Author: Rick Clark

Rick Clark is the Executive Director of Strategic Student Access at Georgia Tech. He has served on a number of national advisory and governing boards at the state, regional, and national level. Rick travels annually to U.S. embassies through the Department of State to discuss the admission process and landscape of higher education. He is the co-author of the book The Truth about College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together, and a companion workbook published under the same title. A native of Atlanta, he earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a M.Ed. from Georgia State University. Prior to coming to Tech, Rick was on the admissions staff at Georgia State, The McCallie School and Wake Forest University. @clark2college

Mindset and Approach- A Rising Senior’s Guide to College Admission

Last year I wrote this blog criticizing February, and man did the Feb fans have some words. Wow. Well, now I’m taking the other side of that coin to say that I’m a big fan of May.

First, the weather. Now, maybe you live somewhere I’m not thinking of or unfamiliar with and you have some terrible May situation, but in the South, the pollen is gone, the flowers are out, the bugs and humidity haven’t arrived, and most mornings and evenings are cool.

Also, it’s graduation month (though from this seemingly comprehensive list that is not official). Admittedly, between working at a college, speaking at graduations, and having a disproportionate number of friends and neighbors with graduating students, I have attended my fair share of these. I love the experience because graduations bring together family, present an opportunity for shared celebration of accomplishments, up our nation’s smile: frown ratio, and simultaneously facilitate both healthy reflection and warranted optimism about the future. Generally good times despite uncomfortable garb and predictably unmemorable speeches. Yep, I love a good tassel turn.

Graduation also means the seniors are done. Before you dismiss that one as “sentences that need never to have been written,” hang on. When those caps get picked up and the last selfie has been taken, the juniors take on a unique and important transient identity—RISING SENIORS.

If that’s you—this one’s for you.

Rising connotes you are not there yet. You are in transition. You have left the on-deck circle and are walking to the plate. Basically, this is your walk-up song summer (or playlist). And while your teachers may have already sent you things to do (summer assignments/reading list), when it comes to college admission, I want to focus on your mindset and approach.

RISING INTO COLLEGE ADMISSION

True Success

The longer I do this work and the more students and families I talk to, the more convinced I am that the real goal of college admission is not getting into a particular school. Instead, it is having choices and options. As a rising senior, you inevitably saw this play out with the graduating class. The students most satisfied with their college admission experience are those who felt like they had agency. Ultimately, they picked a college. Does that mean all doors were open? Of course not. But in the end, they got to select a college from several they were excited about. THAT is my hope for you—and not only for college but life well beyond. Freedom is having options. As you rise this summer, spend time thinking about what (not where) you want in a college– and why! Build a list of schools where you would be excited to go. Practice recognizing the difference between “a good school” and a good school for you.

Your walk-up song is playing. Phrases like “dream school,” “top choice,” limit your view of success/happiness and foster zero sum thinking. Keep your head up and your gaze is broad.

Mindset and approach are a choice.

Expect the Unexpected

College Admission is not Fair. Yikes. How’s that for orange juice right after brushing your teeth. Fair is a place they sell cotton candy, cobble together super rickety rides, and judge pigs. (h/t Tim Fields, Emory University). This ain’t that. In the year ahead, you are going to see admission decisions come out that will not make sense to you. Students in your high school will get into colleges you don’t think “they should have.” Worse still- you may see people get into a college you really wanted to go to or get selected for a scholarship you were hoping to receive, while you are dealing with the disappointment of being deferred or denied or waitlisted.

Rising Senior, I’m challenging you in those moments to actually show up for your friends, classmates, and teammates. Celebrating others is a life skill.  Don’t let someone else’s outcomes impact your outlook.

Mindset and approach are a choice.

THE admit rate is not YOUR admit rate.

The published admit rate for a school you are considering is 33%. So one of every three applicants is offered admission, and two of three are either denied, waitlisted (and never pulled into the class), or those who fall out of the process along the way (incomplete, cancel application, etc.) As a smart rising senior, you likely did not need me to translate a percentage into multiple sentences, but hey, it’s a blog. It’s what I do.

ANYHOO, it would be easy/reasonable/and normal math to stop there. You’re thinking- I’m cool with a 1/3 shot.  Sorry, friends. This isn’t the column or dozen groupings of a roulette wheel in Vegas. This is college admission. This is the willing suspension of regular math.

If you’re applying to a public university, question one is where are you from? Resident and non-resident admission review are completely different committee and consideration conversations. As an example, the University of Florida’s overall admit rate in 2023 was 23%. However, Sunshine State residents were admitted at nearly 60%, while Gator nation admitted Cloudy State residents at less than 20%.

