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By Mr. Matthew Malatesta
Interim College Counselor

After more than two decades sitting on one side of the admissions desk, making decisions about who would be offered a spot at college, and now living in a boarding school dormitory and helping families navigate the process from the students’ perspective, I am reminded of the Henry David Thoreau quote: “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

With my gray hair, former long title (Vice President for Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment at Union College), and lengthy experience, parents often ask me to opine on the “changed” college admissions landscape to help explain why things feel so different from what they remember.

I’d argue some seismic shifts have happened for sure, but much of what families perceive is really about perspective more than dramatic reality.

Applications Are Up

• Yes: Application numbers are rising. The Common Application, Coalition Application, and international recruitment have made it easier than ever to apply.
• But: The number of bachelor’s degrees conferred has also doubled since the 1980s, and graduation rates are up eleven percentage points, per NCES data. Students are finding success.

Testing Rules Have Shifted

• Yes: The pandemic accelerated the move to test-optional admissions, and only a handful of schools have returned to requiring scores. Coupled with the recent Supreme Court ruling forbidding any race-conscious selection criteria, and the advent of the college athletic transfer portal, admissions predictability has been disrupted.
• But: A recent Gallup-Purdue Index ties increased college graduation rates and workplace engagement not to measures of selectivity, but to engagement and mentorship on a variety of campuses.

Costs Keep Rising

• Yes: College costs continue to go up at alarming rates.
• But: Colleges have also substantially increased need-based and merit aid. Net costs are far lower for many families, and the earnings premium for a college degree has grown—from 48% in the 1980s to about 71% today (Pew Research).

Demonstrated Interest Matters

• Yes: Some colleges care about demonstrated interest and since the pandemic, fewer families visit campuses, particularly before hearing of an affirmative admission decision.
• But: Most colleges understand this shifting landscape, with some of this also tied to increased athletic commitments for many students over the summer and increased virtual options to learn about campuses.  Most colleges are more focused on those showing demonstrated disinterest (little or no interaction to learn about the college).

Grades

• Yes: Grade inflation at high schools across the country makes identifying “the best of the best” harder. 
• But: School profiles allow high school counseling offices to better explain the levels of rigor students are choosing in their course selections, which is a critical piece.

Anxiety

• Yes: An American Psychological survey (“Stress in America” 2013-2019) showed teens mirroring their parents’ stress level: Constant talk of rankings and selectivity fuels anxiety.
• But: When controlling for individuals’ characteristics, outcomes data is inconclusive tying any measure of individual happiness or future earnings to any measure of colleges’ rankings or selectivity, so this is solvable.  

Perspective Over Panic
What has truly changed is the volume of information (and misinformation) from social media, rankings, and “cocktail circuit” chatter. It feels different because the spotlight is brighter.

But Thoreau’s wisdom holds: “It’s not what you look at, but what you see.”

Students today can and do find joy, growth, and success at a wide range of institutions. Your parents didn’t have all the answers, and it still worked out. The same can be true for your family.
 

Photo: College Counseling Office
Mr. Kevin Medina, Mrs. Hannah Wolff, Ms. Annie Gehringer, and Mr. Matthew Malatest
Missing from photo: Mrs. Emily Dronson and Mr. Easton Knott