I wrote a few days ago about Jeff Selingo’s recent blog post, The Long Tail of the Pandemic, in which he discusses the lasting impacts of the global health crisis on the college admissions process. He concludes with what I found to be the most striking point in his blog:
The pandemic will have a very long tail in admissions. Many parts of applicants’ files are baked long before they begin the college search—from the courses they take (or don’t take) in eighth grade, to the activities they start in elementary school, to the teachers they get to know as freshmen. As long as this generation of students makes choices about what they do or don’t do in school based on their experience this past year, the effects of the pandemic will live on in college applications for years to come.
As someone who has guided students through the college application process for over 20 years and who has observed how students can and do grow and change in remarkable ways throughout high school, I reeled at the notion that their applications are “baked long before” they are submitted. What a fatalistic perspective to take! Certainly, students have agency and can choose to change their course. They can join clubs, be involved in community service, hone their artistic talents, start a Chess Club, or improve their study habits to turn those Bs into As. I’ve watched the reserved boy be elected captain of his school’s debate team and the nerdy kid land a starring role in the school’s musical. Students come into their own, in their own way and time, and the 11th grader bears only a vague resemblance to their elementary school self.
But I believe Jeff Selingo’s point is this: Regardless of the opportunities that will present themselves in high school for students to demonstrate the fuller extent of their talents and abilities unless they start on that trajectory early, they might never have the chance. With a few exceptions, a student who doesn’t start playing “their sport” in middle school (and in many cases earlier) probably isn’t going to be recruited to play in college. Musicians who start their instrument late won’t have time to develop the skills and technique to pass selective auditions. Children who don’t go to summer camp won’t get to be CITs when they are older just as those who didn’t go to church regularly won’t have the chance to teach Sunday School. In short, some opportunities to demonstrate talent and leadership are closed out to late-comers.
When I meet with a 9th or 10th grader, it’s not hard to predict their course sequence through high school. While I can’t predict which elective classes they might take, it’s not hard to guess if they are on track to take AP or Honors classes. We can easily figure out how far along the math and foreign language sequence the student will get and you can give a good guess at where their SAT scores will fall. So, Selingo is right: Course selection as early as middle school can predict course selection in high school and, ultimately, class rank.
So, what is the take-away for those of us who believe in self-determination? It’s been a hard year. We’ve all pulled back on our activities either out of prudence or lack of opportunity. But when it is safe to do so and when we are ready, we must encourage our children to jump back in, join a team, play their clarinets, try out for a role in a play, and take up new hobbies. Students should be placed in classes that are appropriately challenging and seek opportunities to be deeply engaged in extracurricular activities in order to open up the opportunities available to them to demonstrate their skills and qualities in the years ahead
But I disagree with Selingo on one point — students should not be motivated to do these things because it will make them better and stronger college applicants, but because it will make them better and stronger people. While maybe it is the case that decisions made for our children when they are young point them along a prescribed path, we can all think of examples of people who have changed course mid-career, mid-life, and even mid-sentence. We should worry about making the best decision we can, at the moment, with the information we have, and taking into the strongest consideration what our children most need AT THAT MOMENT, not what they’ll need years down the road.