Who Gets In and Why

1. Admissions is About the College's Needs

College admissions is not about you, the prospective student or parent of a student, it’s about the college.

Institutional priorities drive. Colleges have specific needs that change over time, sometimes year to year. These goals are set by university leaders and dictate the kind of class admissions staff must build. Needs can be broad or narrow:

• More full-pay students
• Specific majors (humanities, computer science)
• Geographic diversity (students from certain states or regions)
• Specific talents (musicians, athletes)
• Children of alumni or employees

Fitting the agenda. Getting into a selective college is less about being "worthy" in an absolute sense and more about fitting into a college's current agenda. A rejection isn't necessarily a judgment on the applicant's potential but rather a reflection of what the college needed that particular year.

Constant balancing act. Admissions deans balance demands from various constituents like presidents, trustees, faculty, coaches, alumni, and donors. This requires compromises, such as balancing the desire for low-income students with the need for full-pay students or balancing academic metrics with diversity goals.

2. Marketing Creates a Popularity Contest

What colleges are really doing with that mail is filling the top of their “recruitment funnel,” hoping that further down the pipeline they’ll receive enough applications to send enough admits to get enough Yeses from seniors to fill their dorm beds and classroom seats.

Direct mail revolution. The widespread use of direct mail marketing, pioneered by figures like Bill Royall, transformed college recruitment. Colleges bought names of test-takers (PSAT/SAT) to flood mailboxes, aiming to generate interest and, crucially, applications.

Boosting application numbers. Colleges aggressively market to increase application volume. More applications, especially when enrollment stays constant, lower acceptance rates, making the college appear more selective and popular to rankings, alumni, and prospective students.

Noise and confusion. This deluge of marketing creates noise for students, often ignored or seen as random. While intended to widen horizons, it can add to anxiety and reinforce focus on brand names, as students often only research schools they recognize from the mail.

3. Prestige is Defined by Selectivity

Once admissions statistics became public... they came to signify a college’s quality.

Selectivity as quality. The public release of admissions statistics like application numbers and acceptance rates in the mid-20th century led to selectivity becoming a primary measure of a college's quality. This perception intensified competition among colleges and students.

The rankings effect. Publications like U.S. News & World Report solidified this link by incorporating selectivity into their ranking methodologies. Colleges then actively sought to improve their rankings by boosting application numbers and lowering acceptance rates, sometimes manipulating metrics.

Two worlds emerge. This focus on selectivity created a divide: "sellers" (elite, high-demand schools overwhelmed with applicants) and "buyers" (most other schools that must recruit students). Sellers use selectivity as a key part of their brand, while buyers rely on recruitment and financial incentives.

4. Holistic Review is Subjective and Strategic

Although it has the veneer of numerical precision, holistic admissions is pretty subjective.

Beyond numbers. Holistic admissions considers factors beyond grades and test scores, such as essays, recommendations, and extracurriculars, aiming for a "whole student" portrait. While seemingly fair, its subjectivity makes it confusing and opaque to applicants.

Rating systems vary. Colleges use different rating scales (e.g., 1-5, 1-9) across various categories (academics, personal, activities, intellectual curiosity). These numerical ratings provide an aura of precision but are based on subjective assessments by readers.

Serving institutional goals. Holistic review gives colleges flexibility to shape a class based on priorities like diversity, geographic representation, or specific talents, even if it means admitting students with lower academic metrics than others who are denied. This process can feel arbitrary to applicants.

5. Early Decision Benefits Colleges Most

Early decision serves the needs of colleges and universities a hell of a lot more than it serves students.

Certainty for colleges. Early Decision (ED) requires a binding commitment from accepted students, providing colleges with certainty about a portion of their incoming class months in advance. This helps colleges manage enrollment and predict yield rates.

Gaming the numbers. ED allows colleges to boost their yield and lower their overall acceptance rates by filling a significant portion of the class with students who are guaranteed to enroll. This looks good for rankings and reputation.

Disadvantage for students. Applying ED limits a student's ability to compare financial aid offers from multiple schools. While perceived as an advantage for admission, the benefit is often exaggerated, and it compresses the college search timeline, adding stress.

6. Athletes and Legacies Get a Big Boost

Yet they rarely mention the unfairness of two other hooks that are uniquely American, far more prevalent, and perpetuate a culture of privilege and entitlement among students at selective colleges: legacies and athletics.

