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College Admissions Jargon Explained  By UFit College Consulting It’s August, which means the kids are getting ready to go back to school and, if you are the parent of a high school junior or senior, you are going to start hearing a lot about the college admissions process. As with many other industries, the college industry uses many buzzwords that can be unfamiliar and confusing to anyone who is a newbie to this process. To help make things a little easier, we will outline some of the most common college admissions buzzwords and explain what they mean. We will start with the multiple ways students can choose to submit their college applications.
When many of us parents applied to college, there was a single deadline for submitting applications and admission decisions were mailed out on a given date or on a rolling basis. If you are like us, you probably remember checking the mailbox daily and hoping to find a fat envelope which meant good news. Today, most colleges offer a variety of application deadlines to students and a subsequent variety of decision notification dates. Understanding all of these options as well as their acronyms will be the focus of this blog. ED stands for Early Decision (the binding one). Applying to a school early decision or ED means that if your student submits their application for their top-choice college by the ED deadline, they will receive an admission decision by the middle to the end of December. This is a binding decision, meaning if your student is offered admission, they must attend. Therefore, we only advise students to apply ED if there is one college -- from their curated list of colleges -- that they want to attend more than any of the others on their list. For some competitive colleges, applying ED can increase your student’s chances of admission a great deal, but they can only apply ED to one school. If your student gets admitted during the ED round, all other EA applications or rolling admission decisions have to be withdrawn. EA stands for Early Action. Some schools do not have an ED option, but they may have the non-binding early action option. If a student applies to a school early action, they must submit their application by the EA deadline and, in exchange, they will hear back from the college earlier than those who did not submit the application by the EA deadline. Students are not limited on the number of colleges they can apply to early action. Usually, students can apply EA to public schools and some private colleges along with an application to an ED school. SCEA stands for Single Choice Early Action. It is also commonly called Restricted Early Action. Only a handful of very selective colleges offer this option, and while SCEA is a non-binding agreement, there are varying rules regarding what other colleges you can also apply to in the early cycle. The advantage of applying to a top-choice college SCEA is that you will receive your admissions decision in December rather than March, while also signaling your strong commitment to the school. However, the opportunity cost here is that your student will likely not be able to submit an early application to any other private colleges. This choice is great for someone who has an extremely competitive application profile. Deadline for applying SCEA is typically November 1st. If you are accepted in December, you still have until May to make your final decision. RD stands for Regular Decision. All colleges have a general application deadline that is the latest date students can apply. This is the regular decision deadline. Applying to a college regular decision is non-binding, and students can apply to as many schools as they want. They will just receive their decisions later than if they had applied ED or EA. January 1st is a common deadline for regular decision applications, but the date varies from college to college. Rolling Admissions: Some schools process applications as they receive them and send out admissions decisions on a rolling basis. Some rolling admissions schools get back to students as quickly as within a week or two. The earlier a student submits their application to a rolling admissions school, the earlier they will hear back. ED I and ED II (both are binding). Recently, some colleges have added an ED II application option. To explain the difference between ED I and ED II, imagine that your student has applied to their top-choice school ED I but is rejected when admissions decisions come out in December. They would then have the option of applying ED II to a different school that offers this option, which is ideal if they have a clear second choice. Like all ED decisions, an ED II decision is binding. If your student is accepted by the school they apply to ED II, the same rules apply; they must attend that school. ED II deadlines are usually in early January (shortly after ED I decisions come out). If your student has already applied to their second-choice school early action or regular decision, they can change their application to ED II at any college that has this option. Similar to applying ED I, applying ED II can make it easier to get into some schools because you are committing to attend that school, if accepted. Having so many application options can be both a blessing and curse for students (and parents) today. The terminology can be confusing and looking up all the options offered by each school on your student’s college list can be time consuming. However, being strategic about how and when to apply to each school can help yield the best possible outcome for your student - being accepted to one or more of their top-choice colleges! If you and your student need help navigating this complicated territory and creating an application strategy, please reach out to UFit College Consulting. Our certified college consultants would be happy to guide you.
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How to Showcase Character in Your College Application  By UFit College Consulting There are many parts that sum up a college application: personal statement, essays, activities, awards, academic profile, recommendations, and test scores. From all these tangible pieces of your application, admissions officers read, evaluate, and form opinions about who you are, not only as a student, but as a person. What can you do to make sure that you are represented not only by your academic record, but also by your character?
