(from EdSurge):
By Emilie Cushman
Higher education admissions are in a massive state of change.
For some schools, it’s a race to the top: Higher requirements, test scores, selectivity, yield rates, and rankings. For others, the shift to a more holistic assessment or “looking at the whole student” means varying requirements, inconsistencies in the review process, and lack of alignment on how applicants are being measured.
Students are navigating a complex admissions landscape where this school evaluates them differently than that one or any other. Applicants have no idea why or how they’re being evaluated, all the while being pressured by their family, instructors, and the media to attend a “top school.”
If admissions teams can’t clearly articulate what it is they’re really looking for, and how they’re looking for it, how are students supposed to know?
This lack of transparency has created a new industry: Admissions consulting and coaching. Catering to university applicants’ desperation to get into top schools, admissions ‘experts’ have developed a business model based on helping applicants navigate the muddy waters of college applications. CONTINUE READING HERE