Two years ago I explained how I would re-shape the college admissions process if I had some sort of magical power to decide how everything would run. You can read that original post here. I still strongly believe in the basic parameters of what I wrote: a two-cycle system, where everyone is encouraged to apply early to up to—but no more than—three colleges, and then a much later round to fill in the spots that weren’t taken in the earlier round. It would push students and schools to act earlier, but the limit of three would also allow both students and schools to work more efficiently.

Two years of working with student clients has me thinking that maybe I wasn’t being realistic in my timing. Maybe an October 1st deadline, even if you’re only applying to three, is a little too aggressive.

But on top of that, colleges this year did actually make some big changes to the system, and I want to revise my plan taking those into account also.

The National Association for College Admissions Counseling, or NACAC, is the primary professional organization for college admissions, both on the college side but also high school counselors and independent consultants. It’s the NACAC ethics guidelines that actually determine some of the common deadlines—no application deadlines before October 1st, final decisions due no earlier than May 1st, things like that.

Under pressure from the US Department of Justice to encourage more competition, NACAC made two big changes to their ethics rules that affect applications. Before, schools were not allowed to offer enticements to apply Early Decision. They could advertise that the “odds” were better, but not offer better housing or different financial incentives. That rule is now gone.

Also, schools were not allowed to keep actively recruiting students after May 1st. They could only deal with students who had signed up to be on the waiting list. That’s gone, too. Colleges can keep working to enroll any student, even if they didn’t sign up to be on the waiting list. Even after May 1st. Even as transfer students into the school year.

So, with all this in mind, here is my revised plan to single-handedly fix the whole system. It’s not going to happen, I know, but I hope some universities will at least think about why it might be good for everyone.

Virtually all schools would have Early Action applications due on December 1st, and every student who applied would have to commit to only applying EA at no more than three schools. I would eliminate binding, one-school-only Early Decision, but schools would be able to offer all the enticements and deals they want to their EA applicants. It would also be important for students to have their FAFSA sent out by December 1st. Colleges would get their acceptance letters and financial aid offers out by February 1st, and students would have until March 1st to make their decision. That’s a two months earlier than the current May 1st deadline for decisions, but remember that students would be deciding amongst three offers at most.

Then, after March 1st, any colleges that still have openings and any students that haven't found their place (or didn't make the December 1st deadline) can have another spring round. They could set a second deadline as soon or as late as they want, or they could work on a rolling admissions process. It would be pretty open and flexible. There’s no longer any reason to maintain a May 1st deadline.

This would be challenging to colleges. They would need to move fast to process all those early applications and get financial aid offers out. They would also have a lot less time for marketing to the students they accept to get those students to commit. However, admissions personnel would have a lot fewer applications to read. They wouldn't be spending nearly as much time working through applications for students who have no real expectation of attending but only applied out of a "why not?" attitude. Because students would only apply to three or fewer, all December applicants would show demonstrated interest, and if December 1st becomes the norm then all the top students will be part of that early round. There would be a lot fewer EA applicants deferred to the next round, because the next round would be too late for a lot of people. A lot of universities would have most--if not all--of their seats filled by the end of the January.

Sure, students could get another acceptance in the spring round and pull out of their spot, but not a whole lot of seniors are going to say "I have an acceptance and financial aid offer from one of my top three schools, but I'm going to put myself through another round of admissions…just in case." Senioritis would work in the school's favor for once.

This would also be challenging to students. Most of them would have to start their application process much earlier than is the norm, being done before the middle of their senior year. They would also have to be much more critical in their choices. It's common to apply to more than ten schools, so narrowing it down to three at the outset would be a hard process for many seniors.

The advantage is that most students would be completely finished by March 1st, instead of May 1st. The spring of 12th grade is way more stressful for a lot of students than the fall. There's more work in the fall getting the applications filled out and submitted, but too many seniors delay the really hard decisions until spring. They just apply to a bunch of schools and “see what happens.” That's why, as a 12th grade AP Literature teacher, I always had a lot more student absences in the spring than the fall. Students were going on more college visits and working furiously to get scholarships once they finally saw their financial aid offers.

And for students not finished by March 1st, there would still be the spring admissions season. Universities would have clear ideas about how many and what kind of students they still need, and students could apply to as many of these openings as they want--not just three from the early round.

Both students and universities would need to get started sooner, with a heavy focus on 11th grade instead of thinking of university admissions as mostly a 12th grade thing. But I think that would be a good change. Parents and families would also need to be able to complete the FAFSA sooner. Now that FAFSA allows "prior-prior year" data, and allows you to upload data directly from the IRS, this shouldn’t necessarily be difficult.

One of the best effects of my two-cycle plan is that it would drastically alter college rankings and reputation. Right now universities get more publicity and prestige for rejecting applicants than for accepting them. "Elite" and "Selective" are practically synonymous, so schools are rewarded for attracting lots of applications just so they can turn them down. This isn't efficient for anyone. If most students only applied to three schools, there could be a great leveling-out of acceptance rates. Students could more easily choose schools for qualities other than selectivity and the fake prestige that comes from it, and schools could be ranked highly for serving their students rather than rejecting their applicants.

My system isn't going to get implemented any time soon, but--assuming you're not a current senior--you can still take advantage of the basic ideas:

Start your college search earlier; don't wait until your senior year.

Do your research ahead of time and apply to 4-8 schools instead of 10-20.

Apply before the earliest non-binding deadline for all the schools.

Talk to your family about money as soon as possible and have your FAFSA ready to go.

You can't make the system good and efficient for everyone, but you can decide to make it better and more efficient for you. And that's probably good enough.

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Photo by Angela Elisabeth.