Colleges will provide this data on their sites, but another good reference point is the Common Data Sets, primarily in Section C (Search: College Name and Common Data Site). Alternatively, you can check out this blog, which delves into both the CDS and CFD (Clark Family Dynamics).

Does every in-state resident, have the same chance of being admitted to their state’s flagship, even with the same grades, course rigor, or scores?  If your answer starts with an N, keep reading. Otherwise, go back to the beginning. (And by beginning I meant the entire blog, circa 2015. Now you do have some summer reading assignments.)

Ultimately, mission drives admission. Or in wonky admission speak decisions come down to Institutional Priorities– and that leads us far beyond your zip code or state’s initials. As you’ll quickly see in Section C of the CDS, when you apply matters for many schools, particularly for those with Early Decision plans. The “same student” could apply two months earlier and have radically different odds for admission. Major, gender, first-generation status, and other factors will also play in. They will effectively “weight” the roulette ball. Translation: the rural North Dakotan (repetitive?) valedictorian who aces BC Calculus and applies for a Philosophy degree is going to read differently than you. Pack your bags and buy some thermals as you feel compelled.

Knowledge is power. Expectations matter. Mindset and approach are a choice.

Control What You Can Control

Journalists and social media over indexes on the Ivy League and can lead you to believe getting into college is extremely challenging for a talented and motivated rising senior. The truth is that colleges with admit rates under 15% are outposts not signposts in the real landscape of admission world. So contrary to the click bait headlines and hack coverage that dominates college admission beat writing, you are the one in control. *Note in a spirit of May optimism this blog is presuming next year the Fubar FAFSA debacle is behind us.

Where you apply. There are nearly 4000 colleges and universities in the United States alone. Many of them are already courting you, soliciting you, marketing to you, but ultimately it is your choice to apply or not. In other words, you decide the five, seven, eleven (please don’t go much higher than that) colleges you are interested in attending. Where you apply is totally in your control. Think about it this way- YOU are eliminating 99+% of possible colleges. Talk about highly selective!

Who offers you admission. So… this would be the part that you DO NOT control. If you or your parents are trying to manipulate or game exactly where you are admitted or how much financial aid you receive, please go watch The College Admission Scandal.

Which college you select to attend. If you do your research, apply to a balanced list of schools (academically, financially, and selectivity), and remain open to several “top choices,” you are going to have great options. The ball will be back in your court in the spring of your senior year, and you will get to choose—see True Success above.

How you show up. A little over a year from now you won’t be focused on your approach to college admission, but to the college where you are planning to attend. This is about showing up on Day 1 with a mentality of being all in. In my opinion, is the most important part. You don’t have to look far to find examples of students who ended up miserable at their “dream school.” Conversely, there are countless students who didn’t get in to their “top choice” and wound up tour guides elsewhere, i.e. not only drinking the Kool-Aid but selling it.

Mindset and approach are a choice (as a rising senior, senior, college applicant, college student, and in life well beyond).

Love and Admission

Rising Senior means you are not a kid- not a child. It means you are getting seriously close to leaving home. It means you are going to be away from home way more than you are at home. Many students read those lines and smile. Many parents read those lines…and cry. Then students don’t understand the tears. Parents are conflicted about the smiles. Round and round we go.

Bottom line is college admission is not all about applications or test scores or college decision letters. It’s also about a new chapter in your family’s life. And at 17 or 18, the emotion, gravity, and uncertainty wrapped up in that page flip is impossible to fully grasp. I’m asking you to try.

Listen, I don’t have all the answers, but I know this: most of the crazy stuff parents do and say is really just love in disguise. It sounds like nagging. It sounds like they don’t trust you or are not listening. They know. Right now they’re a little freaked out about the term “rising senior.” To them your high school career has been a blink of the eye. So even when you’re tired, even when it’s the fourth time, even when you have somewhere to be or someone to meet, I’m asking you to be a rising senior, rather than a child. And that means patience, kindness, grace.

Mindset and approach are a choice. Hugging your mama is not. May may be the month we observe Mother’s Day, but every day is a good one to hug your mama!

The summer is here. Your walk-up music is playing. In fact, like you, it is RISING. So Rise!

Three Messages about College Admissions for Juniors

Warning: The subtitle of this blog is “That you may not like to hear.” And unlike most of my intros, we’re not going to waste time or words on analogies, personal anecdotes, or admittedly stretched parallels. Instead, after watching this cycle repeat itself, here are the three direct messages/ primary hopes I have for juniors entering the college admission experience.

