By the time this magazine lands in your mailbox, ambitious rising high school seniors will have spent the summer working on completing their Common App essay. Launched in 2019 to streamline the admissions process, the Common App is currently used by more than 1,100 public and private higher education institutions in all 50 states. Other students may have spent their summer conducting lab research or attending a college enrichment program, all in the hopes of gaining admission to a top university.
To Test or Not to Test?
The landscape of college admissions is ever evolving, and the class of 2026 is set to face some unique challenges. Although many students rejoiced when universities abandoned the SAT or ACT during COVID, several have now returned to testing required. While some universities claim to be test optional, Chappaqua-based college application consultant and essay coach Andi Meyer suggests that families research data from the Common Data Set (CDS) at target schools. The CDS is a collection of standardized questions from the College Board about a college or university’s admissions and financial aid process, graduation rate and student demographics. The CDS will show if a school had a higher percentage of admitted students that submitted scores. “If you rely on the general notion that a school is test optional, you can put yourself at a disadvantage unknowingly, if you don’t prepare for and submit test scores,” she advises.
In recent years, several schools that were once test optional have now returned to test scores required. “The reason selective colleges are moving back to required testing is a student’s GPA plus their test score is because that combination is the best predictor of academic success” says Sam Hassel, President of Great Minds Advising, a company that helps a select group of high-achieving students (many from Westchester) gain admission to top colleges. “It protects against grade inflation,” Hassel adds, who often discusses these trends on his free podcast “The Game: A Guide to Elite College Admissions”.
Many college advisors suggest that a student take both a diagnostic ACT and SAT in their sophomore year to determine which test is a better fit for them. “This can help relieve the pressure of junior year,” says Meyer who often advises clients across the country to take a long-term calendar view of their four years of high school, so that students in their spring of junior year aren’t cramming for ACTs or SATs, Advanced Placement exams and finals while simultaneously going on college tours. “Whatever students can do pace themselves can help,” she recommends.
Merit and Financial Aid Woes
This year Syracuse University, a popular top choice of many local students had a dilemma on their hands. As the college deposit deadline of May 1 loomed, they saw that their enrollment numbers were lower than expected. Admitted students, some who had received no merit aid initially, were suddenly getting merit aid in an effort to lure them to campus. “Many families don’t understand that colleges only care about their yield,” said Neal Schwartz, Founder of Armonk based company, College Planning of Westchester. Schools want to know that if accepted, a student will attend which has contributed to the popularity of applying early decision 1 or early decision 2.
Merit aid is given based on a strong student profile and how badly that school wants a student to attend but now there are different points in the college admissions cycle when it is offered. “You don’t have to give an answer to a college until their deadline, so that you can consider all forms of merit aid from options of various universities that you’ve been accepted to,” advises Meyer.
While merit aid may be in flux depending on the institution, financial aid may also be diminished as the federal government places massive cuts on higher education. The office of Federal Student Aid provides about $121 billion each year to students in the form of grants, loans and work-study agreements, according to the agency’s website. How much it will be decreased and precisely how is still a work in progress, as of press time.
State governments typically are the largest or second-largest source of funding for public colleges and universities in the U.S. State funding for both public and private institutions reached an estimated $129 billion nationwide for the 2025 fiscal year, about 4% more than in 2024, finds a recent analysis from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
However, half of all states still gave their public colleges and universities less funding in 2023 than they did before the 2008 recession. As colleges and universities see their budgets squeezed, there is a trickle-down effect for student financial aid. This coupled with a reduction in the number of full-paying international students leaves students vying for an ever-decreasing amount of aid. How this will play out will vary by institution and depends on other factors too such as an institutions endowment noted the experts interviewed.
Positioning Yourself for College Admissions
Before a student develops a target list of schools to apply to, they should use platforms such as Naviance, Schoolinks or Scoir to assess if they are a likely candidate. These platforms list admissions criteria such as GPA and test scores from a national perspective. It is important to use the comparative tools on the platforms to see how students from your high school performed on admissions. “A school acceptance rate may have an average of 15% but what is it for your high school? Greeley students are not being compared to students in Idaho,” explains Meyer. While useful, these tools only tell one part of the story and don’t take into account factors such as academic rigor, extracurriculars, involvement on sports teams or special talents.
“There are a lot of macrotrends and noise out there but you still have to think as an applicant how are you best positioning yourself, why would a school want you and what you are bringing to the campus community and why that school is the right place for you to study,” says Meyer.
Hassel helps high achieving students develop a well-defined admissions hook. Many have perfect test scores and 4.0 GPAs or higher as their peers do at elite colleges like the Ivies.
“It can take multiple years to build that academic package and ensure that students are laser-focused on a specific topic that will differentiate them from the crowd,” says Hassel. “An admissions hook can be something, such as I’m going to study post-traumatic stress disorder in women instead of veterans because it is often overlooked and I’m going to work with professor X at your school.” Over the years, that student may have done summer research in a cognitive science lab or interned for a mental health advocacy group. “Many schools these days want a well-rounded admitted class made up of specialists,” remarks Hassel, who believes this is good news for students so that they don’t spread themselves too thin with numerous extra-curricular activities with no well-defined passion.
Essays Offer A Chance to Shine
While many colleges require an essay using a Common App writing prompt several schools require college-specific supplemental essays. “With the supplemental essays, there are generally two basic questions for students 1. what do you want to major in and 2. why do you want to do it at our school- the why part is important,” emphasizes Schwartz, who has sometimes worked with students on their essay and supplemental essays but has picked up contradictions. It has to be an authentic story and of course, AI should not be utilized.
On the topic of AI, there is a wide spectrum of how it is used in the admissions process. Some are using it for what Hassel refers to as “grunt work” by copying over grades from the admissions office to weed out students who don’t have the right GPA or test scores. Others are using it to rate college recommendation letters or even rank students.
Engaging a College Advisor
While our local high schools have helpful guidance counselors who navigate the admissions process, some families choose to engage a private college advisor as early as ninth grade. They can help with course selection and research opportunities. “I may meet with a freshman quarterly but as they hit junior and senior year the meetings become more frequent,” says Schwartz, who notes that it is difficult to influence a student’s trajectory if they start working together at the end of junior year. Meyer says she prefers working with students throughout their high school years too. Last year she worked with a student on an essay the night before an admissions deadline. “The student ultimately got into George Washington University (GW) but I don’t advise that,” she says. She recommends interviewing three professionals sophomore year and finding one that is a good fit for the student and parents.
The college admissions process is stressful. “One has to wonder how is the mental state of these students? A good fit college counselor puts less stress into the equation,” summarizes Schwartz.
Mount Kisco resident Susan Weissbach Friedman has been a practicing psychotherapist for more than 25 years. Many of her patients suffered from trauma and a few have been Holocaust survivors or descendants of survivors. While the Holocaust did not directly impact her family, the concept of intergenerational trauma and a lifelong love of writing inspired her to write her debut novel Klara’s Truth.
“Although I didn’t set out with the idea of writing a novel about trauma and healing on multiple levels – individual, family, societal, and geopolitical, I would say that Klara’s Truth touches on all of these areas as it focuses on healing past hurts and wrongs on many levels. The Holocaust resonates as a very palpable large-scale horrific trauma affecting millions, and in this way, it became an overshadowing backdrop for this largely present-day story,” explained Friedman.
