The Reality Check What the 2026 Admissions Results Really Show

Greetings, everybody. It's just so wonderful to be with you this evening. You should be seeing poll that pops up. just so we can get sense of who's with us tonight. whether or not you're parent or an educator, what grade your child might be in. This always helps us just sort of locate. we'll get going in minute or two. And again, we're just so excited to be with you this evening. For those of you just joining, as just mentioned, we have quick poll up just to get sense of who's with us this evening. whether or not you're parent or student or an educator. what grade your student might be in if you're student parent or guardian. this just lets us know who's with us this evening. So, we appreciate you taking minute to let us know your background. In 1 more minute, we'll dive in and get going. All right. welcome everyone. It's hard to believe that the class of 2026, this year's high school seniors, have made their college choices. There's huge sigh of relief last Friday among students and parents on college decision day. And each year we try to unpack what just happened and give parents and students some advice about how to apply these insights to their lives. And more particularly to their journey to college. The panel this evening is spectacular. Lisa Bain Carlton, the founder of College MatchPoint, Amanda Edelhart, one of the senior coaches at College MatchPoint, and Jed Apple Ruth, the founder of Apple Ruth. This is panel who will spend the lion's share of this webinar unpacking it at sort of the unit of student at the at the decision points that student and their parents can make an impact on. This webinar is the first of two-webinar sequence, and some of you already signed up for both those webinars. some of you who haven't signed up for Wednesday's webinar, want to invite you to do that, and we're going to put up quick poll to let you sign up for Wednesday's webinar. Okay? so this evening's webinar is about statistics and students. All about the sort of high-level number that so many parents really try to understand because college admissions is filled with numbers, but then also taking it very micro down to students that Amanda has worked with or Lisa has worked with or Jed and his team of tutors have worked with. Wednesday evening, we go to the other side of the table. Lisa is moderating panel with four superstar college admissions officers who come from very, very different backgrounds. And so what they're going to try to do is explain to you what they saw as they read applications from this year's class of 2026. And it is great panel. we're going to leave this up for 1 more minute, but if you'd like to register for Wednesday, just say yes, and we'll take your information for this webinar and sign you up for Wednesday's webinar, which Lisa is moderating. Now, why does this conversation matter? Well, with college decision days and decision day, we're sort of capping this window of time that started sometime in January and ramped up over February, March, and April, where seniors and their parents become very aware of the decision part of the application. What they hear initially early from schools, ultimately what they hear yes or no. And in communities that we're all part of, in schools and neighborhoods, there are so many rumors and conversations and speculation about heard this and so-and-so said this and heard that school only did school And what we found over the last 18 years is to try to frame the actual results, both statistically, but on also at the unit of student, can really, really make an impact. want to though let you know that your panelists this evening have point of view. And that point of view is that this shouldn't consume your high school experience, for you as parent or for your child during high school. This is important. There's no two ways about that. But we hope at the end of this evening's webinar, you feel little less stressed and little more focused on what the priorities are and about what the questions that you should be considering. couple of logistics. we have next poll and that next poll says, "Hey, if you'd like someone from Guidewell, either on the test prep side or the tutoring side or the college counseling side, to follow up with you and set one-on-one meeting to talk about these priorities and what we learned, just raise your hand in that brief poll and we'll follow up with you tomorrow to grab 30 minutes and talk with you one-on-one about game plan for you and your student." During this webinar, we didn't encourage you to use the Q&A function within Zoom so that you're able to ask your questions and as best as we can, we'll answer those questions. Tomorrow, we'll be sending out follow-up email that includes link for this recording and includes some of the materials that we're going to refer to. Now, where does this information come from? across Guidewell, we work with whole host of students and within CollegeMatchPoint, the CollegeMatchPoint students that we were lucky enough to work with this year applied to over 500 schools and were offered admissions to over 300 schools. And so what we've tried to do, starting in February when we got the early statistics, and then rolling from February to the middle of April, when all the stats were in, is to really get sense both quantitatively and qualitatively, what did this year look like? and so you see some of the 300 schools that often times families are interested in, what about school or or We also spend lots of time talking to college