November 2024: Admissions News & Advice
Keep calm and carry on
November is a busy time for families with seniors, and it can be an academically stressful month for high schoolers of all ages. In this issue you’ll find guidance on what to focus on and when; senior advice first, scroll down for junior, sophomore, and freshman tips.
Looking for a special holiday gift? Consider a signed copy of Write Yourself In! Through December 15 I’ll be signing copies for my local indie bookseller Split Rock Books (they ship worldwide). Click here to order, and mention that you’d like a signed copy (and the recipient’s name, if you’d like a dedication) in the “Order Comments” section.
And since I tell my students to write about the things they’re proud of: I was honored to be featured in a recent Bloomberg News piece on admissions.
Part I: Families with Seniors
Key dates & deadlines 📆
Nov 22: Regular registration deadline for December SAT (Late registration deadline: 11/26)
Nov 22: Late registration deadline for December ACT
Nov 28: Thanksgiving 🦃
Dec 2: Final application deadline for all University of California schools
Your priorities in November ✅
For most families with seniors, there are two main tasks to focus on this month.
First, if your child is applying to any University of California schools (UCLA, UC-Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, etc.) this is the time to write the UC essays.
The second: mid- to late-November is when you want to start working on essays for Regular Decision schools.
Essays: Welcome to Act II ✍️
If your child applied to Early Action or Early Decision schools, the good news is that by now, much of the heavy lifting is done.
They’ve completed their Common App personal essay, probably have a few supplemental essays under their belt, and – just as important – have finished the time-consuming task of assembling all the recommendations, transcripts, test scores, and biographical details required for the Common App.
If that was “Act I” of the drama of applying to college, you’re now entering “Act II,” where you’ll be pivoting your focus towards your Regular Decision list.
First, however, there’s an intermediate date that could be very important (or irrelevant, depending on your list): the Dec. 2 deadline for the University of California.
The University of California Essays
One of the largest university systems in the country, the University of California (UC), which includes popular schools like UCLA, UC-Berkeley, UCSD, and UC Santa Barbara, has an upcoming deadline on Dec. 2. That’s a full month before nearly every other school’s Regular Decision deadline (most are clustered around Jan 1).
When it comes to essays, UC is a special case because it’s the biggest player in college admissions that does not use the Common App. Instead of requiring students to write one long personal essay and some shorter supplemental essays, UC requires four medium-length essays of 350 words each, which they call “Personal Insight Questions” (PIQs).
The UC schools will not see your child’s Common App personal essay, which means applicants have to take a different approach to telling their story than at other schools. Usually, that involves picking four topics for the PIQs that, taken together, give the reader a full sense of who the kid is as a person and how they would contribute on a UC campus.
Also keep in mind that the UCs are looking for a different style of essay than the typical East Coast school. A colleague who used to read essays for UC puts it this way: it’s best to think of the PIQs as interview questions rather than essays. The UCs actively discourage rhetorical flourishes like dialogue or extended metaphors, and they aren’t looking for creatively-written essays. Instead they’re looking for clear, succinct, direct responses to the questions.
For more details and strategies for writing the UC Personal Insight Questions, including breakdowns of each prompt, check out Chapter 7 of Write Yourself In (pages 217-222).
Regular Decision Time
November is also time to start writing the essays for your Regular Decision schools.
Not everybody does this. It can be tempting to wait until you hear back from your EA/ED schools in mid-December to start working on RD apps. Which makes sense: Why write essays that for applications that you may not even submit?
The answer is that there’s very little time between the EA/ED notification dates (which tend to be around Dec. 15, but can be as late as Dec. 20) and the first big RD deadline, which is January 1, and it’s a period that’s often filled with family commitments, travel plans, religious observances, etc.
In addition, December is stressful. Academically, there are often major projects, papers, and tests the week before the holiday (this year, that’s December 16-20), so kids often need time to recover from burnout. And we all know that holidays can be emotionally taxing. When you add on to that the fact if your child doesn’t get into the ED/EA schools they hoped for, that experience will be emotionally jarring, you’re suddenly looking at a holiday break where they’re not primed to suddenly write a ton of essays and produce work at a very high level.
That’s why smart families start working on their Regular Decision essays in November. What I suggest is that approach this task strategically. Prioritize your essays around your EA/ED list, which means that students should start by asking themselves: if I got into most of my Early schools, what RD schools would I still apply to? Those schools – usually they’re reach schools – are where they should start, and then go on down the list from there.
One important bit of good news: Regular Decision essays are usually easier to write than EA/ED essays, because by now both the prompts and the writing style are more familiar. While it’s always important to read prompts carefully and tailor each essay to its specific school, there are also many opportunities to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
List of schools: Nearly done 📋
By now your child’s list of schools will hopefully feel solid. It’s not unusual for lists to shuffle a bit after the EA/ED deadlines (clicking “Submit” can make things feel real in a way they didn’t before), so there’s no need to panic if that happens.
This year there’s also an “x factor” because of the presidential election. In the past week I’ve heard from students who are altering their lists because they now wouldn’t feel comfortable going to school in a certain state or region. To me, this makes a lot of sense. There’s a lot of uncertainty around the next four years, and I would never advise a student to go to a campus where they didn’t feel comfortable, much less where they felt unsafe.