Don’t apply to a college you would not actually attend. Seniors did this. I know, right? They basically walked into a store looking for jeans and went to the section three sizes up from theirs and were like- “Yea, I’ll put those in my cart just to have a few extra.” Does that sound dumb? It is. Think about it this way- there are 2000+ four-year colleges in America, not to mention the thousands of other post-secondary options around our country and abroad. I’m guessing if someone lined up that many pairs of jeans you could easily find 7 or 9 or 11 that you could afford, fit well, and you would be excited about/proud to wear. Many application fees are $50 or more. Need suggestions for better uses of that money? Donate to a local non-profit, take your mom out to lunch, Venmo me, basically do anything with it except what the seniors just did. Want more details and insight? Check out this podcast with Rachelle Hernandez, vice provost for student affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Not a podcast listener? Ok. Then hear this: Don’t apply to a college you would not actually attend!

The “College Search” is internal. See, the seniors heard “search” and they went looking like a Survivor contestant scouring the island for immunity idols. This ain’t that. How do you know what to plug into a Google search if you haven’t taken time to reflect on what you value, or your hopes and goals for college and life beyond? So, yea. I’m going to be that guy and tell you to get off your phone. Worse still- I’m telling you to go somewhere quiet on your own and really listen to yourself…more than once. And to really go overboard here, maybe even bring a pen and paper and write stuff down about what you really need and want. Again, the subtitle is, “that you may not like to hear.” Promise made- promise kept.

Look. As a talented student and a relatively good person, an annoyingly large number of people are going to have opinions about where and why you should visit, apply, or attend certain schools. Oh… and they’re going to tell you whether you like it or not. At the end of the day, we live in a noisy, busy world. My hope is that you will consistently pull away for a few hours to listen and be honest with yourself. The truth is that these decisions just keep getting bigger- where to apply becomes where to attend. Where to attend becomes what to major in. What to major in becomes job, city, community, family. Oh, yea. I can draw a throughline from today to one far in the distant future based on how you approach this. But hey- you are a junior and we are just on #2, so let’s start with and commit to this. Don’t do what they seniors did! Don’t begin by searching Google with criteria someone else told them was important. Don’t start by looking at rankings or lists of colleges that a marketer developed to sell ads and peddle clicks. The college admission search is internal.

Nothing happens to you in college admission. Read that carefully. I did not say “nothing happens.” Just that nothing happens to you. Now, to be fair to the seniors, this has been a tumultuous and unprecedented year, particularly in light of the FUBAR FAFSA situation, the first cycle following a landmark SCOTUS case, and noise and variance in testing policies around the country.

Still, there was way too much why did this happen to me mentality and not enough why did this happen for me? inquiry. Here’s the truth- next year there will also be change, unexpected events, personal and macro challenges, and general unpredictability. This spring, as admission and scholarship information has come out, a lot of seniors (and their parents) have effectively said: “What did I do wrong?” or “What else could I have done?” or (directly or indirectly) “This whole thing is broken and unfair.” Well, in the spirit of “messages you might not like to hear,” that’s college admission, that’s college, and really that’s life.

As a junior, however, you have a choice. When things don’t go exactly as you hope/plan, i.e. you get deferred, denied, waitlisted, or you don’t receive the amount of money you need to attend a particular school, you can cry/wallow/point fingers/ take your ball and go home OR you can re-frame from why is this happening to me? to why is this happening for me?

Ok. I got deferred. “Why is this happening for me?” Now, I get to decide if I’m still really interested in this school. If so, I get to send my fall grades and submit updated information.

I didn’t get admitted. Or I didn’t get into the honors program. Or that scholarship amount is just not enough to make it affordable… why is this happening for me? Now, I get to pivot. I get to figure out another way or explore a different option. I get to show up somewhere else committed to succeeding, building a network, maximizing my opportunities. Nothing happens to you in college admission.

What messages do we like to hear? I can help you control this. I can make this easier for you. You are special and amazing and it’s all going to work out. I get it. I’m human. That all sounds good to me too. But it is not true (well, you’re kind of special and amazing). And you best believe you can find (often for $$) lots of people who will guarantee you things in college admission. If you see an ad online or have someone approach you claiming to have the magic formula, the secret sauce (or some other noun preceded by a descriptor), RUN!

So, I will not make any guarantees, but I will make you a promise. If you will only apply to places you really want to go and would be excited to attend; if you will begin with asking yourself big and tough questions; and if you will adopt the mindset that the year ahead, while absolutely not predictable or fully in your control, will be one of formation, transformation, growth, discovery, and opportunity; then on the Ides of April 2025, you will have been truly successful in your college admission experience.

College Admission SOS

Thursday, February 22 

Atlanta, GA : 5 a.m. 

My vibrating watch alarm went off. After 20 years of marriage, I’ve learned the hard way not to set an audible alarm before 6 a.m. (actually, that only took me about two weeks). Groggily, I drug myself downstairs and fed the cat — which is better than feeding myself and drugging the cat, I suppose. (My daughter wanted to name her using a feline pun and my son wanted a “tough sounding” name. Ultimately, we arrived at Pawly. Technically, it is Muhammad “Pawly” Clark.)  

