When to Start Your College Search

Another year of increasing admissions competition, with the Common App reporting a 6% increase in applicants compared with the same period last year as of March 1, has more families worrying about what they can do to advantage themselves.

One area that is often overlooked is determining the ideal time to start the admissions process, with the vast majority of families getting active junior year. This time frame has stayed relatively stable even with holistic admissions practices—which go beyond academics to factor in applicant traits, abilities and activities—becoming the admissions industry standard over the past several years. Whether colleges like to admit it or not, to gain acceptance into many institutions, applicants feel they must create and curate an admissions profile that makes them a good fit for their college of interest. Applicants are thus rewarded for thinking about college earlier than ever, because many of the attributes colleges value are developed years before the academic results colleges also prize. Students’ activities and passions can be expressed to admissions officers long before applications are submitted and serve to both “demonstrate interest” and impact increasingly popular “predictive admissions models.” These models, which include interactions with regional representatives as well as social media and website engagement in their analysis, are used by at least 75% of colleges, as estimated by education consultants AACRAO.

Interestingly, one recent survey of 4,700 students by Encoura Eduventures shows sophomores visiting websites more often, with website engagement now equal to that of seniors, at roughly 75%. While this increased activity may be a positive trend for sophomores, seniors are still communicating with college representatives twice as often. We believe that communication is key to better outcomes: our own work shows better admissions results among students who start communicating with colleges earlier. Encoura believes that their survey shows the potential of an earlier start to the college search process as well.

A survey done by EAB, a company focused on enrollment strategy, also highlights inquiry peaking senior year but does show sophomore spring engagement starting to pick up, a trend we think families should follow.

In brief, with signs that more families are starting the admissions process earlier, we believe those who wait to begin may be increasingly disadvantaged in the holistic admissions process. As this year’s admissions results roll in it is becoming ever clearer that while increased activity and an active and aggressive approach to college admissions benefits students, the same activity started earlier has an even greater impact.