Should I visit over the summer?
Back in pre-pandemic days, most college counselors and consultants had a pretty firm rule: don’t visit campuses when classes aren’t in session. The thinking went that a prospective student wouldn’t get a sense of what the school was actually like -- she needed to see real students, observe real time classes, and smell real food in the dining hall.
A few consultants and parents took a different approach, believing that seeing a campus in person mattered most and that sometimes summer travel was the only option. But for the majority of prospective students, the recommendation was to visit as many campuses as possible during the spring of junior year of high school. And if that wasn’t possible, to visit after admissions decisions were released.
Then the pandemic hit and everything we thought we knew flew out the window. Students waiting to visit colleges until accepted could no longer travel. How could they commit to a school 2500 miles from home when they’d never seen its campus? In most cases they didn’t, choosing the schools they’d been able to see in person whether those schools were their best fits… or not.
Virtual Visits
In the year since, colleges have invested a lot in creating virtual visits. High school students in Massachusetts can join campus tours in Minnesota-- seeing inside dorms, classrooms, gyms, and dining halls-- narrated by entertaining students giving the inside scoop about life at their schools.
In our post-pandemic world, sometimes the only thing missing is the actual smell of food in the dining hall.
Boots on the ground
Our advice is pretty simple— start by exploring the great online content schools created: go on a virtual tour of a campus, watch a few student videos, attend a virtual information session, and use those tools to take some schools off your list that don’t seem like a great fit, and maybe add some unexpected ones that check a lot of your boxes. Then, think about the reality of travel and what’s possible.
Does your family have the time and financial ability to visit some schools (we’re big fans of incorporating campus visits into regular vacations!)? Are you considering schools that involve at least one flight every time you go back and forth to school? Will visiting that school, and maybe taking a flight to get there, help you decide how comfortable you’d be making that trek for four years? Will seeing the campus help you decide if it’s the best fit?
In many cases, the answer is yes.
While we agree that visiting a campus over the summer isn’t an ideal way to see a school, we also think that the reality of busy family life (not to mention the last year plus of not being able to travel) makes it necessary. You’ll still get to walk around the campus, take a tour, and see the dining hall. You’ll see a typical dorm room and be able to imagine if you can fit your vintage t-shirt collection in the dresser.
Another reason we encourage visits whenever families can make them work is simple exposure and motivation. High school is hard. There’s a lot being asked of our kids these days. Getting to see some beautiful and exciting campuses can be great inspiration during that all important junior year and when it’s time to sit down and put those killer applications together in the fall of senior year.
In the end, we believe in flexibility. If visiting campuses is easiest for your family over the summer, we think that’s great and encourage you to make it happen. If you’d like to talk about putting together a list of potential schools to visit virtually or in person, send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com or give us a call (617.447.0186) and let’s chat.
Likelihood to Enroll
Last week we wrote about admissions terms like test-optional and holistic admissions. Another term we’re running across more and more often is Likelihood to Enroll (or LTE factor). It sounds simple enough, but in reality it’s part of a huge change in the last twenty years in how college admissions work. The catalyst for this change? Predictive analytics.
What is predictive analytics?
It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like-- the use of data and statistical algorithms to predict future outcomes. Long ago, before US News & World Reports started its rankings and before colleges became insanely expensive, admissions officers were tasked with bringing in a fantastic class of students each September that met the general standards of the institution, kept its budget in the black, and were likely to be positive and successful alumni. But as colleges more and more come to resemble businesses in an effort to move up in the rankings, admissions officers are now most often defined by four metrics of success:
Filling every available seat.
Accepting the fewest number of applicants to achieve the highest selectivity rating.
Maximizing tuition revenue.
Ensuring admitted students graduate within six years, preferably four.
This change has redefined the traditional admissions office; its primary concern is now Enrollment Management. And this is where predictive analytics come in, and specifically Likelihood to Enroll.
So, what is likelihood to enroll?
It sounds straightforward enough-- isn’t it just how likely a particular student is to enroll in a particular school? In reality, it’s based on data-gathering from every possible source.
Put simply, every time you interact with a school-- signing up for emails, requesting a viewbook, attending an information session online or in person, saying hi to an admissions officer at a college fair (and giving them your name and contact information), following the school on social media and liking its posts-- this data gets sent to the school. And the school’s very sophisticated enrollment management software uses an algorithm to calculate your LTE factor-- your likelihood to enroll at the school. This is part of your admissions application file, and when it comes time to make a decision about whether to put you in the admit or reject pile, it counts for a lot. Why? Because admissions offices are focused on those four factors above and the LTE helps them get there.
What does that mean for you?
It means that you can help your chances of being accepted to the schools you’re really interested in by boosting your LTE factor.
How do you do this? All the ways mentioned above. For the schools you’re seriously interested in, demonstrate that interest by:
Signing up for admissions emails;
Requesting admissions materials;
Visiting campus if you can;
Attending an information session in person or online;
Checking in with admissions officers at college fairs and giving them your name and contact information;
Following them on social media and liking their posts and stories;
Sending a personal note after an interview with an admissions officer.
If you’re interested in more ways you can make your application stand out for admissions officers, give us a call (617.447.0186) or send an email to info@yourmayfirst.com and let’s chat.