Pandemic upends admissions process
Students facing atypical college application season
In this atypical college application season, high school students and college recruiters are scrambling to showcase their best qualities in the annual courtship process.
Many seniors are filling out applications without ACT and SAT scores, community service hours or extracurricular activities — all canceled during the coronavirus pandemic.
Colleges in turn have produced virtual campus tours, hosted Zoom interviews and loosened requirements for standardized tests. At Washington University in St. Louis, potential students can send in videos to introduce themselves, in effect auditioning for the role of freshman.
The more creative admissions process means students are no longer judged only by their test scores or grade-point averages, a trend that could become permanent, said Shaun Ramsay, vice president of consulting firm ArtsBridge.
“What the pandemic did for better or worse was force colleges to evaluate applicants in other ways,” he said.
Every student has seen their high school careers affected by the pandemic, from the challenges of virtual learning to a parent’s job loss or death of a family member. Nearly all have missed out on prom, graduation and other traditions.
Sensing that every college essay could be centered around the coronavirus, administrators of the Common App added an optional 250-word question about the pandemic.
“Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces,” reads the essay prompt on the standard application accepted by 900 colleges worldwide.
College recruiters, already facing years of downward enrollment trends, have been eager to work with applicants who are nervous about their abbreviated credentials. Colleges receive reports on each high school their applicants attend, so they know if a school moved to a pass/fail grading system, dropped AP courses or made other changes during the pandemic.
“We are fully aware of the things they’ve had to endure while they’ve been in high school, and we’re prepared for them,” said Michelle Rogers, program director for regional recruitment at St. Louis University.
The move to virtual recruiting has allowed colleges to reach students they otherwise might have missed. In one day last fall, Rogers virtually visited three high schools in Illinois and two high schools in Hawaii.
That access, along with the elimination of standardized test requirements, has led to record high numbers of applicants to highly selective colleges. Some Ivy League schools have pushed back their decision dates to April to allow more time to review applications.
Colleges had been moving away from standardized tests even pre-pandemic over concerns of fairness. But the pandemic accelerated the trend, with now more than 1,600 colleges eliminating the test requirement or making it optional. In January, the College Board announced it would stop offering the essay portion and subject matter tests of the SAT, which it administers.
“People took the opportunity to not submit test scores and that’s a really beautiful thing,” said Nerinx Hall senior Megan Boyll. “I think we’ll get a lot more diverse perspectives at really selective institutions.”
Megan applied to 20 colleges after first focusing on economics programs and then switching to schools with civil engineering majors. She has only visited a couple campuses on her list since a spring break trip to the East Coast was canceled last year.
“It probably would have helped whittle it down,” Megan said of the trip. “I also think if it would have been a normal senior year, I would have been a little bit busier and I probably would have applied to fewer schools.”
Virtual campus tours and information sessions have been an equalizer during the pandemic, said Patti Miller, a counselor with Collegewise, a California-based admissions consulting company.
“One of the things that’s been interesting, leaning into the idea of holistic admissions, is colleges are really interested in how students have spent their time during the pandemic,” she said.
Emaline Edson, a senior at Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in St. Louis, has practiced her baking skills, crafting pastries, bread and birthday cakes for family members.
“The last year they should have been out with their friends, spending less time at home living their best senior life. Nobody is more boring than this year’s senior class,” said her mom, Colette Edson.
But after years of focusing on test scores and GPA, the family’s perspective on college has changed during the pandemic, Edson said.
“None of that matters nearly as much as her feeling safe, having a high quality of life, not feeling overwhelmed and making connections with all sorts of people,” she said.