Applying to colleges is stressful enough in a normal year for high school seniors, but the incoming class of 2025 could have a rockier start than its predecessors.
The Wall Street Journalreports that the pandemic has thrown a wrench into the admissions process, as schools are having to reassess how many acceptance letters to send out after some of the usual indicators (such as campus visits and essays about extracurricular activities) were largely removed.
While the overall number of applicants is roughly the same, the number of applications per school is higher, indicating that students are applying to more schools than they have in past years. That makes it harder for colleges and universities to determine who to admit outright and who to put on the wait-list.
It comes down to yield rates—the percentage of students who receive admittance letters and decide to enroll. It’s one of the chief numbers used to determine a school’s demand.
As a result, schools guard their yield rates carefully, which is what makes wait-lists work so well. One director of undergraduate admissions told the Journal that those lists “are going to be obnoxious this year.” Last year, some wait-listed students didn’t hear from their schools until July. With the pandemic, it could be even later this year.
That makes things even more stressful for parents and students. And to mitigate that, they’ll often put down a deposit on schools that do admit them just to secure a place, later deciding to eat that cost if another, more-highly-preferred school admits them.
Bottom line? In addition to deciding whether they’re comfortable enough to go to campus in person this fall, many students might not even know which campus that will be until nearly the last minute.