As I’m putting on my running shoes, Pawly rolled over to be petted. Immediately, recognizing my disinterested and half-hearted effort, she looked at me in disgust (yes, cats can absolutely do that), and walked away slowly, as if to say, “Loser.”  

After a few head-clearing miles, I jumped in the shower, grabbed a banana and a cup of coffee, and headed to the airport. Because I make this drive regularly, I did not need or use WAZE or Google Maps.  

Atlanta Airport: 7 a.m. 

I pulled up my boarding pass from the Delta App and noticed that my phone was showing a “SOS message” in the top right corner. (Note: SOS is an international distress signal: the ship is going down; we are in imminent danger; send help immediately.) 

At this point, I’m convinced it’s a “me problem.” I turned the phone off and back on again. No dice. Still SOS. A flurry of explanations went through my head: 

  1. Maybe Tech’s not paying for this phone any longer in my new role.
  2. Maybe the lint in my pocket finally won.  
  3. My daughter. I mean…you never know. 

Once I boarded the plane, however, I heard other passengers talking about the various phone carriers who were experiencing national outages. While it was moderately relieving, it did not fix the problem.  

Richmond, VA: 10:15 a.m.  

I rent a car and pull up to the exit booth.  

“Ummm…. do you have a map?” 

“No, Sweetie. Where are you going?” 

“Charlottesville.”  

“Ok. Go to the third light, take a left, and follow signs for 64W.” 

Got it.  

My realization that I had no idea how to find my hotel increased as the distance to Charlottesville decreased, but with the names of both the street and hotel, I figured I might get lucky and see one or the other on a highway sign.  

Nope.   

So, I randomly picked one of the four Charlottesville exits. I figured I’d give it five minutes and if I didn’t stumble on them, I’d stop and ask for help. Call it divine intervention or dumb luck, but at the second light I saw my hotel. Boom! 

Charlottesville, VA: 11:45 a.m. 

Grabbing my bag from the trunk I began wondering how someone who had never lived in an Alexa-less, GPS-less, wireless world would have dealt with navigating the journey I’d just made.  

Well, friends, I found out upon entering the lobby, because in an absolute puddle on the coach was a 20-ish-year-old (lots of hyphens there, I know) girl crying hysterically. 

“Can I borrow your phone?” she stammered. 

“Ummm…well, unfortunately, I don’t have any service right now– why don’t you ask at the front desk?” 

Apparently, she had not considered that option, so we went up together.  

I watched her search her contacts and call her mom from the lobby land line.  

Still crying softly, “Mom. I’m trying to get home…”  

She grabbed a pen and scribbled down directions. In the end, she lived about 5 miles away (How do I know? Oh, I was totally looking over her shoulder– I may not pet cats at 5 a.m., but I match their curiosity 24-7). 

My head: Noon 

So many questions and thoughts. 

  1. Was this really an emergency?  
  2. Who is responsible? (You know- because nothing solves problems like pointing fingers.)  
  3. What is the path forward? 
  4. How does this translate to college and college admission? (Naturally)

Admissions SOS 

Over the years, I have asked audiences from Atlanta to Argentina (actually, now in all hemispheres) to give me the first word they think of when they hear: “College Admission.” The number one answer on the board, and the response you’ll get most audibly and consistently, is “stress.” SOS!  

I’ve gotten many other interesting ones too: Hunger Games, black box, and most recently—divorce. Wow! Dark thoughts, people. Seriously, seriously dark. Sounds like the ship is going down and we need help immediately!  

And while I had no tangible solutions to remedy the AT&T outage on February 22– other than asking if someone had tried turning it off and back on again—I do have some thoughts and insight to share about alleviating stress in college admission.  For a more exhaustive exploratory, feel free to buy my book or check out our 8 years archived blogs. For the Executive Summary—read on. 

Question #1: Is this really an emergency?  

Answer: No. (Well, that was easy.)  

As my friend and colleague Katie Mattli says, “Nobody died in college admission today.” SOS is way overstated. Hunger Games? Really? And I don’t even know what to say about the divorce answer. 

Question #2 and #3: Who is responsible? What is the path forward? I’m going to knock those out together here by offering three solutions for both users (students and parents) and providers (colleges).  

Students 

  1. Your list doesn’t have to be balanced. What?!! You’ll hear a lot of people say you should apply to a “balanced list of schools.” What they mean is to identify a few schools you will likely be admitted to, a few where it is less predictable, and at least one that is highly unpredictable.

