What to Do Over the Summer (part II)

As admissions to a select few American universities gets more and more competitive, there seems to be a new company popping up every week that claims to have “cracked” the admissions puzzle.  These companies have lovely websites and will happily take your money.  However, there is simply no “secret sauce”.  Admissions is a holistic process with different universities prioritizing different things.  At the most competitive it really now comes down to a lottery of sorts, in particular for international students with admit rates often less than half the overall rate.  Ethical Independent Education Counsellors (IEC) can indeed add value, particularly for students without full support in their school.  Vet providers carefully and any that DON’T have at least 10 years experience working directly in admissions either at the university or high school side should not be considered.  Any providers should also be members of the relevant professional organizations (IACAC & IECA).

The summer months represent a prized sales target for the less-ethical IECs as increasingly parents (and some reluctant students) feel the need to fill these otherwise fallow months with activities.  FOMO reigns with a bewildering array of options that purport to help craft the perfect applicant.  Here we will comment on a few of the more popular options, with a few ideas that you might have not considered.

• Summer Residential Programs at Universities/High Schools

These serve to effectively monetize lovely campuses and also provide a real taste of “university life”, often allowing students to live without their parents for the first time.  These programs range in quality, those run by the actual universities are generally better.  Some have competitive applications and that is generally a good sign.  With a few exceptions, attending a summer program at university X will not help with applications to the same university.  Residential programs provide a good platform for touring other universities in the region, a great idea.  Note that much of the UK and America is absolutely lovely in the summer months weather-wise, but January and February are entirely different matters.

• Study and Service Trips Abroad

There are now many options for summer study abroad for high school students.  Some are just fun summer camps in interesting cities, so be sure to actually get something of the experience by making progress in learning the language.  For "service trips", is there really anything a 16 year old could do to actually help people in person?  Set up a charity, raise money, then send the money to a trusted and experienced charity in that country. 

• Summer AP Classes

The AP tests are only administered in May.  Formally studying for these tests over the summer is sheer folly as all will be forgotten come May.  Bad idea.  Do something else, anything else.  Universities advise doing other more meaningful activities rather than collecting test results.

• Internships

There is an industry that has sprung up securing “internships” at big name companies.  These are obviously contrived, and universities know this.  Paying a third party for arranging this sort of thing is entirely unnecessary.  Students should be able to draw on their (parents') network to find a company that needs some cheap (or free) labor.  Interning at a law firm/freight forwarder/real estate company/etc. for 2-3 months making copies, doing data entry, fetching coffee, etc. could be an invaluable experience that would provide good fodder for an application essay.

• Academic Research/NGOs/Passion Project

There is a similar industry promising access to top academic mentors to pursue research projects or to help curate a “passion project”, complete with a slick website and AI-generated photos.  There are avenues for independent study within most existing high school curricula, and most likely 17 year olds aren’t really able to meaningfully expand the corpus of knowledge in a given field.  Such kids are probably already at a top university.  If you really have a passionate interest in something, there is no shortage of online university-level courses that are largely open enrollment and relatively inexpensive or even free.  Completing such courses may or may not result in academic credit, but they would demonstrate intellectual curiosity more than any standardized test result.  This is something that many universities cite as a key attribute and is hard to prove clearly.  Taking a online course on Japanese Literature would certainly help.

• Real Job

Depending on your visa/residency situation, getting a proper summer job could be a great idea.  This will help students learn about responsibility, money management, punctuality, scheduling, and interpersonal skills.  There is no stigma in spending a summer making burgers at McDonalds or as grounds crew at a golf course (two summers the author looks back fondly at).  See above on providing ideas for university essays.

• Academic Preparation

Students should know exactly which classes they will be taking next school year and might even know their future teacher.  Why not ask for an early copy of the course syllabus and start knocking out the first few units?  All the major curricula now are fairly standardized and there is a wealth of online (free) resources to help kids steal a march and start the new school year ahead of the game.  This could also include standardized test preparation, but please do other things as well (see above).  

• Have a break

School is stressful and it probably won’t get any easier until students reach university.  Use the summer to refresh and recharge, play sports, learn to cook, go on walks, binge watch TV shows, study Latin, spend time with friends and family, and leave your phone alone.  Here is a great list of good books to read, never a bad idea.

We hope all have a great summer break and we’ll see you in July!

- Testtakers Singapore

Note the very recent counselor newsletter from Duke University hits many of these same points, see below:

Summer Experiences: Myth vs. Reality

Are your students asking how they can best spend their time in the summer? Summer can be a great time for students to take advantage of free time and broaden their skill set. We are frequently asked by counselors and students about what the “perfect” summer schedule looks like to an admissions officer. To help you navigate these conversations, here are some common myths and our true views of various summer experiences.

