Your kid signed up for a college's mailing list. The emails started coming. Nobody opens them.

That's being recorded.

I'm going to be careful here, because this is the part of my presentation where people either get paranoid or decide I'm exaggerating, and neither one helps you. So here is what's actually going on.

Many colleges track demonstrated interest. Not all of them. But a lot, and more than families assume.

They can see whether their email was opened. A good number can see what happened after that. Did the link get clicked. Did your kid land on the page for the major they said they were interested in, or did they bounce somewhere else and spend most of their time there instead.

There are colleges running algorithms on this to predict whether admitting your kid is worth the seat.

That sounds cynical until you understand why they care. Colleges are measured on yield, the share of admitted students who actually enroll. Admitting a kid who won't come is expensive for them. So they ...

Every activities list I see has the same problem. It's a list.

Member of this club. Participated in that walk. Played on the team. All true, all fine, all completely interchangeable with the 50,000 other kids applying.

Here's the distinction that actually matters, and I want you to hold it up against your own kid's list.

Being in a club versus founding one. Or running one.

Walking in the fundraiser versus starting the charity.

Being on the team versus being the captain, or making all conference.

Liking to write versus having self published a book. Liking to draw versus having your work hung in the local library.

Same underlying interest in every pair. Wildly different signal. The word for it is impact, and admissions officers are reading for it whether or not they ever say so.

Now let me tell you about two kids.

Twins. Painfully shy, both of them. Genuinely introverted, not the kind of shy that's really just modesty. Their mother was extremely stressed, because she could see what I cou...

There's a question your kid has to answer on every college application.

It isn't on the Common App. It isn't in any supplement. No college will ever say it out loud. That's why I call it the invisible question.

Here it is.

Why should we take you instead of the 50,000 other kids who look exactly like you on paper?

I have this conversation with kids several times a week, most weeks of the year, and it's an uncomfortable one. I tell them: I know you're special. I know your mom and dad think you hung the moon. But to this college, right now, you are a dime a dozen.

That's not an insult. It's a description of the pile. Thousands of applications, similar grades, similar scores, similar activities lists. I call it the sea of sameness.

Getting out of it is not about deserving it more. It's marketing.

Let me tell you where I learned that.

Years ago, long before I did this for a living, I bartended at the Four Seasons in Boston. The retired founder of Avis used to come in about once a week. Even...

Good morning!

At 10am EST this morning, we're tackling one of the biggest decisions college applicants struggle with every year:

Should you apply Early Decision, Early Action or Regular Decision?

I'll run you through the various and sundry considerations to help you determine the optimal way to apply, to give you (your kiddo) the best shot at getting accepted to his or her top choice college!  Yay.

It all goes down in a few minutes:  10:00am EST --  on College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

(Recorded if you can't make it live).

Here's where to tune in:

College Coffee Talk

See you in a bit!

- Andy "French Roast" Lockwood

Good morning!

We're hitting the airwaves this morning -- 10:00am EST --  for College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

Here's what's on tap for today:  

How Not to Screw Up Your College Applications and Essays This Summer.

Tune In!

Feel free to pass this note along to any of your friends who could use this info!

Grab a cup of joe and we'll see you at 10am EST (recorded if you can't make it)

- Andy Lockwood

Tonight, if you asked your child  to answer the question, "Why should a college accept YOU?", how would they respond?

Most kids have no clue. 

Or they come up with a non-answer that sounds like something they think admissions officers want to hear (but could pertain to every college applicant):

"I have a 94 GPA."  

"I'm in National Honor Society."

I'm an extremely "hard worker." 

And "passionate," of course.

Yeah.    

“Get me the hard working, passionate kid with the 94 average!” said no admissions officer, ever.

A average?  The A is officially now the most popular grade in high school.  Grade inflation is RAMPANT from coast to coast.  There are no C students anymore.

Honor Society?  Welcome to the top 70% of your class.  Can you say "Academic Participation Trophy?"

While I’m on this mini-rant, here’s my new pet theory:

EVERYONE applying to college is a "leader."   They're all in charge!  There are no followers applying to college.

I'm being facetious, but you get the poin...

12 College Application Tips Webinar 

Today I read how Vanderbilt University is apparently a few bucks shy of being the first college to cost $100,000 per year, all in (tuition, room and board, fees).  Officially.

Unofficially, this happened a few years ago, if you count unofficial expenses, such as Ubers, reasonable travel expenses, beer money, Door Dash etc. that kids spend Ma and Pa's money on (note to my three college kids:  there's nothing wrong with peanut butter sandwiches once in a while).

Like the college admissions process, there's no apparent rhyme or reason to a lot of this process.  Why should a non-Ivy college in Tennessee run you more out of pocket than an Ivy League school located in insanely high cost of living Manhattan?

I'm sure someone from Vanderbilt could explain that, but they'd be twisting themselves into knots to do so as far as I'm concerned.

Incidentally, it's not just Vandy that's pushing the 100K envelope:  it's virtually all competitive, private colleg...

12 College Application Tips Webinar

We're scant days away from the "final" college acceptances, denials and waitlists for this year's crop of college applicants in The Most Confusing College Application Season ever.

Which means that I now have enough intel to share the following tips with Class of 2025 families, in a brand new webinar, Thursday night:

• How to get into a decent college, today
• How to construct a strategic and balanced college list
• How to avoid "Admissions Armageddon"
• How to answer one of the new supplemental essays about diversity even if you don't feel or look particularly diverse
• How to earn a 30K per year merit scholarship even if you didn't cure a pandemic or single-handedly build a village in a third world country
• Test-Optional:  To Opt or Not to Opt (yeah I know that one doesn't quite make sense but you know what I'm trying to say)
• The New Digital SAT:  right for your kiddo?
• Merit Scholarships:  how to get 'em without spending six months on stupid intern...

Apparently college applications as of January are up by 22% compared to last year.

High school seniors are applying to more schools, according to one college consultant (not me, but I'm also seeing the same trend in my anecdotal, micro-universe).

Does that mean that it will be harder to get into college this year? Permit me to make a few comments.

First, more applications does not mean more APPLICANTS applying to college.  The number of kids applying is actually trending down, partially due to predicted demographics, and partially because of the pandemic, economy and outrageous cost of college, which has risen every year since the beginning of time.

(Side prediction:  next year's increase in college costs will again outstrip the current, also outrageous inflation numbers reported this week.)

Second, as the Common App data weenies point out, more applications does not equate to more enrollments.  Colleges will still have to scrap tooth and nail to convince admitted students to actu...

Nobody likes to be told "Um, no. Not you." but this is the time of year for Early Denial.

Countless college applicants will be told that they didn't get into the college they "ED'd" to.

Fun?  Nope.

Does it matter?  Highly doubtful.

Typically, this time of year you'll see articles about famous, successful people who didn't get into their top choice colleges (Tina Fey, Warren Buffet, Antonin Scalia - how's that for an eclectic threesome?). The point of these articles is that the world didn't end for these rejectees, and neither should it end for this year's batch of college applicants.

I wrote about this briefly in my "snail mail" client newsletter, and make these comments annually because I think they're worth repeating.  I tell all of my private 1:1 college advising students words the effect of

"You will be successful in life no matter where you go to college, because of your work ethic, intelligence and interpersonal skills.  There is no correlation between where you go and how successful y...