admissions officers, being on webinars with college admissions officers, and talking to our colleagues in the college counseling educational consultant universe. What we want to stress to you is try not to be panicked by some of these numbers. Some of them numbers are big, some of the numbers are small, but instead to really think about how is this connect to your family's values. Now, at very high level, there are four four trends, some of which continued this year. Appli- application inflation continues. Each year we wonder, is this the new normal? Is this the baseline of the number of kids schools that kids will apply to? It is not unusual for some kids to be applying to 18 to 20 schools. We don't recommend that, but that has become not an outlier for many kids. we're seeing the rise of selective majors, particularly at flagship public universities. There has been huge shift to early applications, and if there's one headline you take away from this webinar, test scores are back. Even at schools whose announced policy is test optional, standardized test scores played disproportionate role, particularly at the more selective schools. At very high level, the Common App reports that over the last 5 years, there's been 40% increase in the number of college applications. The most competitive schools are just getting more competitive. Northeastern is sort of this year's example. It received the most applications of any private university or college in the United States. And many of you may have read or heard that there has been huge surge in the number of applications that are being received by schools in the South. Schools like UT Austin, Georgia Tech, Duke. What we've also seen is that this is really challenged the traditional tiers of selectivity. Many parents and families grew up with this idea of reach, target, safety. And you can see very quickly that we've shifted to role that sort of slices this down to level of precision and introduces level of competitiveness that really challenges the traditional benchmarks of selectivity. What we've done here is taken snapshot of schools 10 years ago compared to the exact same admissions rate for comparable {quote} {unquote} school nowadays. 10 years ago, you would have never thought that Boston College was on par with Cornell. Or that USC had become as competitive or more competitive than Dartmouth. So, your skiing schools, the sort of one that gathers the most amount of attention, has been flagship publics like Georgia Tech and UCLA. And so, we always encourage families, as they enter into this process, to sort of put aside the expectations of what you thought was the level of competitiveness when mom and dad applied to college or even 10 years ago, and to sort of ground yourself in the current admissions levels. Now, among this growth, it's hard to overemphasize just how rapid the large flagship public universities have grown in terms of applications. mentioned UT Austin before, 53% increase in applications over the last 5 years, Michigan, Florida. This is particularly acute for out-of-state students. Chapel Hill as an example is 6% admit rate this year for out-of-state students. UVA, 9% admit rate for out-of-state students, flagship public university can be more competitive than many of the Ivy League schools. Now, early applications this year carried more weight than ever. 65% of college applicants this year either submitted an early action application and or an early decision application. At some of the more selective schools, they're admitting 45 to 60% of their freshman class in the early rounds. And as result, you're seeing schools, Northwestern is an example, where 50% of their seats had already been given away by the end of December. Now, as result at some of the large public schools, they're beginning to differentiate by major. This is UCLA statistics they released two years ago. There have been some changes. Computer science is obviously less competitive than than it was two years ago based on AI. You can also see here some of the competitiveness at other flagship publics. These are schools where they ask student her major when she applies, and your odds of being admitted to that school are heavily heavily linked to your first choice major. As mentioned, test scores have returned. There was an 11% increase in students submitting SAT or ACT scores. We've seen this not just in the Ivy's, but we've seen it across categories of competitive schools. And this year we saw students who had test scores in the top quartile. So, the top 25% of the published test scores at school. We saw the top quartile be significant threshold for students who were admitted to these selective schools. Now, that is as fast flyover as could possibly do on stats. We're going to send these stats to you tomorrow. We have many more stats we're happy to share, but honestly at the end of the day stats don't even tell half of the story. So, what I'd like to do now is turn it over to my colleagues to really break this down at student level, and to to about the priorities and impacts for families. Lisa. Great. Thank you all for being here. So, we're hoping to really, as Bob said, unpack this and help you make little bit of sense of this. So, Amanda, I'm going to go to you first. one of the things that Bob talked about was this new levels of selectivity. where we've kind of broken it down into lottery, ultra selective, highly you know, so like like taking the selective category and broken it down into, you know, four different parts. Can you talk little bit about that