S3E1: How to handle college admissions outcomes and waitlists
Today's question of the week- "What do I do after decisions are released?"
LISTEN NOW
Today's question of the week- "What do I do after decisions are released?"
In today's episode, Thomas offers comprehensive guidance for seniors navigating the final stages of the college admissions process, urging them to make informed decisions and embrace the opportunities ahead.
Have your own question you want answered? Leave us a comment on social media @admittedlypodcast for a chance to get featured.
About Thomas
Thomas is a parent and alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania. After earning his MBA at the Wharton School in 2003, he moved to Silicon Valley. For three years, he was director of admissions and financial aid at Wharton School. He worked closely with admissions professionals, students, alumni, and professors to create the best possible MBA class.
Thomas has been an entrepreneur his entire life in the fields of finance, agriculture, wellness, and sporting goods. As the founder of Global Education Opportunities, he works with diverse and underserved communities to help them become successful college students. Thomas started the podcast Admittedly because he is passionate about demystifying the application process for parents and applicants.
Related Links
Apply to be a guest: www.thomascaleel.com/apply-for-podcast
Follow Admittedly on Social Media
TikTok: @admittedlypodcast
Instagram: @admittedlypodcast
-
Welcome to the admittedly podcast. I'm your host, Thomas Caleel, and welcome to our third season. It's hard to believe that just over a year ago, we launched this initiative. It's been a tremendous amount of fun. It's been a great challenge. I've met some amazing students/parents through this process. And I want to thank all of you for listening. I'd like to thank those of you who reached out to us and are following us on Tik Tok, Instagram. Just have had some really, really interesting great interactions with students and their parents from all over the world. And really, it speaks to why I wanted to do this podcast in the first place. It's a way for me to connect with students I wouldn't regularly meet. And I've just, I've met some really, really amazing, focused, driven young people who have great questions, who have some incredible life experiences. As I look back on the last few months, we've really been able to make a difference, working closely with students, especially those that came through our essay review service, had some tremendous success there with students coming to us. And, you know, sometimes I've had to give some pretty hard feedback on essays. And we saw many students really respond positively to that. And the EA, ED results from that really spoke for themselves. I welcome your comments, I welcome your questions. It's been very, very fun interacting with you, learning from you, and really helping you through this time of uncertainty, hard work. I know how stressful it is. We're now heading into IV day 2024. And I know that many of you are really nervous about that. I know that it is a time of trepidation, a time of anxiety. And so today we're going to talk about in this first episode, really, seniors, you know, where are you? What do things look like? What happens if things go your way, what happens if things don't go your way, and what that looks like, I'd also like to say that yes, we have taken, I have taken a bit of an extended break since the end of episode, not episode, but season two. And you know, we've been very busy here, a lot of students, a lot of work that needed to be done. And so I prefer to kind of dig in and focus there. There's also that stretch after January where to be honest with you, it's really about keeping your head down and working hard as a student. Applications are in and there's not much to do from an admission standpoint. But now we see a changing of the guard, juniors are starting to interact with their schools, college counselors. We're going to talk about that in episode two of this season. But today, I want to talk about the seniors. Alright, so some of you got in ED to your dream school and you've been kind of coasting since November, December, I hope not coasting too much. I hope you're keeping your grades up, you're staying involved. But really kind of able to enjoy your senior year and reaping the benefits and rewards of all the hard work you did leading up to that November 1, Early Decision submission. I know that over the past few months now, some of you have been receiving regular decisions. University of California schools have been releasing, other schools have been releasing and so some of you may be heading into IV day not having applied to any IVs, others might be heading into IV day, you know, with some admissions in hand and thinking okay, well, you know, if I can get into Brown, that's really my dream. That's where I want to be. And you know, that is a big variable. And so there's a lot of, kind of, breath being held right now. A lot of families, maybe have all their decisions in and they're trying to think about, okay, what do we do next? Right? How do we make these decisions? So I'd like to take a step back and just kind of revisit, or what do we do when we get admissions, right? So one thing I would encourage you to do if you can right now, we understand that not everybody is in this position, but if you are able to attend a welcome weekend or admitted students weekend for some of your top schools, go do that. I know a lot of you are using Spring break to go look at schools you might be admitted in, admitted to, others or waiting, others might have visited last year. Even if you visited last