No, you don’t. The average admit rate for four-year colleges is around 65%. If the places you are excited about and make sense for you each have admit rates above that– well… you are above average. Who said schools with lower admit rates are better, or should be more desirable for you? Conversely, if you apply to 10 schools that each have a 10% admit rate, it does not give you a 100% chance of getting in. Admission math does not always work the same way regular math does— but in this case… yea. Commit to not applying anywhere you would not actually go AND be sure several (or all) are “predictable” in their admission and affordability outcome. Are we getting reception back yet? 

2. How > Where. I heard a Georgia Tech graduate give a keynote speech last night. In it she said, “No college can make you great. You are already great. Pick a place where you will be surrounded by classmates, professors, and opportunities that will bring that out in you.” Spoiler Alert: There are hundreds (not 25 or 50) of schools in America where that can and will happen for you. Your success, happiness, and fulfillment are far more connected to how you show up in college, rather than where. Until you believe that, it won’t matter how many times you turn your phone off and on — the SOS won’t go away.

3. Do Your Own Homework. The girl in the lobby in Charlottesville had clearly just been following Google Maps her entire life without looking around, paying attention, or thinking for herself. Too many smart high school students approach their college search this way. And then stress comes when they “do everything right” and it still doesn’t work out the way they thought was promised. Re-routes, speed bumps, and delays are inevitable. Expect divergences and you won’t end up crying on the couch—ohhh… and that applies not just to college admission but life well beyond.   

Parents  

  1. Parents of high school students should talk to fewer parents of other high school students about college admission, and more parents of current college students or recent college grads. Why? Because parents of other high school students lie. They do. They exaggerate and fabricate. Suddenly, their daughter’s 1340 magically becomes a 1430.  

“Did you hear nobody from our high school got in to X College last year?! (Beware the interrobang) And I heard that four kids from (the school down the road) got admitted with scholarships.”  

Ever wonder why it’s always easier to get in from “the school down the road?” Again, because people make stuff up to fit their narrative, aka THEY LIE. They drive up the stress by speculating, pulling threads of truth and portions of stories and re-telling them inaccurately. 

You know what parents of current college students or recent college grads never say in reflecting back on their experience: “I wish we’d stressed more. Yea, if I had it to over again, I’d definitely bite my nails more, drink excessively, and lose sleep worrying. Now that would have helped and made things better.” 

2. Money Talks. The biggest gift you can give your student is not an open checkbook—it is an open and early conversation (10th and 11th grades) about what you can afford or are willing to pay when it comes to college. This is going to require going into detail on your rationale and allowing your student to ask questions. The bottom line is we don’t give our kids enough credit when it comes to these kinds of discussions. Wait until senior year or after your student has applied or been admitted to talk about money and you’ll only have yourself to blame for the SOS communication blackout that follows.   

3. Success Lists > College Lists. Once your family begins talking about college in earnest (typically junior year), I suggest you write down 5- 10 schools you hope they’ll consider, visit, or potentially apply to—and then next to each school name write 2-3 sentences explaining why. (Note: Because I wish I’d gone there and am vicariously living through you… red flag).  

Then have them do the same and have a “curiosity conversation”—a discussion centered on trying to better understand everyone’s goals, hopes/fears, interests– and how that connect with reality.

But the more important Top 10 list you can create is one of your family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors who have taken a variety of paths to success and happiness. Ultimately, our job as parents is to instill confidence in our kids, so that no matter where they end up, they are prepared and ready to capitalize on that opportunity (unlike the confidence and preparation displayed in the lobby in Charlottesville). We are coaches in perspective! Don’t get sucked into the tunnel vision, paranoia, and zero sum thinking that breeds anxiety. True success for our kids is making sure they have options and choices. Don’t get it twisted. 

Bonus: If you read an article or social media post that features a college(s) with a first-year class size smaller than your local public high school or place of worship, it is not a trend but an outlier. Journalists know that clicks and eyeballs pop when they cite certain schools, which are frequently diminutive outposts, rather than large signposts for the direction or state of enrollment or higher education. Consider contacting the reporter and asking them to change their title to “lower education reporter.”  

Note: I was going to try to work in something about a drinking game with Ivy League school mentions but thought broaching cirrhosis may detract from my larger points. 

Now that we have talked about how the “users” can tamp down stress. How about “the providers?” 

Colleges and colleagues.   

  1. Data disaggregation and transparency.

Colleges should make it clear and easy to find admit rates based on each application plan; Early Action (EA), Early Decision (ED), Regular Decision (RD), and any other iterations, derivations, or acronyms. How do these vary by residency if it is a public school? What has this looked like in recent years, i.e. trends and patterns? Stress often comes from an absence of clarity.

If the college is test optional school, what is the admit rate for submitters vs. non-submitters? What raw number and percentage of students who applied with and without testing? Are there other academic ranges you can provide, i.e. GPA, number of AP/IB/Dual Enrollment courses for each cohort in isolation and comparison?  

