Application Inflation: When Is Enough Enough?

Congratulations to me! I pressed submit on my Early Action applications to the University of Chicago and Boston College, and now I'm back to blogging after weeks of essay revisions consuming my free time.

Allen Grove at About.com recently posted about the volume of applications students are sending in To How Many Colleges Should I Apply?, and it got me thinking about how I'm contributing to the admissions fad "more is better" in terms of application numbers.

To quote Grove, "NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, recently published their report on the "State of College Admission 2010." The study showed that in 2009, 75% of students submitted three or more applications; 23% submitted seven or more applications. Those numbers have been creeping up over the past couple of decades as the number of college-bound students has increased and online applications have made applying easier."

I am one of those 23% of applicants referenced as applying to more than seven colleges, so I feel some obligation to explain that to the adults and peers who constantly ask me "why so many?" The basic reason for me is that the colleges I'm interested in all happen to be highly selective. No matter how qualified you are, if one in four applicants are admitted at your "target schools," there's room for doubt of admission, and so my list has grown slightly out of precaution.

A fantastic article  titled Application Inflation: When is Enough Enough? was just released today by Eric Hoover, a writer for The Chronicle, the leading publication on higher education, in conjunction with the New York Times. Beginning with the question of why the number of applications institutions receive seems to be edging higher each year, Hoover looks into a few powerful examples of college marketing campaigns and their effects on drastically increased application numbers.

The first example on the table is the University of Chicago, which experienced an unbelievable 43% increase in applications last year. This change is attributed to multiple factors, namely the introduction of Jim Nondorf (formerly at Yale and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) as Dean of Admissions for the College, the school's adoption of the Common Application over their formerly "uncommon" application, and the extensive use of a marketing firm to attract more students to campus.

Students and alumni from Chicago have complained that the marketing campaign has transformed Chicago from an interesting place that drew in niche students into a more generic imitation of what a college should be, all in the name of drawing in more applicants. While Chicago used to pride in its eccentricity and deviation from the admissions norm, it now seems to be chasing averages.

So why are colleges embarking on multi-million dollar spending sprees to lure in more applicants, many paying the college board 32 cents per name, only to reject an overwhelming majority of those who apply? Many colleges claim that an increasing volume is a must in today's competitive market as an indication of institutional growth, and that increasing selectivity boosts everything from the college's credit score to alumni giving to their U.S. News Ranking, if only insignificantly.

The benefits  of bringing in more applications are dubious at best. There are many downsides to increasing application volumes as well, taken most seriously Georgetown, a school which has chosen to keep off the Common Application to keep its applicants down to those most dedicated to attending the school. It additionally wishes to provide an interview to each applicant, which it wouldn't be able to do if the college switched to the Common Application and application volume shot up double digits each year.

As Hoover's article illustrates, the debate for quantity over quantity isn't limited to paper; it affects the students who are ultimately hurt by these admissions tactics. He recounts the story of a minority applicant who was urged to apply by Harvard:

A Harvard representative contacted Sally Nuamah her junior year of high school in Chicago. Ms. Nuamah had good grades but an ACT score she describes as low. Her parents, who came from Ghana, had little money. As she welcomed the admissions rep into her living room one day, she was nervous. ӀI was like, рOh, goodness, I donҀt want to disappoint anyone,Ҁ Ԁ she says.
Ensuing conversations brought mixed emotions. ӀI felt that I was pushed and given motivation,Ԁ she says, Ӏbut on the other hand, I wondered if what they were telling me was feasible.Ԁ She knew her scores were below the average for Harvard students. Nonetheless, she applied. Months later, a rejection letter came.

Ultimately, it is a sad reality that a majority of these added applications each year are from under-qualified applicants who have no chance of being admitted, only of feeding the admissions frenzy of annually increasing volumes of applications and associated costs. However, as a current applicant myself, I see no alternative but to feed the fire until I receive some acceptance letters a few months down the road.

The Application Process Begins for the Class of 2011

As you might imagine, I have been waiting several years to get to the point of applying to college myself and I am feeling very confident so far that I can remain in control of the system, not the other way around. I will be blogging about my own application process as I experience it, hopefully before my blog's guests so that any advice can be of use.

This is the real thing; we rising seniors are just months away from sending out thick envelopes into which snippets of our very souls have been poured. However, as goes my very strict policy whenever I counsel people - no freaking. Period. Even though many consider me to be a college fanatic, I'm seldom "stressed" by college admissions because I understand the process well and think of the process and of myself as an applicant, fairly objectively. I seriously condone "feeling a school" or using the term "whatever" or "whim" in conversation about admissions. Your applications should be deliberate and the schools to which you apply should truly match your expectations and personality. This doesn't mean that reach schools are out of bounds (I love to see them), it just means that you either do an application 100% or you don't do it at all, no matter what the school. Many applicants get lazy and use the excuse that there are no right schools for them or that they are indifferent about where they go. These applicants have not looked hard enough for the school or schools right for them. If you are experiencing confusion into the late fall, contact a counselor or myself for some direction.

Thinking about the process ahead of time is incredibly important. Even though applications to most schools aren't due until January 1st, this doesn't mean that whatever you are thinking on December 31st should be what determines a large part of your future. I have gotten into the habit of producing a personal list of colleges almost every day, whenever I think about college. This way, I find my mind clear of college clutter, and I'm able to capture that important detail that made me (on that particular day) favor one college over another. After several weeks (or years in my case) of these notes or scraps of paper, you will have better insight into the way you think about the process and about what you really want. For example, I have always liked Bowdoin College in Maine, but it has never been on the forefront of my mind and has never really been my top choice college. However, after going through many notes, I was able to trace my attachment to a variety of different factors that I soon discovered defined much of my impression of that school. Even though it has seldom been my top choice college, I noticed that it has been my number two or three consistently for over two years, thus making it a really important school on my list, since I have unwittingly become rather attached to it.

Here is an example of my college list, which has gone pretty much unchanged over the course of the summer. Especially for those applicants considering Early Decision or Early Action programs, as I am, it is a great idea to write out lists to see where your priorities lie and which schools would be good early application choices for you. It's okay to get strategic here. After you have been indecisive about a number of schools, it's fair to say after a certain point that you would be happy at any of them, and it is okay to apply Early Decision I to a reach school and Early Decision II or Early Action to a somewhat less selective school just in case your reach doesn't work out. Make lists. Make lists. Make lists... And stay posted for college visits I will be doing on day trips from Harvard: Amherst, Boston College, Tufts, Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale will likely be covered in addition to Harvard itself!