year, it's kind of fun to go and get caught up in the excitement. Meet your future classmates, start to get a sense of what your next four years look like. But again, not everybody can do that. So really, I think you know, take a step back once you have all your decisions in hand and start to look at a couple of things, right. Start to really drill down on, okay, "What is my life really going to be like, here at this school?" And we've talked about this before: size, location, environment, weather, study opportunities, faculty. Look at that, because you know, some of those things may have changed. Some of them may not, but really now is when you have to start really kind of finally parsing where you're going to be for the next few years. I am always relentless about return on investment, I think it's very, very important for you to look at, okay, "I got into these schools with a scholarship. I can attend this state school, I can start a community college, then finish at a state school. I got into a private university". Each of those is going to have a very specific economic impact. And so parents, if your parents have filled out the FAFSA, if you're paying for this yourself, I think there needs to be kind of, some very realistic and at times, difficult conversations around, "Okay, what are we paying for? What is our return on this? What is, is this, the best use of our money?" Let me give you a good example. So I had a young man a few years ago, who told me his lifelong dream was to be an entrepreneur. And as an entrepreneur, myself, I loved that. We talked about it. He really had this passion for creating and he really, for some reason, based in California, he wanted to go to the University of Virginia. Fantastic school, great business program and he got admitted. But he was also admitted to University of California, Berkeley, as a special Berkeley President scholar. He had a full tuition scholarship, he had a stipend to help with room and board, he had preferential access to classes, he had access to special events, and networking events and resources that Berkeley has throughout the Bay Area. And he came to me and he said, "Okay, well, you know, I really want to go to UVA." And I said, "I completely understand that. But let's look at this from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Right?" So you're asking your parents to pay in effect, you know, 6070 $80,000 a year to UVA, you have no special privileges there. You have all these special advantages at Berkeley, it's a great school, it's literally your number, your second choice program, right? And by a whisker. And so I would think creatively about that, maybe approach your parents and say, "Listen, all in, it's going to cost, let's say, you know, $250,000, to send me to UVA, can you take 100,000 of that, right? I'll go to Berkeley, so it won't cost you anything. Take 100,000 of that, put it in a savings account for me. And then I can use that as a seed-money for my entrepreneurial venture coming out of Berkeley." He's like, "Oh, I hadn't thought about it that way." So I think that, you know, look, obviously, there's a lot of privilege in there that his parents were able to do that. But I think thinking creatively about ways that you can afford to go to school, how you can leverage your dollar, right, and not just chase perceived brand value, I think is very, very, very important. And I encourage you to be kind of relentless and ruthless about that. What happens? Of course, we're getting a lot of questions. What happens if I don't get into my dream school? You know, okay, that happens. Right? That happens sometimes. And I think that there are things to step back and think about, right? So you think about, is this really the best school for me or is it someplace that I thought that I wanted to go or was expected to want to go or I thought others expected me to want to go there. Look at the schools you are admitted to. And if let's say you just had a disastrous year, this happens sometimes to students, right? They didn't execute on the application, something went wrong, whatever it might be. And quite frankly, you didn't get into a school that you really even want to go to. Right. So then I think you have to step back and say, Okay, do I take some classes at a local community college, build a transcript and move forward from there? Do I take a gap year, which is a perfectly reasonable and rational thing to do now. If we take a gap year and I've spoken about this before, I really encourage you to go and take a listen to that podcast. If you're going to take a gap year, you have to do something meaningful with it, right? Work, study, go do something interesting and meaningful and start now if you can, but at the very latest day, one of summer, right? You can't just take the summer and have fun and travel and goof off with your friends and then start in September because if you're applying for a gap year right then that first early decision deadline is November 1, and really having two or three months of experience at that point.He's just not sufficient. So let's plan ahead. Let's be smart. Let's be strategic. Let's say that you got into a school that you like but there's a school that you really like that you did not get into. Transferring is always an option. If you go to the school you were admitted to, and you feel like, okay, I want to transfer, those deadlines are in March, generally. So you have plenty of time, you can really settle in and make a conscious decision like, “oh, I actually love this school, I made some great friends, I like my classes, I'm going to stay” or, you know, “like the school, not the experience for me and let's look at a transfer.” Now, the other