Social Circles

I read yesterday’s Inside Higher Education article, To Friend or to Reject, by editor Scott Jaschik, about the growing use of social media in the admission process. While I agree with the notion that this is public domain information available for consumption and, perhaps, action from friends, relatives, even employers, there are other good reasons for institutions of higher education to be skeptical about dipping their toes into this media space.

Among institutions that use a holistic process for application review, one of the strongest messages in the last decade has been that students should just be themselves in their application. This means allowing the admission committee to glimpse behind the façade of the application to see the actual and interesting qualities of the student, as discussed in the Wall Street Journal article, How Not to Get Into College: Submit a Robotic Application. If a college is serious about this notion of being yourself, it appears incongruent to penalize students for doing just that in an online space.

Admission offices often employ newly minted graduates in their offices as admission counselors who themselves engaged in Facebook and other social media outlets during their college years. Institutions that engage in looking up prospective students on the internet need to consider that their admission counselors could, in turn, could be subject to the same kind of scrutiny from disappointed students or their parents. In other words, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t cast stones.”

The focus of the debate over the role of social media in the admission process has tended to skew towards discoverable and potentially negative information about a student. What about information that could positively impact an admission or scholarship decision? Do institutions only look for one type of information? Will institution create policies of balancing both seemingly positive and negative information they uncover on social media sites?

I believe social media is part of the new frontier for college admission and has a role to play in a 21st century reworking of a decades old admission system. It is also a complex issue that deserves our thoughtful and careful consideration.

Countdown

It’s a time of the year when uncertainty about the class keeps admission deans up at night. Why do admitted students wait until the last minute to let us know their decision? Hold on, are students waiting until the last minute? Will the class come in over target? Under? Will my favorite students of the year say yes or defect to Other U? Is it too early to go to the wait list? Or too late?

At this point in April, Grinnell is now through three campus open houses, countless phone calls, letters and email to admitted students, and by last count has spawned three Facebook groups for the Class of 2013.

Friends, colleagues, complete strangers and even family have told me loudly this month that they’d never want my job. I can see their point, especially during this last week of April, as every shred of statistical skill, prognosticating ability, and human intuition is called upon to assess (guess?) the likely behavior of 17 year olds and their families.

So far 200 new Grinnellians have decided to call Grinnell home for the next four years. Actually, I just got the good news on email that a paralympian hopeful has decided on Grinnell. That makes 201 interesting and talented individuals in the Class of 2013, which is about half of who we’re looking for this year (first year class target = 385) but also where we expected to be at this time of the month. The next few days will see a great sorting out of interest and fit with (perhaps) a few coin tosses thrown in for the truly undecided. Of course for many families, affordability remains a major concern. If your family’s financial circumstances have changed dramatically in the last year, do yourself a favor and talk to the financial aid office. For more on this topic, see the April 24th Time.com article, In Trying Times, Colleges Willing to Boost Financial-Aid.

Grinnell has a reputation for attracting adventurous pioneers- those with an exploratory urge, an interest in world and societal issues, and with the temperament to thrive in a challenging academic environment. I expect no less this year.

May 1st may loom but it is still 5 days off; 120 more hours to contemplate and snatch a few winks here and there.

Boarding pass, please

Nearly two weeks ago I was in Washington, D.C. and heading to Dulles Airport to catch a flight back to Des Moines (the closest large airport to Grinnell). I arrived in plenty of time, made it through security, found the gate from which my flight would board, and sat down to relax. Easy.

An hour later and tantalizingly close to boarding my flight, I received an urgent email from the airline saying my flight would be delayed for two hours. As I waited in line to talk to an agent the digital board behind the counter changed. Now here was really good news - the flight had just been cancelled. Turns out it was mechanical issues.

Why should you care? Well, if you were admitted to Grinnell this year, congratulations, you have the opportunity to be part of an exceptionally talented class. If you weren't, there might be a parallel to my flight escapade. You did everything right - you researched Grinnell, you turned in your application on time, you had great people write letters of recommendation on your behalf, you wrote an essay that you want to frame. So what happened?

I'm pasting in below part of a letter I sent out to high schools two weeks ago so you know what your counselor knows. It explains our "mechanical failure" and our challenges this year.

“As decision letters begin arriving in the mailboxes of high school seniors I thought you would appreciate an update . . . and insight into what shaped our selection process this year. This information may be helpful as you counsel your students and their families.

Grinnell received just over 3800 applications for one of 385 spaces in this fall’s entering first-year class, our second largest applicant group ever behind last year’s pool of 3888 candidates.

Early Decision applications rose by 50% this year, challenging our ability to admit all students we deemed a good fit for Grinnell, and ultimately resulting in a handful more enrollees through Early Decision.

Last year Grinnell enrolled one of the largest classes in its history due to a significantly larger percentage of students responding positively to our offer of admission.

Last year’s large class and four prior years of over enrollment have pushed Grinnell’s on-campus enrollment above our optimal campus plan which is based on our number of faculty, facilities, and residence halls.

To guard against over enrollment, this year’s entering class target of 385 is slightly smaller than normal. This made our acceptance decisions this year particularly difficult as we were only able to admit 27% of this year’s applicants compared to 36% last year. We waitlisted a number of qualified and talented students who would likely have been admitted in prior years.

I hope this information is useful to you in understanding our decisions this year. While on balance this is good news for Grinnell, I know this makes it that much more challenging advising your students about Grinnell.”

To finish my story, I ultimately got home that night and everything turned out all right. I won't pretend college admission is anything like an airline flight but regardless of whether you were accepted, waitlisted, or denied admission, I believe you too will get to where you want to go.