A New Calendar

These are weird times, and weird times sometimes need extraordinary solutions. College admissions itself has always been an odd process that makes applicants (and their parents!) crazy. How do college admissions departments make their decisions? Some college admissions programs put equal weight on grade point averages and SAT/ACT scores. Some colleges put more weight on GPA. Some colleges are SAT/ACT optional. Some colleges push a “holistic” system, stressing the importance of college essays, extracurriculars, interviews, etc. And some colleges -- who knows how they make decisions! I run a private education company, and along with great successes for my students with college admissions decisions, I sometimes have to console families who lost the “college lottery” for no apparent reason whatsoever.

Unevenness is the term used by one of my students, a high school junior, in describing the current distance learning and distance grading process used in high school: “I’m working harder than ever to show colleges that I deserve to be admitted, but many of my friends aren’t even trying anymore. Some teachers are running their classes as they always have, but some of my teachers are making the tests much easier than before.”

For many school systems, the rule has now become that students’ grades can only go up, not down for the remainder of this school year. So, what incentive do you have if you are a student who had straight A’s going into the crisis? You know that you don’t have to study; you’re going to get straight A’s again, no matter what.

Traditionally, most college admissions offices have dismissed freshman and senior-year GPA for the college admissions purposes. Also, junior year is often weighed considerably more than sophomore year because junior year is closer to the time when students will be attending college. Obviously, if a student has both a strong sophomore and junior year, this is the best scenario. Second best, though, is the student who has a weaker sophomore year and then rebounds with a strong junior year. This is referred to as “progression” in the college admissions world. Finally, there are the last two categories: the student who had a strong sophomore year and then plummeted, and obviously worst of all is the student who had both poor sophomore and junior years.

So, without a doubt, junior year is the most important component of the high school picture for college admissions offices.

College admissions officers could spend the rest of their lives studying what is happening during these final months of junior year in high school in 2020, and guess what: there is no way to get a clear-cut picture that will help determine college admissions.

So, given that perhaps the most crucial 25 percent of the high school record is unusable for fall 2021 college applicants, what is the fairest solution?

To me, the answer is simple: throw out the second half of junior year and substitute in the first half of senior year.

Some may object and say that college admissions departments won’t get the first half of senior year grades until after college application deadlines have passed.

My wife, Heather Chagnon Gruenbaum, who is a college admissions specialist, has come up with a great suggestion: move back the college application deadlines by a couple of months. Then, all colleges can gain the data they need to determine who are the right candidates to accept. In addition, moving back college application deadlines will also allow more students to take the SAT and ACT, so that colleges that would love to use that information can use it.

I realize that a condensed college admissions decision-making season will make for a bit of a hardship for college admissions offices, but I also know that college admissions offices would prefer to make proper decisions.

And, high school seniors, don’t hate me! You can still go into senior slump during the second half of your senior year. (Actually, don’t do that, because colleges have rules saying that if you slump, they can revoke your college admissions offer.)

Maybe just the mildest of slumps during the second half of senior year?