<p>On randomness in acceptances:</p>
<p>While I believe that Andison’s story is vitally important for parents to read, I would also caution that his result was somewhat predictable. In fact, when I first mentioned his story to my daughter, her reaction (based on nothing but his high school and his college list was, “what did he expect? that list is ridiculous…” </p>
<p>She had friends, including one from a nationally prestigious NE prep school, who had similarly ridiculous lists – although that student at least had the sense to include one sure bet (where he is now attending) in addition to the standard-issue laundry list of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Brown. She tried and tried to talk some sense into this kid troughout senior year, but it was almost like he was really choosing to attend his one “safety” and the rest was just some fantasy game – because the eventual result was so predictable. Unless you can identify some specific reason to the contrary, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton should never be viewed as “realistic” schools on a college list. The realistic reach schools for even the top applicants should be in the range of Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Williams, Swarthmore, Amherst, Penn, WashU, etc. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton should only be viewed as fantasy add-ons, not part of the actual admissions strategy. Their acceptance rates, for the purpose of odds calculations, approach zero.</p>
<p>It was even worse for Andison. Note that Swarthmore has 50% of its students from the northeast. That is true of every one of these la-di-da schools. The last thing any of these schools need is another applicant from a wealthy Boston or Westchester County community. The adcoms have to beat them off with sticks just to have room to pile up the apps…and half of 'em are legacies. These kids might as well mimeograph their application lists – five Ivies, Duke, maybe an LAC or two, and throw in a Wash U or a Tufts or an Emory as a “safety”.</p>
<p>The absolute worst-case admissions profile is a white kid from a well-known wealthy school in the NY-Boston corridor. The adcoms hold them to an incredibly high standard. Read “The Gatekeepers” about an admissions cycle at Wesleyan and you’ll see exactly what happened and how to avoid it. In the book, the adcom picks up an app, skims the first page (a high SAT white kid from a wealthy suburban school) and comments to the writer, “This one better be good…”</p>
<p>Andison topped it off by then (effectively) telling Swarthmore he had no particular interest in the school. His dominant EC was music and he was very accomplished. But, his guidance counselar had told him that it would just irritate the adcoms if he sent a performance recording for evaluation. Guess what? Swarthmore’s music department guidelines for prospective students say, in black and white, that if you want your music performance to be considered as a plus on your application, you MUST send a recording to the music department. Anyone who had bothered to visit the music department or read the link for “prospective students” at the website, or digested the instructions on the actual application would know this. At Swarthmore, the music faculty actually listens to tapes - a perfect opportunity for a kid to have an “advocate” on campus (the ultimate best-case scenario for any applicant). So what is the Swarthmore admissions office suppose to conclude when they don’t get a tape? That he is really super-interested? Makes you want to cry because Andison was so accomplished that he had performed a piece broadcast on arguably the top NPR station in the country. Not only did he get no “credit” for this kind of feather in his cap, his failure to submit the recording was a big black mark on his app.</p>
<p>Combine this sort of mistake with a top-heavy college list and a gridlocked traffic jam from la-di-da Boston suburbs to a dozen la-di-da colleges and you have the perfect storm.</p>