Pandemic dims high school seniors’ chance to shine

Gunner Horton has wanted to be a football player since he was 4.

Now, in the final months of his senior year at East Haven High School, he has come to understand how fate can interfere with dreams. A co-captain and linebacker on the football team, as well as a member of the wrestling squad, he has been unable to compete in any sports this year because of statewide cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s like you just lost a piece of you,” he said.

But beyond the disappointment of a senior year that failed to offer him an opportunity to shine on the field and mat before college recruiters, Horton also must reckon with the impact sports cancellations will have on his immediate future.

Officials in college admissions departments across the state are encountering many stories like Horton’s. The college admissions process has been altered by the pandemic, some say, changing the way enrollment officials engage with students, as well as giving many students fewer opportunities to showcase their accomplishments in sports, clubs and community service.

“COVID crash landed, and you say the impacts go farther and farther out,” said Eric Sykes, vice president for enrollment management at Quinnipiac University in Hamden. For instance, whereas the high school class of 2020 may have spent their last marking period being graded on a pass/ fail basis because of the lack of preparedness schools had to abruptly transition instruction online, the class of 2021 may not even have things such as standardized test scores or the ability to compete in sports in any season.

Sykes said the broad cancellation of extracurricular activities is a challenge for many applicants because they inform college admissions counselors’ understanding of the applicants and their personalities.

“The extracurriculars — whether they be student organizations, after-school activities, the kinds of student employment in many of our majors — we’re looking for students who are engaging in their field in some way,” he said. “Shadowing experiences, if they’re into health sciences or nursing professions, are a critical element we look for in an application. Things this year that aren’t available.”

Jodie Small, an independent educational consultant based in Madison, said, “There’s always been pressure on students to have strong [grade point averages] and transcripts, but there is definitely more intensity being placed on those benchmarks for the class of 2021.”

Small, who runs her business, College Coordinators, said she aims to reduce the amount of stress that families feel around the college application process by guiding them through the process. However, she said the pandemic has created entirely new stresses.

On the Common Application form that has been adopted by many universities, this year there is a question that allows students to explain the ways in which the pandemic may have impacted them or their application.

“In some students’ cases it is substantial. They’ve lost a loved one or a provider in the household or become a provider in the household,” she said.

Although the pandemic has upended many things, Small also said she does not believe college applicants from the class of 2021 are uniquely disadvantaged because all applicants are applying under the same sociopolitical environment this year. Additionally, even if school activities have been canceled, she does not believe that renders moot the skills and abilities students are able to demonstrate.

“I remind them that it’s going to be OK. You’re still you, with all the same gifts and talents you had before COVID, and you will be able to express them again in the future,” she said.

Fundamentals

Jay Murray, associate vice president of enrollment services at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, said his department has been understanding that it is not “business as usual” this year, but the fundamentals have not changed.

“Can we make a decision on just an application and a transcript? Yes. And when it comes down to it, that’s what we need to make decisions,” he said. “The more a student can provide is helpful to an admissions committee in evaluating the student as a whole, but as far as making an admissions decision we’re more than comfortable expecting their transcript and essay and not worrying about the other details right now.”

Pam Pillo, executive director for undergraduate admissions at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, said the university’s admissions department is “commiserating” with applicants who are completing high school by learning in different modalities. However, she said the university has maintained its holistic admissions approach.

“We’re doing the same thing, but we’re trying to engage our students in different ways,” she said. “I think the process we’ve had in place, we didn’t have to make many adjustments in our review.”

One document of heightened importance in application packets this year is the school reports, in which high schools traditionally provide information about course offerings and grading standards, she said. Those documents, which now explain how the schools handled learning during the pandemic, helps to contextualize the efforts that applicants to the university made during their senior year.

But Pillo said the basics still count. “I think ultimately the transcript is a key tool for us in admissions work to understand the strength of the curriculum and understand trends, but we also look strongly at the extracurriculars,” she said.

No glossy pamphlets

Despite many activities not being available, experts also say other measures of success — the ability to demonstrate diversity of interests, skills and talents — have become even more important during the pandemic.

Pillo also said that, in order to get a better understanding of candidates without the ability to examine the activities they do as seniors, admissions counselors are taking a closer look at school counselor letters of recommendation.

Ralph D’Amato, head of school counseling for Middletown Public Schools, said school counselors have prepared to write these letters before students enter their senior year.

“Our counselors have a past history with the students. The recommendation process was pretty seamless” he said. “And our counseling department was proactive by getting accustomed to video conferencing.”

If anything, he said, the college admissions process was somewhat streamlined because the necessary forms were easier to compile on the internet.

D’Amato said high school counseling departments have not been able to demystify the process for students as well as they have in past years, because there are no longer visits from admissions officials handing out glossy pamphlets. He said representatives from about 90 schools visit Middletown High School annually, and although that number “tailed off a little bit” this year, the department has still been able to expose students to these visits virtually.

“I’m not going to be Pollyannaish and say it was the best, but there were still ample opportunities,” he said.

Jess Odlum, a school counselor at Torrington High School, said colleges were upfront with applicants about what they are looking for.

“Colleges have expressed to student applicants and their school counselors that they are actively making adjustments to their application review — taking a more holistic approach to their consideration,” she said.

She said that, as in past years, grades themselves are not the only transcript consideration for colleges, but also the rigor of the courses taken.

“The school counselors at THS have had to adjust, alongside everyone else, in how we support our students,” she said.

That includes transferring much of the high school’s informational sessions about college-going that they would get during the school day into a virtual space, where the information is now available in shorter videos so students can access them outside of their usual school day.

Test scores

At Quinnipiac, where standardized test scores have been an optional component of the application process for years, admissions head Sykes said his department still received many test scores until this year.

“I think about 85 percent of our students typically do submit a standardized test,” he said. This year, he estimates the rate of SAT or ACT submissions included in applications fell to about 50 percent. “Standardized tests have been waning in terms of their importance before the impact of COVID-19, and that has hastened in a lot of schools.”

WCSU’s Murray reported an even starker decline — from about 91 percent of students including standardized test scores in their applications to about 40 percent.

“It makes that transcript even more significant,” he said.

His year

Lance Horton said his son, Gunner, was looking for an additional year of exposure as he sought to impress colleges with his skills.

Horton appraises his son’s ability on the field as being like “a Chevy truck: not flashy, but reliably strong and always gets the job done.” Because Gunner is not “flashy” as a player, the Hortons were counting on an opportunity to prove his reliability as Gunner prepared for his next play: college.

“You always wait for your senior year to showcase everything you’re good at. This was his year to make the difference,” Lance Horton said.

Now, the Hortons are unsure whether sports are a viable path into college for Gunner. Although many of his peers already have received acceptances, Gunner has recalculated after plans for a post-graduate program to give him another year to show off his athletic abilities fell through and is applying to schools now where he hopes to study accounting or prepare for a career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Horton’s East Haven High School football teammate, quarterback and team co-captain Trey Garea, already has been accepted to a number of schools where he hopes to study either business or political science while playing football.

However, Garea said he encountered a bit of awkwardness in discussing his athletic future with coaches.

“It’s a lot harder going off the film from last year. I’ve improved from last year,” he said. “Some coaches were impressed, but I wish I could’ve shown them what I could do this year.”

Beyond the admissions process, Garea noted a level of uncertainty about what college experience he should expect.

“The campus tours were weird. I couldn’t get a good feel for any school because of the limits of COVID. Campuses were closed, with no teachers or students. It was all empty and there was no feel for student life or the dormitories,” he said.

Although Garea took the SAT, he did not submit his scores to any colleges.

“One test shouldn’t define a person’s capability,” he said.