Being a Good Regular Decision Maker
Just a *few more* words of advice.
If you’re currently waiting, fingers crossed and wondering if there’s anything else you can do now that you’ve submitted your applications, here are a few thoughts:
1) Send Your Glimpse Everywhere You Are Applying. Is large State U going to look at it? We can’t guarantee it, but we know that some do. We can, however, guarantee that if you don’t send it, they won’t see it. But seriously, if you’re happy with your Glimpse, send it everywhere you’re applying. We’re pretty good at getting materials in the hands of admissions officers, and at the end of each cycle, admissions officers we don’t know come up to us and tell us how our materials helped some student get in.
One more thing to realize: We know from admissions officers that a Glimpse-giver often gets more merit aid. When you get 20 grand a year of merit aid for four years, that’s almost $1000 for each second1 of your Glimpse. Not a bad deal!
2) Use Your Two Virtual Stars. Virtual Stars are tracked by many colleges (to the point where admissions offices run searches for these at different stages of the admissions process). A few rules of thumb: Don’t use a Star on an “ED” school—an “ED” school already knows that you are serious about them. If you want, send an email to each “Star” school with the simple language: “Hi Awesome U: I’ve applied, and I just wanted to let you know that I also gave you an InitialView Virtual Star that you can see with my [Glimpse/interview]. Thank you!” You shouldn’t need to do so, but again, why not?
Schools only know that they received a Star and have no idea which school received your other one. Stars appear as they are given, so it’s not apparent in our materials that you haven’t given a Star, particularly in the early winter months.
3) Add an ECHO: Anyone who does a Glimpse or our interview/writing sample has a chance to ask for an ECHO from an adult who’s been impactful in their life. This does not have to be a teacher, but instead could be a coach, a youth group leader, a boss, etc. Have it be someone who knows you well and who has seen what you’ve done in your junior and senior years of high school (those are the years that admissions officers focus on). ECHOs sit right with your InitialView materials and are easily viewed by admissions officers.
ECHOs work because they reinforce that you’ve got a group of adults who will go to bat for you. If you can show that as a high schooler you got one or two adults on your side, then there’s a good chance that you can “recruit” adults for you when you are in college. Whether you like it or not, your ability to succeed in college and beyond will depend on your ability to get adults with resources on your side.
4) Keep Checking Your Email: I know that you want to think that it is all done. You want to check out and enjoy your senior year. But the reality is that colleges are still processing data about applications. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re a viable candidate at each school you applied to. You’re what’s referred to as a “bubble” kid, meaning that you’re on the line and it could go either way.
In the world of selective admissions, this is where many or even most applicants are! It could be something “minor” that gets you in, or a last-minute addition that gets you more merit aid! So stay focused on your emails and don’t hesitate to keep taking advantage of opportunities to show yourself to colleges (it’s even not too late to do a Glimpse or interview if you haven’t).
It’s easy to think that admissions decisions are being made by an equation (or even worse, an AI bot), but the reality is that it’s still a human-run process. And success in a human process rests upon being noticed.
On a per second basis, our interviews (15 minutes on average) may not be as lucrative as a Glimpse—but they could still be the most valuable 15 minutes in your life to date.