October 2024: Admissions News & Advice
Full speed ahead!
For families with seniors, October is peak admissions season. In this issue you’ll find guidance on what to focus on and when; scroll down for junior, sophomore, and freshman advice.
Today I’m also answering questions in a live AMA at College Confidential, I talk admissions and my new book in an episode of the No Guilt Mom podcast that drops today, and you can click here for in-person October appearances on my book tour for Write Yourself In.
Part I: Families with Seniors
Key dates & deadlines 📆
Oct 5: SAT Test Date
Oct 7: Late registration deadline for October ACT
Oct 15: Early Action (EA) /Early Decision (ED) deadline for some schools (mostly in the South, e.g. UNC-Chapel Hill, U of Georgia, Clemson, U of South Carolina, College of Charleston, and others)
Oct 18: Registration deadline for November SAT (late registration deadline 10/22)
Oct 26: ACT Test Date
Nov. 1: Early Action / Early Decision 1 deadline for most schools (dates vary; check each school’s admissions website)
Your priorities in October ✅
For most families with seniors, there are two tasks to focus on this month.
The first is finalizing your strategy for Early Action/Early Decision applications. More on that below, under “List of Schools.”
The second is finishing up everything in your actual application: your essays, activities list, and filling out the Common App itself, which is more of an administrative task than a creative one, but can take some time. We’ll break those tasks down in the sections that follow.
List of schools: Finalize your EA/ED Strategy 📋
“I am not throwin' away my shot.” – Lin-Manuel Miranda (a Wesleyan alum), Hamilton
If your child is applying to selective colleges and universities, the early admissions round can play an important role in their application strategy. With the majority of EA/ED deadlines coming up on November 1 – and a few even sooner, around October 15 – now is the time when most families decide where they’re going to take their early shots.
First, a brief review of the options. Early Decision, the most restrictive option, means that you apply early and hear back early (usually in December). However, you also sign a binding commitment to attend the college if accepted. That means, of course, that your child can only apply to one school ED.
Early Action, on the other hand, is non-binding. With EA you apply earlier and receive a decision sooner (usually December, too), but you don’t have to decide whether you want to attend the school until the spring, after you’ve heard back from all your EA and regular decision (RD) schools.
Restrictive Early Action, the third option, falls somewhere between EA and ED. Like Early Action, it's non-binding, but there are restrictions around where else you can apply early. Usually the “restriction” is that students applying REA to a private college can't apply EA or ED to other private schools, but can still apply early to public universities.
Confusing? Add in the fact that some schools offer both EA and ED options, or even multiple rounds of ED (usually referred to as ED1, ED2, etc.), and applying early can quickly become a complex game with lots of moving pieces.
For many students, however, it’s a game worth playing. Not only is there enormous peace of mind that comes with having a college acceptance in hand by December (don’t underestimate that mental health benefit – it can transform your child’s senior year), but at many schools, acceptance rates are higher in the early round than in the regular rounds.
Sometimes that difference is meaningful but modest (8% REA vs 3% RD at Harvard), while at other schools it can be huge. Perhaps the most extreme example is Tulane University, which made headlines in recent years by admitting the majority of its incoming class in the early round, causing RD rates to plummet down into the 2-3% range.
Tulane University, Class of 2027 (Source: Big J Educational Consulting)
Now Tulane, of course, is an outlier, and the EA “bump” is generally not as significant as it was 5-10 years ago (as opposed to ED, which continues to have more favorable acceptance rates). But EA and ED do offer an advantage at many schools, and it’s useful to know exactly what that advantage is. That’s why my colleagues at Big J Educational Consulting have done a huge service by putting together these charts that summarize EA, ED, and RD rates at a variety of colleges. I strongly recommend checking them out!
It’s also worth noting that there’s some debate over whether applying early really improves your odds of acceptance. Admissions officers sometimes point out that there’s a selection bias at work, because early pools tend to attract stronger applicants. While the early acceptance rates are indeed more favorable, so this argument goes, that difference isn’t meaningful because the schools end up admitting similar students in both the early and regular rounds.
That may be the case. However, what I’ve personally seen over the years is that kids applying in the early rounds seem to have an edge, especially when they live in major metropolitan areas like NYC, LA, Boston, etc. Selective college admissions are regional, and the top schools just get so many competitive applications from those regions that it can be tough to stand out in the regular round. Not impossible – I’ve certainly had students admitted to even the most competitive schools RD – just tough.
Testing: Last chance for EA/ED 📝
The October SAT/ACT administration is the last official test date that many schools will consider for EA/EDI decisions. However, some schools, like Columbia University, will consider a November 2 SAT score for for EA/ED. Check each school’s individual website; often this information will be listed on their “Standardized Testing” page or FAQ.
If your child isn’t happy with their test scores and they have time to work on test prep (meaningful improvement is rare unless you’re studying and taking practice tests), remember that after November, there’s one more chance to take both the ACT and SAT in December. Scores from November and December will be considered in the Regular Decision rounds, potentially strengthening your child’s profile if they’re deferred from an Early school.
Essays: Towards the finish line ✍️
In an ideal world, your child would be done with their Common App personal essay and writing their supplements for their EA/ED schools. However, as my philosophy professor at Yale Divinity School said, “We live in a fallen world.”
Full disclosure: some years all of my students finish their personal essays well before Oct 1, and some years, they don’t. And that’s OK. You can’t force a creative process, and some teens just take more time to find their voice and settle on a topic that’s meaningful to them and highlights the personal qualities admissions officers look for.
