Seth Godin’s post, The Truth about Admissions, got our attention and generated some discussion here at Collegewise. We didn’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions (particularly about widening the pool of “good enough”), but he does sum up the reality of highly-selective admissions nicely:
“One in five applicants to Harvard and Stanford are completely qualified to attend—perhaps 20% of those that send in their applications have the smarts, guts and work ethic to thrive at these schools and to become respected alumni. These schools further filter this 20% by admitting only 5% of their applicants, or about one in four of those qualified. And they spend a huge amount of time sorting and ranking and evaluating to get to the final list. They do this even though there is zero correlation between the students they like the most and any measurable outcomes. The person they let in off the waiting list is just as likely to be a superstar in life as the one they chose first. Worth saying again: In admissions, just as in casting or most other forced selection processes, once you get past the selection of people who are good enough, there are few selectors who have a track record of super-sorting successfully.”
There are a lot of takeaways from Seth’s post. Here are a few of the most important when discussing highly-selective college admissions:
1. There is no magic formula.
Admissions is not an exact science. There is no checklist of “what they look for” you can satisfy that will guarantee you an admission.
2. Don’t define your success by the outcome.
Deciding that you’ll only be happy if you go to Stanford is like saying that you’ll only be happy if you go to the prom with so–and–so. There’s nothing wrong with setting goals. But you can’t define your success—or your happiness—by an outcome you don’t ultimately control. Take your best shot. Then be happy with your effort.
3. The best you can be is good enough.
You can’t rise to the very top of the pool. You can’t have better grades or test scores or accomplishments than every other applicant. So the already great test-taker who sits for the SAT a fourth time in the hopes that she’ll eek out another 20 or 30 points, the recognized campus leader who joins one more club just to add it to his application, they’re not getting any closer to admission. They’re just polishing what’s already shiny—and good—enough.
4. Denials are not indictments.
A denial from a highly-selective college does not necessarily mean that you didn’t deserve an admission. It doesn’t mean the kid who got in is better than you. It doesn’t mean the college didn’t like your accomplishments or your essays or your letters of rec. And it doesn’t mean they didn’t like you. There are no precise instruments being used here. Refer back to takeaway #1 (and to Seth’s paragraph).
5. “Good enough” means you can be great.
If you were good enough to get close to admission at a highly-selective college, it means you have everything you need—smarts, work ethic, curiosity, character, etc.—to be great just about anyplace. Celebrate—and bring your future greatness to—another college that had the good sense to say yes to you.