Episode 164: The Most Important Step in College Admissions

Before we start today’s episode about the most important step in the college application and admissions process, we want to let you know that we are headed into our final season of USACollegeChat.  Well, I wouldn’t rule out coming back on Netflix or something by popular demand from our listening audience, but we are at least going to need to go on hiatus for a while.  Maybe we will be like Game of Thrones (which I have never seen) where there can be a year between seasons.  I am headed out to Phoenix and leaving my beloved New York City for a work-related commitment for a year or so, and Marie and I will have to figure out when it makes sense to bring back USACollegeChat, given our other commitments.  But don’t be sad.  We have a blockbuster set of summer episodes coming up for you, starting with today’s episode.

This episode is going to describe your upcoming summer homework.  We know it is summer vacation for only some of you, with others of you (like our fellow New Yorkers) still having to wait almost a month.  But those of you who live where school is already closed, you can get a head start.  Now, this homework is really for your upcoming high school senior, but our guess is that you parents will get dragged into it quite a bit.  And our further guess is that most of you will want to be dragged into it. 

As we were planning out what to talk with you about this summer, we thought first of all the thought-provoking articles we have been reading about this and that and the other in higher education.  Then, we realized that those are intellectually interesting to those of us who spend our lives thinking about higher education, but that they are likely far less urgent to those of you who have a kid headed to college, you hope, in a year.  And so, we switched our plans and decided to do a series of summer assignments to help you take what we believe is the most important step in the college application and admissions process. 

I am sure that people might argue about what that step is.  There are many other podcasts and Facebook groups and private consultants that focus on many different parts of the process--like how to write a great essay or how to finance a college education or how to get into an Ivy League school.  Some of them even charge a lot of money to do what they do, and we are sure that some of them do a good job.  But our focus for you this summer is more important than any of theirs.  Let us explain why.

1. The Most Important Step in College Admissions

You might think this is obvious; but, if it is, there are a lot of families out there not doing the obvious.  The most important step in the college application and admissions process is getting enough colleges on your list of options in the first place.  That’s it.  Just get enough colleges on your list so that you have enough options to consider.  Most students do not do this--even students who have college-educated parents and even students who attend great high schools that send most of their students to college. 

A corollary to that, by the way, is to get enough of the right colleges on your list.  But that can’t happen if the first step doesn’t happen.  So, for now, we are back to just get enough colleges on your list so that you have enough options to consider.  Let’s tell you how to do that.

Several years ago, we wrote a book for parents:  How To Find the Right College: A Workbook for Parents of High School Students.  It was a discussion guide for you to use to talk with your kids about whatever deal breakers each of you had when thinking about colleges to put on the list.  The book was a map of the college world, which is like a foreign land for many parents.  We thought that it would be especially helpful for those parents who did not attend colle