The gobbledy of college admissions
If you thought it was confusing to figure out what an "AI-driven customer experience platform" is...
Hello Gobbledeers,
How’s it going? I recognize that it’s the day before Thanksgiving break (unless you’re in Canada, in which case it’s several weeks after Thanksgiving break), and you’re unlikely to sit here an read the usual 1,400 words about tech marketing while the turkey has to be cooked. We all deserve a break, y’know?
So with that in mind, I’m going to make it easy on you. It’ll be a similar amount of words, but it’ll be about how colleges market their application process! Which is hilarious! Especially if you’re going through it. You’re welcome. Happy Thanksgiving.
So….I SHOULD Submit my SAT Scores? Maybe?
I have two children, and those two children are currently seniors in high school. We are trying to get them to no longer live in our apartment, so we have been visiting colleges in hopes that they will apply to, then be admitted into, a (or several) college(s).
Forgive me if you know this, but until 2020 or so, (many? most? all?) colleges required SAT or ACT scores as part of the application. Everyone involved (colleges, students, high school guidance counselors) sort of tacitly agreed that maybe there was some B.S. with those standardized tests, but how you did on those exams had some bearing on which schools you applied to. Colleges may have said, “well of course we look at your grades and your activities and whatnot, but your standardized tests scores are also taken into account.”
You may not have agreed with that, but at least that made some sense.
Then in 2020, many (most? all?) schools decided for COVID-related reasons that standardized test scores would be optional. Everyone involved (colleges, students, high school guidance counselors) sort of tacitly agreed that those COVID years sure were weird and hey, if you did well, submit your scores, but we understand there are reasons why maybe your primary concern wasn’t studying for the SAT, so you can also not submit them. Everything about COVID was weird, so this will also be weird.
You may not have agreed with that, but at least that made some sense.
Fast forward to this year. Many (most? nearly all?) schools are still test optional. And this is what I wanted to write about from a gobbledy standpoint. (Let’s put aside whether tests should be optional or required or not exist at all.)
What I’ve found hilarious is the conversation we have had at nearly every school, when the admissions person, who is universally delightful, gets up in front of the room of 16- and 17-year olds on a campus tour and gives this speech about how they determine whether someone will be admitted to their school:
“Hello, and welcome to [College]. I know you have some questions about the admissions process, so I wanted to make it really clear for you what we’re looking for in an application.
“At [College] we are test-optional. What that means is that we do not require you to submit standardized test scores. Of course, you CAN submit standardized test scores. It’s an important part of your application, and gives us additional data points for how to evaluate you as a student.
“But, certainly, and let me make this clear, if you do not believe that your scores reflect who you are as a student, you are under no obligation to submit those scores.
“And of course, it will not reflect negatively on you - in any way - if you do not submit those scores. Whether you want to submit your scores is a discussion you should have with your parents and your guidance counselor and yourself.
“Oh yes - there’s a question. Please - go ahead…”
16-year old: “Is there a cutoff or something where if I’m below that I shouldn’t submit my scores?”
Admissions person: “That’s a great question. A great question. And the answer is - we don’t have a cutoff for standardized scores for admissions here. That’s not the type of school we are. We always recommend that if you believe the scores will give us additional information about who you are as a student, please, by all means, you should submit those scores. Also, you can see the average SAT scores on our website. But keep in mind, those are just averages. We don’t have a cutoff. Also on our website we tell you the range of scores of admitted students. Again, though, this is very important - although our students all fall within a range of scores, we do not have a cutoff.”
16-year old: “Just a quick follow up…so if I don’t think my scores are where I want them to be, won’t that hurt my application? Because if they were great, wouldn’t I have submitted them?”
Admissions person: “We know that different students score differently on tests. And those tests do not reflect the student’s academic ability in any way. None. So let me be clear - if you do not submit scores, we absolutely do not assume that your score was bad. We simply look at all the information that you have submitted, and we evaluate that. We definitely do not think to ourselves, “why didn’t this person submit their scores? If they were good, they would have submitted them.” Why would we even think that?
“It’s very simple. Standardized test scores are just one data point. If we have that data point, that helps us evaluate you as a student, alongside everything else we know about you. If we DON’T have that data point, then we simply use what we have.
“For example, we look at your GPA. And yes, we know that every school is inflating their grades. And that some schools have a 4 point GPA scale. And others have a 5 point scale. While others have a 100 point scale. And some schools weight their AP classes differently, and some don’t! But that’s OK, we evaluate the whole student, and that’s what’s important.
“And as part of that, we offer optional interviews with our alumni. If you live in a city where we have an alumni network, you can choose to have an in-person interview with them. Again, it’s completely optional. And we don’t have enough alumni for everyone to have an interview. So of course it’s optional. You have the option. We use these to assess cultural fit. We’re looking for students who share our cultural values. And also for students who are independent thinkers, who don’t try to fit in. The misfits. We want non-conformist misfits who fit with our cultural values. That’s why we have the interview. The optional interview that you don’t have to do.”
16-year old: “So it doesn’t hurt my application if I don’t get an interview because there’s no alumni near me?”
Admissions person: “Of course not! We look at the whole person. Sometimes the whole person includes tests scores and an hour to tell their story to one of our alumni, and sometimes the whole person doesn’t send test scores and doesn’t meet with our alums. In that case, we look at the information available, and not at the information not available. And the reason why that information isn’t available, well that’s of no concern to us. We don’t take the information we don’t have into account.”
16-year old: “So if the standardized test scores don’t matter, then why do you take them at all?”
Admissions person: “We believe they DO matter! That’s why we accept them. And why we don’t require them. Because those data points are very helpful to our admissions team and alumni interviewers. Unless you don’t send the scores and don’t get an interview. Then those points aren’t helpful and we don’t consider them. We don’t say to ourselves, “Why didn’t this person submit their scores? I’m sure they were amazing.” Absolutely not. That would be crazy.
“Let me share a data point. Here at [college] 58% of students submit test scores. We admit 13% of those students. And we admit 13% of students who don’t submit test scores.”
16-year old: “That’s very helpful. But if the acceptance rates are the same, why do you want the test scores at all?
Admissions person: “Great question. It’s because we look at the whole student. And those scores help us get a full picture of the student. And if we don’t have those scores, it helps us get a full picture of the student.
“That’s all the time we have. Thanks for coming to campus, it’s important that you came here today because showing this level of interest helps us as we review your application, although we don’t take level of interest into account.”
Happy Thanksgiving - and good luck if your child has applied (or is about to apply) to college, whether or not they submitted their scores.
I’m always happy to chat about your marketing concerns - here’s my Calendly link. It’s free. I promise. The people I’ve met with usually just want to chat about their messaging and see what I think. But I’ll also talk about applying to colleges. It’s super fun.
Or you can just shoot me an email by hitting reply…
This one's gonna go viral. Happy Thanksgiving!
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