Then break that down for the enrolling class and the admitted class. 

2. Eliminate weekend and holiday application deadlines. I mean…do I really need to explain why this would reduce anxiety and stress? C’mon, people. Do the right thing here. This one is easy.

3. Provide multiple mediums for conveying voice.

Ask most admission counselors what they are looking for in an application essay and you will get some version of: “We just want to hear the student’s voice.” Well, let’s solve for that. The truth is that many of these essays are already overly sanitized, AI generated, professionally tailored or tampered with, or a combination of all of the above. And it is the part of the application most students cite as the most stress-inducing. 

Allowing for voice-recorded responses, or short video clips, is the student’s voice, and it is a comfortable medium that could add value and diminish anxiety. Changing the medium of delivery to audio or video – or at least providing either as an option – gives a much better sense of how a student would engage in the classroom or on campus than does the essay. Importantly, if these were limited to a minute or so, it would not add time to review for colleges – and could be a welcome reprieve for the tired eyes of admission readers. Companies such as Initial View are offering this for students, and it is time for the  the Common application and Coalition application to modernize their platforms and integrate technology that allows us to more directly hear and/or see students, and the adults who support them. 

I am way, way over our normal 1000-word blog goal, so if you are still with me—Congratulations!  

At the end of the day, the way we tamp down stress in college admission is by keeping the end in mind: College admission leads to college. And college is about fun, friends, discovery, learning, testing assumptions, growing, and finding your own path to happiness, fulfillment, and your unique future.  

Again, I’d quote our keynote speaker from Tech—you are great! You are going to be great! And you do not need cell reception or a certain bumper sticker to confirm that, because it is already in you. Surround yourself with friends, classmates, and adults who keep helping you bring that greatness out. You got this! 

 

 

 

 

Value (Capture) in College Admissions

A few weeks ago, a friend told me about the concept of “Value Capture” – a phrase coined by Dr. Thi Nguyen, a philosophy professor at the University of Utah. Essentially, value capture occurs when a metric becomes the motivation for a certain behavior (Abstract and paper here.) 

For example, instead of posting pictures on social media to simply share with family and friends, we become focused on and consumed by the number of likes or impressions we receive. I appreciate Dr. Nguyen providing well- researched phrasing to what I tried to articulate with fewer citations (but more puns) in my blog: “What are you Strava-ing for?”, which served as a confession that my running had been hijacked by the stats of a fitness app.  

“Before I had this app, I rarely brought my phone with me on a run unless I needed the flashlight or wanted to listen to a podcast. Before I had the app, I’d come home with new ideas or perspective, or just feeling lighter (minus my legs) because I’d tuned out and refilled my proverbial cup. Lately, I’ve been coming back and checking to see my pace, achievements, and who else I know has run those segments. Even in the middle of runs, I’ve found myself thinking, “I need to PR (personal record—it tracks those too) this mile or loop.” 

Not up for Dr. Nguyen’s 50+ page paper? In this 8-minute interview with best-selling author (Scarcity Brain and Comfort Crisis) and UNLV journalism professor, Michael Easter, they discuss the recognition of value capture as an invitation to continually check our motivations.  

Why am I doing this?  

What is driving me? 

And have I lost sight of “my why” in exchange for chasing numbers- or the comparison to others?

As a high school student, now is a common time to be selecting classes for next year. Beware of value capture. What are you chasing—the grade or the preparation? They are not the same.  

Why am I re-taking the SAT/ACT? Because a school I’m applying to has a merit scholarship connected to a particular score range—value. Because if I get 20 points higher I’ll be able to beat my brother’s score to rub it in his face—capture! 

Again: Why am I doing this? What is driving me? And have I lost sight of “my why” in exchange for chasing numbers- or the comparison to others? 

Value Capture Meet College Admission 

The more I read, listened, and thought about this framework, the more I realized the college admission experience (for everyone involved) is tailor- made to be value captured…and it has been—ohhh, how it has been. 

“In value capture, we take a central component of our autonomy — our ongoing deliberation over the exact articulation of our values — and we outsource it. And the metrics to which we outsource are usually engineered for the interests of some external force, like a large-scale institution’s interest in cross-contextual comprehensibility and quick aggregability. That outsourcing cuts off one of the key benefits to personal deliberation. In value capture, we no longer adjust our values and their articulations in light of our own rich experience of the world. Our values should often be carefully tailored to our particular selves or our small-scale communities, but in value capture, we buy our values off the rack.” 

Well, damn. There you have it. Let’s look at a few ways that students and colleges can be value captured- and how to keep this in check.  

Rankings 

“And the metrics to which we outsource usually engineered for the interests of some external force, like a large-scale institution’s interest in cross-contextual comprehensibility and quick aggregability.” 

