College Smart Families,
For those of you who I haven’t met yet, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Ed McCarthy, Catherine’s son, who will be joining the College Smart Advising team and helping with a handful of clients this year. I’m a Navy Veteran, long-time alumni interviewer, and experienced project manager. I love coaching and look forward to meeting everyone. I have availability to take on clients this fall, so if you have any friends or family who need a counselor to help get through crunch time this year, please reach out.
One of the items that I’m taking on is sending out a monthly email with updates on all things college applications from financial aid to legal battles. My goal is to provide some good information to answer questions and help all our clients feel fully informed throughout this once-in-a-lifetime college application experience Here’s the first go at it:
The top story has been the Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action where the practice of race-based admissions was overturned. This is a rapidly evolving element and is happening so close to the class of 2024 admissions cycle that there’s likely to be a lot of confusion throughout this cycle. We believe that schools will comply with the letter of the law and find ways to build the student body that they want, after all Chief Justice Roberts did explicitly permit, and I quote, “Nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life.”
Politico – Biden Administration College Admissions Guidance to Come
NYT – Application Essays About “Life Experience” Are Still Legal
Perhaps my favorite article of the past couple of weeks was from the New York Times, which investigated the effect of wealth on admissions rates. It found that at elite universities (Ivy’s and pseudo-Ivy’s) admit the top 0.1% of wealthy applicants at a rate that’s 2.2x higher than their academic records and test scores would suggest. Unfortunately, the data shows that this practice largely comes at the cost of the upper middle class, where the 65th-98th percentile income families actually fare worse than would otherwise be predicted. It’s a fascinating read.
NYT – Being Very Rich is its Own Qualification
The next topic is Legacy Admissions, the practice of giving preferential treatment to students who are related to alumni. It’s often been used as a tiebreaker given that there’s evidence of economic benefit from admitting legacy students since they’re more likely to be able to pay a larger percentage of tuition and they are more likely to donate after graduation. The practice has come under fire due to its perception as an instrument to prefer privileged applicants.
New Yorker – Will the End of Affirmative Action Lead to the End of Legacy Admissions
The Guardian – Democrats Oppose Legacy Admissions
Lots of fascinating news going on. If you’d like to schedule some time to chat with the team, please reach out to us.
Thanks,
Ed McCarthy
College Smart Advising 