In the spirit of graduation season, there’s nothing like a great commencement speech to make you laugh and leave you a little more inspired!
Jerry Seinfeld at Duke, 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76QV2SrSqgo
Conan O'Brien at Dartmouth, 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmDYXaaT9sA
Steve Jobs at Stanford, 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FM1f_bjhpU
End of the School Year Reminders
Thank your teachers, coaches, and mentors. It helps strengthen those relationships and lays the groundwork for requesting personal and compelling letters of recommendation.
Update your activity log at the end of the school year. A little attention to noting your involvements is a goldmine for crafting your resume and filling out the activities list on the Common App. If anything notable, amusing, humbling, or exhilarating happened during the course of those activities, write that down as well!
College Admissions News
One of our main takeaways from this year’s admissions cycle is the increasing use of Yield Protection and waitlists at “Tier 2” schools. High-achieving applicants without sufficient demonstrated interest may be waitlisted or denied if they are perceived as unlikely to choose the school over higher-ranked options. This dynamic is particularly evident at schools such as Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane University, University of Richmond, and Boston College, all of which compete heavily for students who are also admitted to more selective universities. State schools are affected as well; the University of Georgia just offered admission to 1100 waitlisted students.
In addition, we continue to see that declining birth rates are creating a bifurcated market. Very selective institutions continue to see sustained demand, while mid-tier schools face enrollment pressure and respond with increased merit aid and more aggressive recruitment strategies. This results in a system where early-round strategy becomes even more important.
A recent analysis by Dartmouth suggests that the return of standardized testing requirements at some selective institutions may be contributing to a decrease in application volume. Our recent conversation with the University of Miami provided anecdotal support to this trend. After years of record-breaking application volume, Miami is actively grappling with this transition.
Institutions such as Virginia Tech are incorporating AI tools to assist in application essay review. In the near future, AI will become prevalent for parsing academic records and identifying patterns at scale. This reflects a broader shift toward more structured and data-informed evaluation.
On a related note, in light of the recently published Yale study undertaken by their Committee on Trust in Higher Education which described the holistic admissions process as “subjective and hard to explain,” we predict that holistic admissions will evolve to become layered with AI at even the most elite institutions. This will eventually upend the admissions office ethos where individual review has been both a point of pride, as well as a key element of their marketing strategy.
Wishing you a wonderful start to your summer!
Warm regards,
The MCA Team