you know today, Common App is live. It's been live for several weeks. Open a file, fill out the biographical info. If you don't know the answers, go ask a parent or guardian. Extracurricular is not a trick question. What do you do when you're not in class? And if there's not a lot there, don't start signing up for things right now, because that's not the point.
And those extracurriculars, as you start to document them, if you're the big debate kid, do you want to talk about debate or politics or policy in a file and amplify something? We're going to see you're a debater or you're the editor of the newspaper or you're the track cross country runner. All of those things are facts. Which ones do you want to highlight? That goes into the essays. Break it down. People get anxious when they procrastinate.
And we've had student episodes where that word comes up over and over and over that they almost get paralyzed by the timeline, so they ignore it. And if you wait until the week before a deadline, you've just given yourself a mad dash. We're telling you today, you've got lots of time to map this out thoughtfully, intentionally, and calmly. And where those things go away is when the hourglass is almost out of sand and you're like, "Uh-oh." And then you're scrambling and that's not a fun place to be.
And I honestly, when I read files, I can tell someone who rushed at the buzzer to get it done. It just doesn't hang together in the same way. As a member of the Common App, I've follow your newsletters and your posts, and I know Common App is rethinking its mission a little bit, if that's the way to say it, and really amplifying a commitment to access and mobility. What does that mean? So, the kids out there from first gen backgrounds, rural backgrounds, underrepresented backgrounds, international backgrounds, whoever falls into access and mobility, what's the agenda that you're trying to create there?
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. Absolutely. A couple years ago, well, six years ago, we launched a data warehouse that enabled us to understand who was actually applying through Common Application. When we looked at the data, 30% of the students are from below median income and 70% from above the national median income. And that's been, as you know, Lee, a pervasive challenge in terms of providing access to low income and first gen students into four-year colleges, mostly because they haven't necessarily had the exposure or the resources in their schools.
So, we set about a goal, a moonshot goal to try to close that gap. And some of the things that we've done as a result are a program called Direct Admissions, which is targeted towards low and middle-income students who have created a Common App account to let them know with the schools that are participating, we have about 250, that based upon self-reported information that includes their GPA, where they would be admitted if they just applied. So, it's in the app.
Because one of the things we found about eight years ago or nine years ago when we did some strategic planning is that the most stressful moment in Common App for everybody is when you press Submit. Because you are launching your app and to be judged and you worry about that. It's that self-doubt. We added confetti a number of years ago to try to ease that experience. So, direct admissions, when I think about first-generation college students and low and middle-income students, a lot of the concern is even getting into Common App, even creating an account and then getting to that Submit piece.
So, direct admissions is a way to let students know who might not think that they have opportunity and are afraid to press Submit to let them know, "Look, you have opportunity. And not only at these institutions, there are other institutions that you could consider." And what we have found is that the students have felt more confidence and actually are behaving differently than they might have before.
Another aspect of the application that is new, was new last year, is something called Responsibilities and Circumstances. For ages, back in 1975 when we started in Common App, there was an activity section, and that is things like athletics and debate and clubs and whatever the club might be, music. But also for students, and it has been based on the data that we have primarily, mostly, not primarily, but mostly first generation college students and some fee waiver eligible students have been filling out our Responsibilities and Circumstances section, which is new, which we partnered with Harvard to try to help students who might not see that what they're doing fits into the activities section, but is still incredibly meaningful and great context for the admissions offices to have.
Things like, as a checkbox, "I spend more than four hours a week translating for my family or contributing to my family income, taking care of siblings." It's activities or things that people do that are really important and meaningful that also have incredible value in terms of the experience that the students have and the skill sets and the competencies that they bring to their education. So, that's something that we're adding. We're trying to help students actually see themselves in the application so there's some validation there that they do belong here and please do press Submit.
Lee Coffin:
I read an essay this past year, someone cared for her grandfather and who lived with the family. It was this lovely poignant story about she come from school and he was ill and they had this wonderful relationship, but that was an "extracurricular." I mean, she spent a lot of time, learned a lot, that family dynamic was powerful and important. And I think that comes into the section you're describing.
Jenny Rickard:
Yeah. It's really important and it's something that students would say, "Well, they don't want to know about that."
Lee Coffin:
We do want to know about that.
Jenny Rickard:
But we do.
Lee Coffin:
Yeah. Right.
Jacques Steinberg:
So, on that note, I have the unenviable task of bringing this conversation to a close and Lee passing, I guess it's the golden Admissions Beat microphone back to you to bring us to a close.
Lee Coffin:
No. This has been fun. And Jenny, thanks for joining us for your second gig on Admission Beat.
Jenny Rickard:
It was fun.
Jacques Steinberg:
And Jacques, I've stopped counting how many times you pop up as co-host, but always fun. But to listeners, I hope this gives you a flavor of what's coming for the rest of Season 10. We will have episodes on telling your story about testing, people from the college board. We've got some interviewing tips. We've got an episode about rural backgrounds to help you think about I live in a place where there aren't a lot of us. Well, that's important and how do you tell that story.
So, every Tuesday we will appear in your feed bright and early wherever you get your pods, and we hope you subscribe. If you like us, please give us a star so that others can find us as well. Admission Beat is sponsored by Dartmouth College. It is not about admission to Dartmouth College. As I've said every year, it is an act of citizenship by those of us at Dartmouth to our colleagues around the admission and counseling profession to help students from all backgrounds find their way forward.
I had a mom come up to me last year and say, "I live in rural Northern Michigan. We don't have a guidance counselor. Your podcast was it." That gives me goosebumps and why we do it. Next week, we will be back with Episode 2, and we're calling that one Misinformation on the Suburban Social Circuit, an episode inspired by a listener who said, "My husband and I are getting overwhelmed with people having opinions that I don't think are right. Can you help us think about what to believe and where to turn for good advice?" That's next week with a panel of four college counselors from around the country.
For now, I'm Lee Coffin from Dartmouth College. Thanks for listening and we will see you next week.