and how you think what part of that hierarchy of selectivity student chooses and and the impact that that has on their ultimate decision. Yeah. Yeah, know. mean, think this is an important conversation to keep having because just like we know admissions rates change and popular majors change and demographic shifts happen, how we look at admissibility has to shift alongside that. And so, you know, we've had this conversation few times. The the term lottery is not something that people love when we use it. So, want to give some context to it because when we think of lottery, we think, you know, it's scam, right? Why would you play the lottery? and feel little bit differently. lottery is really about students understanding the potentiality of predictable outcomes, right? not matter of whether or not it's worth attempting, but it's about grounding yourself in not being 100% sure what those outcomes are going to be. And think something that, you know, we have chatted about bit is that when student can controls what they can control, right? And those are things that are limited. You can control how you spend your time. You can show control what you care about, how deeply you engage. you can control your academic choices and the rigor of your academics. You can control certain aspects of your high school experience. when you control for those things and you really pour yourself into the things that are authentically meaningful to you as human, that are authentically exciting to you as an intellect, whatever that might be, you buy that ticket to the lottery, right? You get ticket to play. think is one way to think about it. It's not that then you can you're guaranteed particular outcome, but in our experience, students who are playing with those tickets have great outcomes, variety of outcomes, but it's just an unpredictable outcome. think that's the real difference when it comes to kind of that lottery level. there are also things that students and families can't control, right? You can't control institutional priorities. You can't control demographic shifts. you can't control what the applicant pool is going to look like or how reader connects with your story, but if you are able to authentically pull together high school experience that really represents who you are as person and you're able out that and illuminates that for the reader, then you're again using that ticket to the lottery to the best of your ability. You're playing the lottery with the best possible hand of the things that you can control. So hope that kind of clarifies what we're talking about when we talk about lottery. And Amanda, if student, how when you're advising student, and you they obviously come to you and want to go to selective college, right? How do you help in your conversations with them. How do you guys determine where on that from very selective to lottery to, for example, let's just talk about early decision cuz many students who are going to apply to very selective schools are going to probably apply early decision. guess used to have this conversation with kids and this is why I'm curious how how you go at this, where they're like, well, only have one ED, so I'm just going to throw it out there for anything, right? Like I'm just going to throw Hail Mary pass, which doesn't usually deliver in my experience. So, in terms of strategy, how do you help students consider that so that they make the best choice they can? think that's really good point. So, when we're talking about that, you know, that connection between the student applicant and the school they're applying to, that is an important conversation. So, part of what do as coach, and think lot of, you know, all of my colleagues would say the same, we talk to the student about what their, you know, authentic interests are, what they've been engaged in, how their resume was pulled together, what sort of things, you know, have really motivated them through school and we talk to them about the schools they're interested in. And we really help them understand where that story is going to be read most effectively because every school has different priorities, every school has different culture, every school is looking at different things in their applicant pool. and some are really up front about it and some are little bit more obfuscated about it, but our job as coaches is to help students understand how well their story might resonate with certain school. So, that's one part of it. the other part of it is, you know, particularly when we have the benefit of starting to work with students earlier in the process when they have an idea of maybe some target schools that they might want to aim for. And again, as keeping the lenses open as possible for as long as possible, talk about what it looks like to put together high school experience that will allow for that to be read effectively at the point of time that they're applying. So, you know, we don't reverse engineer effective applicants. It's not about looking at you know, what school wants and say, "Okay, go do these things." That's never really effective. But, what we do do is talk to the student about, you know, what really intrinsically motivates them, how they've taken initiative, what really stands out to us on their resume, and how we can help them push that even further, and the schools that will really, really light up when they see that as part of their application. Right. And think that's such an important part of this process that we often miss. know sometimes you'll get, you know, you'll you'll