Myth #1: Attending a prestigious or university-based summer program gives students an admissions edge.

The Reality: While university-hosted programs (including Duke pre-college camps) offer fantastic academic enrichment and a taste of campus life, attending one does not grant an advantage in our selection process. We review applications contextually and understand that high-cost programs are not accessible to all families. We look at what a student has gained from the experience. 

Myth #2: Students need a formal research or lab internship to stand out in a STEM-related field.

The Reality: Securing a spot in a university research lab as a high school student can be a reflection of a student’s network rather than their merit. If a student lands one, that is great; but if they don’t, it will not hurt them in our process. We value self-directed curiosity. A student who spends their summer independently learning a coding language, or researching a local environmental issue, can show just as much intellectual spark as a formal research or lab internship

Myth #3: International “voluntourism” trips look impressive on a resume.

The Reality: High-cost, short-term international service trips can come across as performative rather than deeply impactful. We are often more impressed with sustained, localized impact. How is the student improving their community? Again, we are more focused on what a student has gained and how they plan to use that to impact the community around them.

Myth #4: Standard summer jobs are “wasted” time.

The Reality: Quite the opposite! We love it when students share their summer job experiences! Working teaches accountability, time management, teamwork, and conflict resolution. For students who work to support their families and/or save for college, that context is incredibly important for admissions officers to understand. For others, it may showcase their willingness to step outside their comfort zone and gain real-world experience. Encourage students to highlight these roles.

The bottom line? There is no single “correct” way to spend time in the summer. No matter what students choose to do, we want to see engagement, growth, and authenticity. 

Grade Inflation, Covid, Smartphones, and AI

There has been a bit of a media explosion in America of late with articles about the unprepared state of the university student.  Here we try to unpack things a bit.

Grade inflation has been a growing pestilence that has its roots in university professors increasing the grades of young men in the 1960s to keep them out of South East Asia.  This accelerated over Covid as schools chose not to admit the fact that kids didn't learn much of anything over that period and have profound gaps in all academic domains.

Now, grades don't mean much of anything.  As this important report from UC San Diego reveals, enrolment in the most remedial of math classes has skyrocketed even as students enter university with straight As. So there are really a number of things coming together:

1. A long-term trend of grade inflation and with many grades based on "effort" rather than actual mastery.  Score a B?  You can re-test or write a supplemental essay to make that into an A...  Teachers who give lots of Bs and Cs don't get good reviews, and might be out a job.

2. Covid accelerated this trend and has resulted in high school graduates with straight As who can't read properly or solve 3x + 5 = 17.  AP test scoring has been "recalibrated" to ensure that kids continue to take them as they are the source of over half of College Board's US$1 billion revenue.  (Kudos to the IBO that raised standards back to pre-Covid levels.)

3. Smartphone usage has proliferated, and laptop use is ubiquitous, which have reduced attention span in additional to any number of other negative externalities.

Now... Enter the AI.  This is the first year of university students who have had ready access to a form of AI since their first year, and the early reports are dire.

Despite the noble efforts to detect and deter flagrant AI cheating (this is our favorite) a majority of university students now use AI in one form or another daily.  While AI will be part of our lives, using it to complete the bulk of university assignments brings in to question the very point of attending university.  Doing so is like going to the gym, and paying a robot to lift weights for you.  Students are increasingly more interested in networking and getting the right summer internship than in actually reading anything, perhaps because they are keenly aware that AI will be taking away many entry-level consulting and finance jobs...

Universities are slowly addressing the reality and blue book exam booklet sales are booming as there is a movement back to hand-written assessments.  We don't have a solution for any of this beyond a call to get technology entirely out of the classroom and a return to requiring the reading David Hume and Karl Marx - not likely. Sweden had taken the lead in embracing all manner of technology but now is very quickly running back to spiral notebooks.  Hopefully more will follow.  The alternative is a bleak "post literate society".

(Rant over.)  (No AI was used in writing this.)

Please refer to the our blog for more information as well as our LinkedIn feed for more updates from the surprisingly active world of testing and admissions.

The Downside of ED

Early Decision (ED) is under a bit of legal peril but it will be around for a while anyway.  ED allows students to apply Early (it's in the name) and get a Decision (!) well before the Regular Decision (RD) deadlines.  The expectation is that students accepted under ED will commit to attending said university well before Christmas.  This aids universities in filling dorms in a very predicable manner and hence bumping up their yield percentages.  Yield is the percent of accepted students that actually attend the school and is a core component in most rankings.  The policy also lets families complete the entire application process before the end of the calendar year and not apply to 18 other universities. 

