Alex

What do you think some challenges are that parents are facing today with generating a good college list? I’m asking specifically about how the Pandemic has shaped this process. 

Rana

During the pandemic, things have been a little more unpredictable. In terms of well before the pandemic, I would say this would be a safety, a stretch, a match or whatever. And sometimes things moved. The most competitive colleges, the top of the top on the US. News and World Report, which, those became even more impossible to get into. For most of the rest of the colleges in the country, it got easier to get in. 

Alex

What do you think this fall is going to look like as far as those numbers? 

Rana

I think it will be like last fall. I think the most competitive colleges will be even more competitive and the rest will be either the same or a little bit easier to get into. Very often students who are wealthier can afford and avail themselves of private test prep, and they do much better on their SAT or ACT than they would have done without private test prep. And that helps them get into college, sometimes helps them to get merit aid with discounted tuition, whatever you want to call it. There are those students who magically score 1600 on the SAT or 36 on the ACT and there aren’t very many of them, who get there doing their own study. Yeah, maybe for them it’ll be a disadvantage, but for most of those cases they would be submitting. The only place that would hurt them is schools like the University of California, which have gone test blind. They’re not going to look at them at all. 

Alex

Setting aside the UC schools for a second, but do you think the other schools around the country are paying attention? How much do you think they’re weighing those scores when you’re talking about test-optional? 

Rana

Test scores probably have been more important to colleges because US. News and World Report uses them as a piece of their ranking criteria. It drives a lot of people because they don’t understand really they should be doing their own rankings based on their own criteria, not some random criteria that may have nothing to do with their student. And in the end, really, it is what the student does at college more than where they go. You can go to someplace that’s a wonderful school and not take advantage of what it offers versus you could go someplace that’s not as good and take advantage of everything that it has and get an outstanding education. So I think it’s important for a student to have a good mindset and to be going someplace that they want to go. And part of my job is to help them find places that they want to go that they can get into, because if they want to go there, we talk about things that will help them make a good transition. They make a good transition, and they have a reason to be there other than just what everybody does after high school, then they’re likely to be successful. They’re likely to complete. They’re likely to go on and I think have a life that is satisfying to them.

Alex

If you could give one piece of advice to parents going into this year’s application cycle, what would that one piece of advice be? 

Rana

Probably to be honest and realistic with their student about the financial piece, unless they have enough money to pay $80,000 a year out of pocket. Then they should probably plan on five years for a four year bachelor’s degree. If they’re like probably most people who don’t have that much saved up, then being straightforward and honest with their student is probably the best thing. Because in my mind, the worst thing is to go spend two years at a college and then your parents say, well, we don’t have any more money and we can’t take out any more loans and you’re going to have to transfer now. That’s just the worst of all. 

Alex

What about for students? What would be the one piece of advice that you would give students going into this year’s applications?

Rana

To be true to themselves and not worry about where everybody else is going and what everybody else is saying. Because in the end, you’re going to be going to college, not your friend, not your aunt, not your next door neighbor. And it’s going to be pretty irrelevant, all this nonsense that goes on. It sounds easy, and I know it’s not easy, but that’s really the truth. I can’t consider looking at this college because I’ve never heard of it. Then don’t hire a college consultant if you’re only planning to apply to schools that you already know about, because then you don’t need somebody to help you, at least with the selection piece. 

Alex

Yes, that’s a very good point. All right. Great. Tremendous. I just want to say thank you very much, Rana, for joining me on the show. 

Rana

My pleasure, Alex. 

Alex

Here are a few takeaways from my conversation with Rana Slosberg. The first was a great point I thought that she made about the rat race, and it really is. I mean, high school is a real grind and really culminates with fall of senior year in the midst of the grind that high school already is. I mean, the schedule is very rigorous. Everything is segmented out from the very beginning of the day to the end of the day. You have to keep that in mind. You can’t not factor that into the equation of college applications, because if you do, you risk mediocre results. Really, you have to balance the ambitions that you have, which are huge. I can’t understate that. Certainly it’s a huge turning point in many kids lives. Where they go to school, whether that placement turns out to be good or not. I think sanity, as Rana put it, is important too. Sounds easy enough, but I think it’s really difficult. 

Another theme that we kept on returning to in our conversation was this sort of keeping up with the Joneses effect following sort of name brand schools. The temptation is to sort of find the degree of the college that is most going to sort of impress your peers and your colleagues, et cetera. Now, one thing I think we didn’t really touch on in our conversation I shouldn’t lose sight of is, well, the degree does matter, fair or not. And probably it’s not fair because, I mean, I think you can get a better education from NYU than from Yale, but it matters. From an optics standpoint, I guess there’s definitely some value to name brand recognition. At the same time, it’s far better to get a good placement than to get a good degree. Another interesting point that we brought up was how the pandemic has impacted sort of acceptance rates. Wow, it’s going to be hard this year to just get in on academics alone. But I guess the good news is the rest of the schools, as you pointed out, have higher acceptance rates. So a good year to fill out the list. Maybe some of those second-tier programs suddenly become a little bit easier.