thing seniors need to worry about is the dreaded waitlist. I know that some of my listeners got that dreaded deferral, from early action, early decision. They're in limbo, they're scrambling, they're doing the regular decision applications. What happens if you end up on the waitlist? Now I've talked at length about the waitlist, I'm not going to go too deeply into it in this episode. But remember that the waitlist depends on a lot of factors. It depends on yield, how many offers were extended, how many people say yes, so I would say do not push on the schools on the waitlist until after that May 1 decision deadline, right, because they don't know what the class is shaping up to be they don't have all their their matriculation back. And so all you're going to do is annoy them. Now, some of them may say, give you an opportunity through your portal to update some information. Again, be smart, be smart, be smart, do not just vomit up as much information as you can, and upload it onto the portal, read the instructions carefully, it will usually say you know, what has changed since you last submitted your application. You know, grades, awards, sports, work, whatever that is, be very thoughtful, be very careful about how you put that in and take your time. Again, they're not going to be making weightless decisions until after that May 1 deadline. So take your time, really be thoughtful. Do not start panicking and calling everybody you know to throw letters in at the school that's going to make you look bad, it's going to irritate them, many schools will specifically say do not submit additional recommendations do not pressure us. And in today's environment, really that extra kind of influence pushing will backfire you on us spectacularly. Most of the boards of the schools now are being told specifically by Admissions, do not write letters, do not involve yourself in the process. We are building very strong, isolating walls around admissions, because we want to focus on getting the best possible class without this outside influence. So I know that that would be you know, waitlist is a terrible position to be in. It's stressful. And so I wouldn't put all my eggs into that basket, because you really have no control over whether the list moves at all, if it moves, when it moves, how it moves. Right? So it may be that you are a biology major, and all the biology majors matriculate that year. Right? But there's a lot of economics majors that don't. So you're sitting there saying all my friends that are applied, were on the waitlist, they're getting in, right? They're getting into different majors, and they're trying to keep that class balanced. Right? So the school is acting as always in the school's best interest to fill their class in the best way possible, right? It's not personal. But it is personal, of course, to you because you're seeing it from your point of view. But we invert that and we look at it from the school's point of view, what is the school trying to do is trying to build a class, it builds a class by drawing from the waitlist, those specific students have those specific attributes that they are requiring that they ran short of in the final matriculation numbers. So the other thing I will say to seniors is stay focused, finish the year strong, right? They include language in every admissions letter, you know, this admission, you know, assumes that you will continue your record of academic and extracurricular excellence. They are not kidding. I have had to step in and try and help students save themselves. When they slacked on their assignments, slacked on their classwork. Ended up with bad grades, especially when you look at in IB, where you might have a predicted of, I don't know, let's say 41, you came in at a 35. That's a big delta. And schools are going to send you to a review committee many times now, look, if something happens, you always have the chance to explain yourself, but I always believe it's better to not have to explain yourself so stay on top of things don't succumb to senior itis in by all means enjoy your spring. But work hard, right you've invested all this time, all this effort into your academic career so far now is not the time to blow it. You have summer coming up and look you know, I have been preaching on all of the other, you know, seasons and episodes. Right, be smart about your summer, be street strategic about your summer. It's so important to your college plans, etc, etc. This is your freebie summer, okay, yes, you certainly can work you certainly can. You know, continue with your research, whatever it is that you want to do. But this is also a summer where you can relax and enjoy yourself a little bit, right, don't just goof off for the whole summer but really take some time for yourself or your you're going to undergo a massive life change going from high school to college, you're going some of you will be moving far away from friends and family. And so really kind of soak that in, enjoy it, make the most of it and arrive to college fresh, ready, open heart, open mind, open eyes, and just you know 100% calibrated, focused on and excited about this new chapter in your life. So seniors, we're going to talk again after IV day. I'm sure we'll get a lot of questions about what to do, how should I make this decision, you know, return on investment waitlist, but what I can say is breathe, right? Breathe, focus on you, focus on the wins that you have accomplished. And I will see you in an episode or two and we will drill down on this further. Please remember to follow us on Instagram and Tiktok, the admittedly podcast very much. Thank you for following and encourage you to continue to interact with us. Thank you.
