When many parents applied to college around three decades ago, college lists and outcomes assumed a fairly predictable, linear order. You had your “safeties,” schools to which you were almost certain to be admitted, your “targets,” schools to which you could reasonably expect to be admitted, and “reaches,” schools to which you would most likely not be admitted.

Nowadays, however, college outcomes seem less predictable than ever, with students often being rejected or waitlisted even at schools that might be classified as “safeties” and “targets.” 

What exactly is going on? In this episode, we distill the variation in outcomes to different application components and requirements at various colleges, the decision plans under which a student applies at each college, and other factors such as “yielding” (whereby a college pre-emptively rejects an overqualified student viewed as unlikely to enroll). 

While many may claim that admissions is a random process, we instead take the perspective that there are systematic differences between applications that students can control and other differences of which they can at least be aware so as to optimize the precision—and reduce the variability—of their outcomes. 

“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.

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