Sheesh! Can you say, “US News and World Report?!” Students and families value going to a good school. They want a place where faculty care, students learn, and graduates get jobs (If this language is too technical, please let me know). All reasonable and commendable desires/ values. But if not checked we can effectively outsource critical and independent thinking for a simplified ordering of colleges.  

Every year we hear stories from students who say they were discouraged from applying to schools ranked below number X; or decided only to apply to schools within the Top 10 in a particular field; or were pressured to ultimately choose the highest ranked school from which they received on offer of admission. No! 

Instead of considering individual needs and wants; instead of asking big questions about the types of settings in which we best learn or thrive; instead of being confident enough to do our own research and ask the questions that most matter to us, “we buy our values off the rack.”  

They call it the “College Search.” But that is not meant to be literal- as in  one-click on Google to serve up prescribed list. SEARCH means within yourself. It means asking big questions not drawing little lines between numbers on a contrived list. 

And what is particularly ironic about the “rackings” (definitely calling them that from here on out) dictating where you visit, apply, or ultimately attend, is the biggest factor in the US News rackings (Told you. See, I’m not even using quotes anymore) are not even numbers at all.  

What? YEP, 20% of the methodology is generated from the opinions of people who work at other colleges.  

What?! And to show you how little effort people put into these, only about 30% responded. 

What!! In the end, 1500~ (1000 fewer than 30% of this blog’s subscribers) highly biased and self-serving people dictated numbers that generate millions of dollars annually. Disturbing. Deeply, deeply disturbing.

Value capture, people. Unshackle yourselves from the rackings by continually asking: Why am I doing this? What is driving me? And have I lost sight of “my why” in exchange for chasing numbers- or the comparison to others? 

If you are a sophomore or a junior, try this map, rather than a list, to help you think differently.  

If you are a senior, wanting to make a personalized versus prescribed decisions on where to ultimately attend, how about this quote from Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement address: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Admit rates = College Quality 

“We are vulnerable to value capture because of the competitive advantage that such pre-packaged value expressions have in our reasoning and our communications. But when we internalize such metrics, we damage our own autonomy. In value capture, we outsource the process of deliberating on our values. And that outsourcing cuts off one of the key benefits of personal deliberation.” 

Too many students and parents look at admit rates as a proxy for quality and take these numbers in isolation to make decisions and assumptions. Literally, this week I talked to a friend who cannot understand why his daughter is leaning toward one college to which she’s been admitted when she also got into a school that has an admit rate 2x lower. (Cough… value capture.)  

Now I didn’t get all Nguyen-y about it, but I did ask him to consider why his daughter is more interested in one over the other– and why he’s having trouble reconciling this. 

I also thought it was helpful to point out a few things about “admissions math:” 

a. Denominator. Colleges don’t all count apps the same way, and can easily up their n. Some schools require a transcript, test scores, and a completed application with supplements to count as an app. Others? Well, you hit submit on a pre-populated form and then unsubscribe to all follow up comms… yea, we’ll go ahead and count that.

b. Numerator. Through binding Early Decision plans or other layered application deadlines, schools can radically depress their admit count  because of the guaranteed enrollment of those admits. Sound like some dark Bayou magic math? Wave if you are following.

c. Still Numerator. Number of admits can be further decreased by intentionally waitlisting to gauge interest, deferring to watch engagement, or implementing other levers in the process.

Translation. You can’t trust the math. It’s not apples: apples. It’s fruity. But it’s not fruit. 

The big question to be asking is: What do you value?  

Perhaps the answer is: I want to go to a college that denies at least 3x more students than it admits because I value exclusion.  

Or I am deeply committed to single digits. I’ve never had a uniform number above 9; I was born in a month prior to October; and I always measure people in feet rather than inches.  

Sound ridiculous? Go online and buy a shirt that says, “I’ve been Value Freed!” If not, go here and sort by “Admission Rate.” Then find a shirt reading, “Olin = RISD” or “Berea > Bryn Mawr.”  

Flipping the Mirror 

Suffice it to say, when it comes to both the rankings and admit rate, colleges should be asking themselves the same questions.  

Why are we doing this?  

What is driving us?  

And have we lost sight of “our why” in exchange for chasing numbers- or the comparison to others? 

However, I’m not holding my breath to find the answers to those questions on any college’s mission statement, list of values, or strategic plan soon. 

Values 

“Value capture occurs when an agent enters a social environment which presents external expressions of value — which are often simplified, standardized, and quantified — and those external versions come to dominate our reasoning and motivations.” 

I believe you are more than an agent. I believe you have agency. And as a talented high school student and a future college student, there is no better time than now to embrace that distinction.  