Systematic preferences. Beyond race or first-generation status, legacy status (children of alumni) and athletic recruitment provide significant advantages in selective admissions. These preferences are widespread and often benefit wealthier, predominantly white students.

Athletic slots. Colleges reserve specific "slots" for recruited athletes, particularly in less prominent sports. These slots can provide a virtual guarantee of admission, even if the athlete's academic profile is below the typical admitted student average.

Legacy advantage. Legacy applicants have significantly higher acceptance rates than non-legacies with similar academic qualifications. Colleges often defend this practice by citing alumni goodwill and donations, though research questions this link.

7. Your High School Context Matters

During my time inside admissions offices I quickly discovered that the unit being evaluated was less often the applicant than the applicant’s high school.

High school as proxy. Colleges evaluate applicants within the context of their high school, considering factors like curriculum rigor, grading scale, and college matriculation rates. This means achievements are judged relative to opportunities available.

Unequal playing field. The vast differences in resources and course offerings between high schools (e.g., number of AP classes) create an unequal playing field. Students from well-resourced schools are expected to take more challenging courses.

Familiarity helps. Colleges often target specific "feeder" high schools for recruitment visits and know their counselors well. Applying from a high school familiar to the admissions office can be an advantage, though it also means competing directly with classmates.

8. Financial Aid is a Leveraging Tool

Financial aid can sound like charity, but that’s not the best way to think about it.

Revenue optimization. For most colleges ("buyers"), financial aid is a strategic tool used to attract desired students and maximize tuition revenue. This is known as "financial aid leveraging."

Discounting, not charity. Colleges use sophisticated models to determine how much aid (often called "merit scholarships") to offer to entice students away from competitors, particularly those who can pay a significant portion of the cost. This is essentially discounting.

Need-aware decisions. Many colleges are "need-aware," factoring an applicant's ability to pay into the admissions decision, especially for students with high financial need. This helps colleges manage their financial aid budget.

9. The Real Cost is Often Hidden

The true cost of a college remains unknown until the financial aid award letters... are delivered to accepted students.

Opaque pricing. College pricing is notoriously complex. The advertised "sticker price" is rarely what most students pay. Actual costs vary widely based on financial aid packages, which are often difficult to decipher.

Confusing award letters. Financial aid award letters lack standardization, using confusing terms and often blurring the lines between grants, loans, and work-study. Many don't clearly state the net cost the family must pay out-of-pocket.

Late reveal. Families often don't receive their financial aid packages until after admissions decisions are released in March, leaving little time before the May 1 deadline to understand the true cost and compare offers effectively.

10. How You Go Matters More Than Where

Success in college is about how you go, not just where you go.

Skills over brand. Research suggests that skills and experiences gained in college (e.g., internships, research, specific technical skills) matter more to employers than the college's brand name or even the specific major.

Individual potential. A student's eventual success is heavily influenced by their individual drive, background, and the effort they put into their college experience, not solely the prestige of the institution they attend.

Broaden your focus. Instead of fixating on a small number of hyper-selective schools, students should focus on finding a college that is a good academic and social fit, affordable, and offers opportunities to acquire valuable skills and experiences.

11. The System is Complex and Changing

The system is beginning to collapse under the weight of increasing applications, questions about its genuineness, and anger about a lack of fairness.

Rube Goldberg machine. The admissions process has become increasingly intricate due to legal challenges, political pressures, and colleges' efforts to manage growing application volumes and institutional needs.

Lack of transparency. The opacity of holistic review, financial aid leveraging, and the influence of hooks contributes to public skepticism and perceptions of unfairness.

External pressures. Factors like the Varsity Blues scandal and lawsuits challenging admissions practices highlight vulnerabilities and fuel calls for greater transparency and reform.

12. Demographics Will Reshape the Future

After decades of fairly steady expansion in the number of high school graduates across the United States, the country is heading into a lengthy period of decline.

Shrinking pool. The number of high school graduates is projected to decline significantly, particularly after 2025, with a growing proportion being students of color and first-generation college students.

Regional impact. This decline will disproportionately affect colleges in the Northeast and Midwest, leading to increased competition for students.

Future trade-offs. Buyers will become more desperate, potentially increasing discounts but also risking financial instability. Sellers will face pressure to diversify but may struggle to balance this with maintaining academic profiles and revenue goals.

Last updated: June 24, 2025