Since the EA/ED round often focuses on aspirational schools, for many families this is also time to start rounding out the target and safety portions of their lists. You can find strategies for hunting out great, less-competitive schools, as well as a few of my favorite target/safety schools that I often steer students towards, in Chapter 7 “Supplemental Essays at Highly Selective Schools” (pp. 224-228, the “Hidden Gems” section), and additional tips in Appendix I “Creating Your College List” (pp. 263-266) of Write Yourself In.
Testing: Wrapping up loose ends 📝
Although all testing dates for the EA/ED round are now past, there are still dates in December for both the SAT and ACT that can be considered in the Regular Decision round. If your child isn’t happy with their test scores, this is their last opportunity to improve their numbers, potentially strengthening their application if they’re deferred from an Early school.
Do keep in mind that scores rarely improve substantially unless the kid is doing test prep (i.e. studying and/or taking practice tests). If they have time to prep, a December SAT/ACT could be a great idea. But if they’ve already taken the test at least twice, a Hail Mary with no prep is unlikely to do anything but add to their stress levels.
Other bits and pieces: Activities List + Common App 💻
If you applied to even one school EA/ED, the good news is that most of this other work is done by now…with two exceptions.
The first is that a few schools use their own proprietary admissions platforms, not the Common App (notably the University of California system, Georgetown, and MIT). Happily, they ask very similar questions to the Common App, so putting them together is not a heavy lift. But it does take some time, so be sure to allocate at least a few hours if you’re applying to one of those schools.
Second, it’s also worth mentioning that – as you may have learned – each school asks its own academic & biographical questions in addition to the Common App questions. These usually aren’t too onerous, but when you’re applying to 10 or more RD schools, they can add up. Best practice is to fill out the Common App supplements for your RD schools while you work through the essays, ideally submitting the apps as you go along and not waiting until Jan 1.
Part II: Juniors, Sophomore, and Freshmen
Guidance for Juniors (Class of 2026)
For the most ambitious, well-informed parents I work with, this is an interesting time of the year. It’s often when I hear questions like “Where should s/he apply?” “Should we be scheduling campus visits yet?” and “What should they do next summer?”
These are all good questions, and it’s certainly not a bad idea to be thinking about them in broad strokes (e.g. visiting one or two colleges this fall, if and when it’s convenient).
However, for most families, I strongly recommend – for now – keeping the focus on supporting your child in having a successful and sane junior year.
Here’s why. Not only are junior year grades the most important part of your child’s transcript (and remember: the transcript is the most important part of their college application), junior year is hard. It often brings new leadership roles, additional commitments like SAT/ACT prep, and perhaps most importantly, there’s usually a jump in academic rigor between sophomore year and junior year coursework.
While some kids sail through junior year without any ruffles, many run into problems right about now, as assignments and commitments pile up. So while it’s fine to start thinking about 2025 (and a great idea to do background reading like my book, Jeff Selingo’s Who Gets In and Why and Rob Lieber’s The Price You Pay for College), I’d hold off on the big “next step” conversations until January.
Instead, focus on helping your child do their best in and out of the classroom, providing support when necessary, and on managing the stress that every ambitious kid is feeling right about now.
Guidance for Sophomores (Class of 2027)
At many high schools, sophomores will have just taken a practice PSAT, which may be their first exposure to admissions-style standardized testing. For some parents this raises the question: should my child start preparing for the SAT/ACT now?
My answer—based on advice from my test prep colleagues—is a resounding “no,” for two reasons.
The first is that the “real” SAT and ACT (as opposed to the PSAT—the “P” is for “Preliminary”) test knowledge and skills that most 9th and 10th graders have not yet acquired. Test prepping too early isn’t test prep at all. It’s teaching new material, which is not a very good use of your child’s time (or your money).
Second, because of the knowledge/skills issue, when kids start test prep too early, the long-term consequence is that they end up prepping for more than year, which means that burnout is likely to set in. This is something I’ve learned from test prep colleagues with a LOT of experience: don’t let it drag out too long, or it will be harder for the kids and you’ll get diminishing returns.
Instead, start thinking about test prep next spring. The end of sophomore year is a great time to have your child start to take practice tests, decide if they’re going to focus on the SAT or ACT, and then dive into prepping.
Guidance for Freshmen (Class of 2028)
Good news: the job of ninth graders is still learning how to freshman! (Not a typo. That was me trying the Gen Z thing of using “to” to transform a common noun into an infinitive verb. Did it work?)
However, with midterm exams and papers coming due, November is a good time to be checking in with your child to see how they’re doing academically.
Pro tip: make sure you’re actually seeing their grades, either in the form of an official progress report or the school’s online portal. As with 10th to 11th grade, there’s a big jump in rigor between 8th and 9th grade. It’s not unusual for kids who sailed through middle school (academically, of course – does ANYONE sail through middle school socially?) to run into roadblocks in 9th grade.
If they’ve never struggled academically before, they may be ashamed to admit this, so they’ll need your guidance and support – and perhaps extra help from teachers, tutors, or older peers – when this happens. It’s a great time to be learning the important life lesson of “How to ask for help.”
Thanks for reading
I hope this month’s issue was helpful to you and your family. If you can think of friends, family members, or colleagues who also might find it helpful, please share it with them – I’d be grateful!
Best wishes, and keep in touch,
Eric
Write Yourself In: The Definitive Guide to Writing Successful College Admissions Essays
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