 

(Not) about me… and the blog 

(Warning: There are a lot of hyperlinks in this blog. If you have an aversion to URLs or words being underlined, proceed with caution. Otherwise, I hope they’ll give you a small sense of what we’ve covered over the last eight years.) 

For the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of leading Georgia Tech’s admission team and our undergraduate recruitment and review efforts (dual enrollment, transfer, first-year). During this time, we have been fiercely committed to continuous improvement, and as a result have overhauled our approach to recruitment, review, communication, policy, and practice… several times over. It has truly been fun to leverage our platform and megaphone in creative ways (including this blog) to help Georgia Tech become a thought leader in the college admission and undergraduate enrollment, and it has been my honor to serve as one of our primary storytellers in Georgia, around the country, and abroad. 

Much of that opportunity has emanated from Tech’s dramatic rise in reputation and impact driven by our research, entrepreneurship, innovation and more. But every team, company, and organization have its weaknesses, and while we have grown significantly in every other category and demographic, we have failed to increase our enrollment of low-income students and Pell Grant recipients. 

Ultimately, admission without affordability is not access, and as a public university- and a public good- we have a fundamental obligation to ensure Tech’s life-transforming, world-class education and experience is accessible to top talent, regardless of a student’s financial background. This is why our Transforming Tomorrow Campaign is centered on raising $500 million for need-based scholarships and our President, Dr. Ángel Cabrera, has made affordability, return on investment, and social mobility top priorities.  

In pursuit of these goals, Tech recently created a new position in our division of Enrollment Management: Executive Director for Strategic Student Access– and as of January 1, I have stepped into this inaugural role. My focus will be on developing/cultivating relationships and collaborating with stakeholders on and off campus, including school and school system leaders, community and government agencies, corporate sponsors, philanthropies, alumni, faculty, staff, students, and donors. 

My goal has always been to leave GT admission better than I found it- and to ensure our team, structure, and office culture are sound. I can say unequivocally that is the case. The talent on our team is incredible and imminently qualified to continue the path of excellence we’ve established in “Progress and Service,” and the culture I have helped create, while far from perfect, is built on trust, encouragement, humility, and a deep concern for the work and one another.

I am excited that my longtime friend and colleague, Mary Tipton Woolley, will serve as the interim director, bringing with her over two decades of admission experience, an established track record of vision and success, leadership positions both on campus and nationally.

So, what about the blog? 

After we released the story about this new role, I received a number of texts, emails, and calls that started with “Congratulations!” And quickly pivoted to, “So, what about the blog?”   

Well…I created the GT Admission Blog in the fall of 2015. My daughter was four; the Cubs had gone more than a century without a title; and tick tock was just a sound.  

Was there a grand strategic vision for the blog in the beginning? Hardly. The truth is it began because at the time, my regular Thursday afternoon “running meeting” was with my friend and Tech’s former director of enrollment communications, Matt McLendon. We’d lace up our shoes and set off with a full agenda. BUT inevitably somewhere along the Beltline (which was largely unpaved), I’d start rambling about a particular challenge or admission issue.  

One day (mid-run/ mid-rant), Matt gently suggested I “write this stuff down.” He asserted that families needed to hear more honesty and openness from admission deans and directors, and my random analogies and anecdotes may actually be a refreshing way to present subjects that often stir anxiety. (Although I suspect it was also his tactful way of trying to enjoy the run and keep us on task). 

In the 8 years and ~300 blogs since, that has been the goal. It has led to: myriad of sports references; many predictions- some of which have been spot on, and many others…spot off; extremely loose parallels; countless puns and dad jokes; an excessive number of (likely unnecessary) parentheticals (see what I did there?); as well as various chronicles of my kids’ childhood. 

But the blog has never been mine or about me. Instead, it is Georgia Tech’s– and it exists for you. Its real strength has always been the variety of voices we’ve featured and the feedback we’ve received. Unsurprisingly, some of the most popular blogs have come from Tech’s talented and brilliant admission colleagues. They have helped realize the initial vision of addressing broad admission issues to provide readers perspective, insight, and helpful tips in a relatable/accessible tone – and hopefully bringing some levity and solace along the way. 

Good news! All of that is going to continue.  

I am still focused on undergraduate enrollment and working closely with our admission team. And arguably there has never been a more dynamic and important time in higher education and college admission. Plus, Matt McLendon now works at the University of Alabama, so I can’t get all of my crazy parallels out on runs.  If you want to literally hear more from me, you can check out The Truth about College Admission podcast.

We have so many experts on our team who are excited to share their perspectives, stories, and tips with you. So going forward you can expect two blogs each month—one from me and one from a Georgia Tech colleague. 

Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing. And please reach out if you want us to cover certain topics, find one of our jokes funny, or vehemently disagree. We welcome all of that- and ultimately it makes this blog an even stronger resource. 

In Progress and Service,  

Rick