March is a big month for decision releases, but don’t be surprised if some schools need until early April due to app numbers this year.
Head over to College Kickstart for a frequently updated list of RD decision release dates.
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March snuck up on us! If you are waiting for regular decision results, they will begin to release in a few weeks. Sometimes schools release before their notification date; this year, however, we have already seen a few schools push out their release dates. With application numbers up at many schools, who knows if schools will be running ahead or behind schedule.
Every year my favorite college data site, College Kickstart, compiles a list of regular decision release dates and updates it frequently when changes are made.
Review the list here, and keep an eye on your email and school portals for release updates.
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Colleges and universities are releasing regular decision results this month and into April. Schools often post results in advance of their “official” notification dates.
My favorite college-admissions-related data site, College Kickstart, has compiled release dates along with the notification dates from last year, which might help you predict when a school will release early. Bookmark this page, as they post updates often.
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We are grateful for awesome clients that trust us to guide them through the college and graduate school admissions process!
If you recently applied to college, my guess is that you did not do it alone. When I work with a family, I often am not just working with the applicant, but parents, other tutors, and sometimes (though not as common), another counselor! Show some gratitude this Thanksgiving holiday by sending a heartfelt thank you to the people that helped you make it happen. People you might want to consider giving thanks to are your parents, guidance counselor, teachers, letter of recommendation writers, anyone else who read your essays/app, and of course, your tutors if applicable, just to name a few!
Oh, and PS, keep working on your ED II or RD apps! Putting in a few hours over the break could be a gamechanger come mid- to end of December. You will be thankful to not be working on apps after 12/15!
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College admissions can be heartbreaking on many levels, but what’s “the worst” is the number of applicants who think they can get lucky in regular decision—especially at schools with ED II, and who report RD admit rates under 10%. Even for students with a strong resume and “great” numbers, the odds are against you. At the most selective schools, there is not much luck to be had.
You’ll need something special (or a special combination of things) to get a fair look at a top-top school in RD: be at the top of your class with perfect or near-perfect grades, have little/no competition from classmates, be a legacy, and often very important, attend a high school that has an already established pipeline to these schools. You’ll need some awesome essays, too.
It might help to see that a 5% admit rate = 95% rejection rate
I know this sounds negative, and anyone who knows me knows that I am a glass half full type of person, but it’s time to start seeing rejection rates for what they are, especially if your list is full of schools with admit rates under ~25% (meaning the RD rate could dip to under ~10%).
Sometimes [insert uber-selective school here] just needs a new library, or full-pays, or more women from Idaho, or a flute player. So…
Don’t take it personally if you don’t fall into that tiny, tiny pool; you are, I promise, still enough.
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Most colleges and universities have released decisions, and we are so proud of our students! Some of the college and universities where they have been admitted include:
Bard
Boston College
Boston University
Brown
Cal Poly SLO
Case Western
Clark
Columbia University
Cornell
Dartmouth
Drexel
Duke
Elon
Emerson
Fordham
Georgia Tech
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Gonzaga
Hobart and William Smith
Holy Cross
Indiana University
Ithaca
Macaulay Honors College
Marist
McGill
New York University
Northeastern
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Penn State
Princeton
Purdue
Rice
Rollins College
Santa Clara
Seattle University
Seton Hall
Southern Methodist University
St. Andrews
Swarthmore
Trinity
Tufts
Tulane
University of British Columbia
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Central Florida
University of Denver
University of Edinburgh
University of Florida
University of Maryland
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Miami
University of Minnesota
University of Michigan
University of Richmond
University of Southern California
University of South Carolina
University of Vermont
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Texas, Austin
Vanderbilt
Villanova
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley
Wheaton
Although nothing makes us happier than students getting into their top choice schools, we are equally grateful for having the opportunity to get to know an unbelievably talented group of students who trusted us to provide guidance along the way. So congrats again, and thank you for having us along for the ride!
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Decisions are out, and many colleges and universities have released admit rates and final numbers for the class of 2023. Head to College Kickstart for a breakdown and comparison to last year’s numbers at some of the top tier schools in the US. As in years past, schools have seen record application numbers and admit rates are going down.
In our work with applicants, we focus on creating a list that makes sense and doesn’t leave students with an insane amount of apps to complete, or an insane amount of rejections. However, some students do not take our advice. During the last four admissions seasons, we have had multiple students apply to 15+ colleges, most in RD. We did not advise this, but my guess is against the advice of many counselors, students and parents are pressing submit on as many schools as they can. Why? Partly because of how competitive the RD round can be, and they took some risks early, and it did not work out; partly because they can afford it; partly because for some strange reason they think Hail Mary’ing it might just work out. There are probably other reasons, but these are the three we most frequently encounter.
We say this every year, but we hope families begin to realize that this approach does not work. It is a waste of time and money. What’s worse, it creates an insane amount of stress on the student and most often results in more rejections than acceptances, which make students feel terrible because it is very hard, at age 17, to comprehend that a college rejection is really not personal.
In addition to surging application numbers (thank you, Common Application!), the competition is fierce. There’s a chance the profile that might’ve gotten you into your dream school a few years ago won’t hold up in the current admissions landscape…but have hope. There are more colleges and universities in the US and abroad than the top 20-30 schools! And guess what? These schools accept a lot of students, and you might even get money from them, and you will likely be just as happy there as a top ~20 school.
It is time to think outside of the box. The landscape now requires it—even for students with perfect grades and test scores. Those things are commonplace; you need far more than numbers to get into a top tier school. And what you need is what our work with students focuses on. Students have control over a lot in this process but only if they start early to develop what will help them stand out while at the same time broadening their college-knowledge and looking carefully at schools that might not have been on their radar initially.
Another reason to have hope is there are ways to differentiate your profile that actually work. Our students engage in extended research and outreach. Beyond getting close with reps, current students, faculty, and young alumni, our students connect with schools where they are already spending time: online. Connecting with schools via social media, as well as having a strong online presence via LinkedIn, can be beneficial. We believe your digital footprint and the presence of a digital portfolio can help not hurt you in the college application process. The students who take our advice become savvy networkers with the colleges on their list, and it pays off big time.
Anyway, back to the news. Thanks always to College Kickstart for providing all of our admissions-related data needs.
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College and universities are gearing up to release regular decision results this month and into April. Schools often post results in advance of their “official” notification dates, but with many reporting a record number of applications again this year, we will see.
My favorite college-admissions-related data site, College Kickstart, has compiled the most recently updated dates along with the notification dates from last year, which might help you predict when a school will release early if they do. Bookmark this page, as they post updates often.
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As you finish up apps for 1/1:
My favorite site for college admissions-related data, College Kickstart, has compiled a list of upcoming regular decision deadlines for the Class of 2021. Schools often post results in advance of their “official” notification dates, so they’ve compiled the most recently updated dates for you, along with the notification dates from last year. Bookmark this page, as they will post updates often.
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