What’s important is that your child is moving towards the finish line, which means:
Their personal essay is well underway (or finished)
They know what supplemental essays they’ll need to write for their early schools
On that second point: supplemental essay requirements vary widely from school to school, so now, as your EA/ED list is coming together, is a good time to figure out what essays they’ll need to write. You can find this out by looking in the school’s supplement within the Common App itself; most schools also list it on their admissions websites.
October is also a good time for students to get helpful feedback on their personal essay. By “helpful feedback,” I don’t recommend sharing their essay with everybody you know. I’ve seen parents do that in the past (“My friend’s aunt’s pedicurist’s cousin went to Princeton – she MUST know what makes a good essay!”), and the result can be a lot of conflicting feedback that confuses the student.
Instead, it’s helpful to share the essay with a few people who know the kid well – usually parents, their high school counselor, maybe another teacher, friend, or trusted relative – and ask questions like “Where could I cut, and where could I expand?” and “Does this sound like me?” To help with that process, I’ve listed the most important questions to ask in this worksheet.
It’s also smart – and totally kosher – for an adult to proofread the essay for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Just remember the guiding principle on ethical editing in academic contexts: it’s fine to point out mistakes and ask questions, but the student should be the one actually fixing any problems.
Note: If your student is struggling with their essays and needs guidance, my new book Write Yourself In has time-tested, step-by-step methods for writing the Common App personal essay and the supplemental essays. You can also check out the free resources on my website, and if your child would benefit from personalized feedback, I offer an essay review service (email me).
Other bits and pieces: Activities List + Common App 💻
Beyond the essays, your child should be moving the ball forward on two other big chunks of work.
The first is the activities list, where they share up to 10 extracurricular activities from their high school years. It can be tempting to leave the activities list until the last minute. Don’t make that mistake!
A good activities list can make a big difference, and it takes some time to put together. Not only does your child need to think through how much time they spent on each activity and what their role (or title) was, they’re also allowed to write a short description of each activity. These descriptions are important. As with a resume, they should include active verbs and concrete details, so that the reader can easily envision your child doing that activity.
Early October is also a good time to start on the second big chunk of work, which is filling out the rest Common App, i.e. all of the biographical and educational questions.
This is mostly an administrative exercise, but there are a lot of details to include, and there are nearly always some questions that require a short conversation with parents or the high school counselor. Starting it early reduces stress and lowers the odds of making a mistake.
You’re building a foundation 🏃♀️➡️
While October is usually a stressful month for families with kids applying EA/ED, the good news is that once you have an entire Common App ready for your first school, everything gets much, much easier!
Getting the hard work done now means less work over Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Year’s holiday. October may be challenging, but you can rest assured that you’re setting your teen up for success throughout their senior year and, of course, for many years to come.
Part II: Juniors, Sophomore, and Freshmen
Guidance for Juniors (Class of 2026)
This month I’m going to offer two sets of guidance for families with juniors.
The first is for parents: I suggest you take the next few months to start familiarizing yourself with the admissions process. This is actually a lesson I’ve learned from parents I work with – and I’m quoting one mom giving advice to her friend verbatim here – “You need to start a year in advance.”
Now of course you don’t need to become an admissions expert overnight! But in the coming months you want to take some actions like reading this newsletter (a great first step), reading my book (it’ll give you insight on the essays and the entire application process), talking to other parents (which I’m sure you’re already doing), and checking out other books (I highly recommend Jeff Selingo’s Who Gets In and Why and Rob Lieber’s The Price You Pay for College).
Doing this now will help you understand the landscape your child is about to enter, so next fall you’ll feel more confident and better prepared to support them.
And second, advice for your child: Even though college apps are “only” a year away, fall of junior year should be focused on the here and now. Junior grades are important, so kids need to prioritize their studies. Outside of the classroom, junior year is often a time when kids step into leadership roles, which also take time, energy, and commitment.
Challenging classes and new roles are major opportunities for personal growth, so while junior year is often a stressful time, developmentally it’s an exciting period, too.
There are two exceptions to this “now” focus. One is around standardized testing. If you’re aiming for selective schools, your child should be prepping for the SAT/ACT this fall, or at least have a plan in place for their test prep over the coming year.
And finally, for some kids, it’s not too early to start thinking about next summer. While most summer programs (thankfully) don’t open their applications until January or February, there are a few, like Yale Global Scholars and the US Navy’s SEAP research program, that have deadlines in the fall.
Guidance for Sophomores (Class of 2027)
The good news for parents of sophomores is that there’s not a lot to do this month vis a vis college. This month’s advice is essentially the same guidance I offered in September’s newsletter, which you might want to check out if you missed it.
Sophomore year is all about diving in, both academically and extracurricularly. Your focus can be on supporting your child as they dive into activities, new classes, and hopefully find their place in the social world of high school.
When I’m counseling sophomores one-on-one, the work we do is focused on helping them pursue their passions, as well as dealing with academic challenges when they arise, not on college admissions per se.
College is way off in the future; the next big milestones will be in January, when they should start planning for the summer, and next spring, when they should start thinking about standardized testing.
Guidance for Freshmen (Class of 2028)
As with sophomores, freshman fall should really be focused on, well, figuring out how to be a freshman! Last month I discussed how ninth grade is all about building academic foundations and trying new activities. You might want to check out that post if you missed it.
Where college admissions are concerned, time moves much slower during freshman and sophomore years.
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
Available everywhere books are sold