A student’s character assessment has increasingly become an important part of the college application process. Admissions officers want students who will be contributing members of their college community, will uphold the values of the university and its mission, and exhibit traits such as kindness and compassion. They are looking for students who will be a good friend and a source of inspiration for fellow students. A person’s character can be stratified in many layers. Most admissions officers look for evidence of the these four types of character.:
It is important to exhibit these strong character traits in your application without spelling them out. Usually, character assessment tends to be an inference-based exercise. It is something that should be inherent in your application and easily revealed to the reader. There are several ways in which your application can reflect your character and who you are as a person:
Demonstrating character in a college application is not about creating a checklist of items to draw attention to your qualities, but more about being true to yourself and to your commitments. Your accomplishments, interactions, interests, and passions will be the gateway to illustrate your multidimensional strengths and character traits. At UFit College Consulting, we can help you develop an application that will bring your innate qualities to the surface and accurately represent you and your character, beyond the quantitative aspects of your application.  By UFit College Consulting Are Letters of Recommendation an Important Part of the College Application? Many colleges require students to submit letters of recommendation from their high school counselor and two teachers. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that admissions officers won’t look at these letters or that providing them do nothing more than check a box. If a college wants you to submit these letters, it is because they use them in their holistic evaluation of your application. In fact, admissions officers say that in the absence of test scores, the letters of recommendation have become an increasingly important factor in their overall evaluation of you as a student and a person. Who Should Write the Letters of Recommendation? Apart from the required letter of recommendation from the high school counselor, students need two recommendations from teachers. Ideally, you should ask your junior year core subject teachers (English, Math, Science, Foreign Language, or Social Studies). Ask teachers you feel know you well, you have a rapport with, and in whose classes you did well. If you are going to be pursuing a STEM major in college, make sure you ask at least one math or science teacher to write your recommendation. Similarly, if you will be studying humanities in college, ask an English or social studies teacher to write one of your recommendations. If you will be studying fine arts or performing arts, those majors may have a supplemental application that requires an additional recommendation from a teacher or mentor who knows you and your artistic endeavors. In addition to your academic recommendations, some colleges will allow you to submit additional letters of recommendation. If you have had a job or internship, do community service work, or are involved in any social, religious, or political organizations, you should consider asking your boss, supervisor, mentor, or peer leader to write you a recommendation letter. These letters can add dimension to your application and provide further evidence of character, responsibility, and leadership. When Should You Ask for Letters of Recommendation? The ideal time to ask your counselor, teachers, and others to write your recommendation letters is in the spring of your junior year. Don’t wait too long, as some teachers have to limit how many letters they are willing to write, and you are not going to be the only one asking this of them. Some teachers like to write these letters over the summer when they are less busy, so if you are a junior and haven’t asked your teachers yet, do it as soon as possible! Be mindful that teachers are not required to provide letters of recommendation, so be respectful and courteous when making these requests. If it makes sense, set up a virtual call or an in-person meeting to discuss what you would like them to highlight in your recommendation. Such a meeting will go a long way in securing a strong letter of recommendation. It may also make sense for you to create a resume that you can share with your teachers. Don’t forget to thank your recommenders after the application process is complete with a nice handwritten note. What Should You Ask Your Recommenders to Write About You? For many of you, your counselors and teachers don’t really know you that well and because of Covid, they may not have even taught you in person this past year. Therefore, it is your job to provide them with the information they need to know in order to paint you in the best light possible. Luckily, this also provides an amazing opportunity for you to determine what it is you want admissions officers to know about you. For some of the most competitive schools, getting a resounding recommendation letter that states that you were “one of the best” students the teacher has ever taught or a sentiment along those lines, will serve as a differentiator for you as an applicant. Here are some examples of information you can provide to help your counselor, teachers, and others write a positive, anecdote-filled letter that goes straight to the college admissions officer who reads your college application:
 By UFit College Consulting This college application season, we are expecting to see longer waitlists as colleges try to predict yield rates in an unprecedented time. Not only did many colleges receive a record number of applications, but they are also confronting an influx of gap-year students from the previous admissions cycle. This situation has created more noise about how applications are evaluated and how many students are ultimately admitted. Decision deadlines have been pushed back and students are feeling more anxious than ever.
As decisions roll in, take a deep breath! There will be excitement and disappointment as you receive these decisions. Through it all, remember that there are multiple colleges that will be a good fit for you. If you get waitlisted from one or several of your top choices, don’t lose hope. Although frustrating, being waitlisted indicates that the college did consider you to be a good fit for their community, but the admissions committee needs to see how their incoming class will ultimately take shape to make a final determination on your candidacy. It is not a rejection, which means there is still a chance you could be accepted to that college. What should you do if you are waitlisted? Since most colleges do not move students off their waitlists until after college decision day, which is typically May 1 or May 2, you should absolutely commit to attend a college that has offered you admission, before their deadline. Make sure you are excited about the college you are committing to because a waitlist option may not work out. Despite the pandemic, some competitive colleges may not see much movement in their waitlists because they continue to enjoy very high yield rates. Others might see significant movement in their waitlists because of the uncertainty Covid has caused. Next, you need to assess whether you want to remain on a waitlist. How do you decide if you should remain on the waitlist? You should consider all of your acceptances to determine if you truly want to invest your time and emotions by remaining on a waitlist. Many students prefer to commit to a school that they have been accepted to, so that they can start getting excited about their college years and start building friendships and connections with that college, instead of adding the stress of being on a waitlist. Remaining on the waitlist means that, if accepted, you will be faced with changing your college choice later in the summer, perhaps after having invested a significant amount of time in the college where you have accepted admission. Students need to evaluate whether changing their decision would be worth it, depending on their academic goals and finances, especially, if financial aid is involved in the decision. Therefore, it is very important for students to reflect on why they would want to stay on a waitlist. Perhaps the college that has waitlisted them provides a greater breadth of academics, or it has a particular location that is more appealing, or the college has greater proximity to close family, etc. All of these factors need to be considered and weighed. If you have decided to stay on the waitlist, how do you remain visible?
What should be included in the Letter of Continued Interest? By communicating with your regional admissions officer, you are reiterating your interest in the school. Your letter should include any updates, honors, or awards you have received since the time of your application. Here are some suggestions for when and how you should correspond with your regional admissions officer after a waitlist decision:
If you would like help with crafting a Letter of Continued Interest, or general guidance as you make your college and waitlist decisions, please reach out to our certified college counselors at UFit College Consulting.  By UFit College Consulting If you are planning to visit colleges this spring or summer, you will want to get the most out of each visit, whether it is in person or virtual. While taking a campus tour is an integral part of every college visit, there are other important factors you should also consider in order to gain valuable insight into each school. After all, you are thinking of spending your next four years there! If you were looking to buy a car, you wouldn’t just look at the car’s interior and exterior. You would take it for a test drive, read the reviews, and talk to current and previous owners. When it comes to looking at colleges, there are many factors you should consider and explore before, during, and after your online or in-person college visit:
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