Sounds great for all concerned, doesn't it? Nope. 

Students seldom pay the full sticker price for university and the price of the product is a core consideration in choosing the university for students in the RD cycle.  A student might get into 5 schools and the family would then have some degree of bargaining power to extract the best "package" from the university.  This would help inform the monumental decision of which school to pack off to for four years.  Students committed to ED do not have such privilege as they are expected to attend the ED school if accepted.  This makes the policy clearly biased towards the very wealthy for whom cost isn't really a concern (and who can afford expensive test prep).  University rankings probably take a bit of a hit through marginally inflated admit rates, but the financial imperative of getting bums in seats early and in a predictable way more than outweighs that minor concern.  Yield percentages have become a bit unpredictable (see below) so getting students "double-confirmed" is a great idea for schools.

An ED arms race of sorts has emerged with many competitive universities leaning very heavily on the policy to fill over half of their entering class.  The admit rate for ED applicants is often over triple the RD rate so if a student really has university A as a first choice, it would be folly not to apply ED.  Unless, the family doesn't have the financial means to potentially pay full fare.  

We think the policy should be banned as it is clearly discriminatory in a larger system that is rife with similar barriers to entry for the non-plutocratic majority.  Not all schools have ED and many have a dizzying, shifting array of non-restrictive Early Action (EA), EA II, RD, REA, etc. that you need to read about carefully on the school websites.   As always, check your in-school university advisor to understand everything as best you can.  They are the ones that have the unenviable task of keeping up with all this.

All we can do here is share some data we have compiled.

Covid's Impact on American University Admissions

We have done some fairly involved analysis of data available from university Common Data Sets, yearly statistical snapshots released by most universities covering enrolment and admissions.  A graphical narrative of our story can be found here.  (Note this tale is most relevant for the 40-50 American schools that are, for some reason, most popular among domestic and (especially) international students.  The overwhelming majority of American universities are excellent, and not competitive to get into.)

The basic narrative is as follows:

- A small number of American universities were becoming harder and harder to get into as there was a slow and building race to perceived "quality" among applicants.

- Covid happened and all schools shifted to a test optional as they couldn't require a test that kids couldn't take.

- This led to an appreciable increase in the number of applications to said schools as many students who would previously have been reluctant to apply due to low test scores went ahead and had a try.

- Universities largely did not increase enrolment and hence the admit rate among these schools dropped even faster than pre-Covid trends.

- Admit rate is a key metric of the many university ranking systems that have far more influence than is merited.  

- The majority of students enrolling in these schools did submit test scores, though the actual admit rates with and without scores is not public.

- Universities know that if they start requiring tests then there will be a drop in application numbers, a rise in admit rates, and fall in their rankings - perhaps leading to a cycle of even lower application numbers, rinse, repeat.

- A few universities have reverted back to test required based on several fairly weighty studies that indicated test scores are a better indicator of potential collegiate success compared to GPAs that have been further inflated by Covid.  These have generally been schools that don't need to worry about application volume as their high rankings are assured (Harvard, Yale, MIT, CalTech, etc,).

- Universities in the test optional camp often list test scores as "important"" in admissions decisions yet continue to have test "optional" as their stated policy.  Are test scores important, just as good grades, academic rigor, and CCAs are also important?

- High schools do not know which students submit test scores and which students do not, and universities do not reveal this.  This makes the admissions process more opaque and confusing for all concerned as is makes the question "do I submit scores" into one that is sometimes impossible to answer.

To help families better understand the admissions process, we ask that universities reveal the following information:

- International, in-state, and out of state admissions rates (many are now revealing this!)

- Admit rate for students that submit scores and for those that do not.

Universities will not start doing this until based on the words of a test prep provider.  We call on all students, parents, and university advisors to ask every single university representative they meet to reveal this information.  This will help families make better sense of the admissions process and make more informed decisions.

Domestic vs. International Admit Rates

Some universities have started including international admit rates in their Common Data Sets! This is exciting to data nerds like us and confirms what we already know: admit rates for foreign students are much lower than domestic, sometime much lower. It would also be very interesting to know how many of the 229 accepted international students are Princeton were helped by "institutional priorities", such as athletics.

We haven't included all the data but some schools get thousands of applications from international students but as the data show, only admit less than 4% of those students. Drumming up applications from international students who realistically have a small chance of admission is a great way to lower headline admit rates, as well as a decent source of revenue at US$100 per application or so.

Sadly, many schools do not report this data as the common data set initiative is technically optional. Please ask every university representative that you speak to from schools that don't report, "why are you being disingenuous (SAT word!) and not revealing data like your peers do?" Hopefully more will report in future, but they certainly will need to be pushed.