meet student for the first time and they're like, just want to go to the best college can go get in, right?" Yeah. And I'm like, "Well, we won't know that till know more about you, because the best college for you is for us to know more about you to make that match." Because agree with you. think where we tend to see students have success and maybe sometimes even reach up little bit is when you can make that match between the values of the school Yes. and the values and experiences of the student. When when those two things start to line up, that's not guarantee, but it does definitely increase the likelihood. And that can be both activities and and and experiences. It's also character, you know, like what kind of character you have and what kind of character that school is looking for because different environments some environments are uber competitive and student who doesn't like that wouldn't thrive there. Other environments aren't. So, think it is while we put lot of emphasis and it is important on activities, do think it's also making that match on like kind of character and values as well. absolutely. There there are couple of schools and one's particularly in mind right now where know every single year they have an essay about how you serve your community, right? And that is an huge part of how they read these applications. And often I'll have students say, think really want school And I'm like, "So, how would you answer this question?" What would what how have you served? And these are wonderful humans, wonderful students who have done amazingly interesting things. But sometimes they haven't really served their community at all. And that's okay, but the match between the that school and that student might not be great match. And that's something that's really important to to point out and say, "Okay, this is something that really matters to this school." and if it's not an essay that you can write because it's not something you've experienced, that might not be the best match. Or if you're sophomore or junior and you love this school, something that I'm going to support is that what are you interested in? How can we find ways for you to serve your community in ways that you're really excited about? but you want to make sure that there's something happening for that student that aligns with the culture and the you know, priorities of that school and the the type of class they're trying to put together. And think when we do get to numbers that are so low as 3%, 4%, 6%, this really matters because they can start to sniff out like, this seems like one of ours." You know, Stanford has the roommate letter and can read roommate letter and like can't know for sure the student is or isn't going to get in, but can usually read one and know they're not going to get like like like we would need to redo this. But because there are certain things that they're definitely looking for in there. And so think that that that is all these factors as this gets more competitive Yeah. become exceptionally important. And the other benefit as was listening to you talk is this helps the student get better match, too. Like Correct. we can do this all the way through from the least selective school to the most selective school and and and and play the same thing. And so do think that if there is silver lining in how competitive cuz keep thinking that it's going to get less and competitive and I'm wrong every year. So that's not right. think that one beauty of this is what we're talking about also is helping pull the thread with student. That's what you're really saying. Yes. that's it. It's helping the student. Yes, it's helping the student experience high school and figure out who they are, right? That is the ultimate goal and then by having those conversations ongoing you're able to help the student see where they can really access what's going to help them thrive in the next stage of their education. Right. for sure. And think when we have those conversations with students also, it helps sort of take it just off the number of want the hardest school. It starts to invite them to think about what is really what jazzes me. I'm going to go spend four years there. What do love? think is is really really critical. So one of the reasons we really wanted to unpack this is because it's really easy to just think highly selective is all one bucket and it really isn't and one of the things, as Bob mentioned, is early decision has become critical strategy, especially for students aiming at higher the more selective schools. Amanda, are there any other things that you do with your students or that you think is really important when student does start to consider early decision? think one of the things that's really important to talk about is impact on the on the on the process, right? So, you mentioned at the beginning of this conversation this idea of I'm just going to swing for the stars and, you know, see if by putting in this early application I'm somehow going to magic the outcome want. and that is not generally successful. wish wish it were, but that would make my job lot harder, honestly. but you know, what we do talk about is you know, my job is not to tell you where to apply or where not to apply, right? But my job is to help you figure out, all right, if this is the experience you want and this is the type of environment you want, and these are the schools you're most excited about, these are the places where an early decision application could change your outcome. Because this school is going to admit 40, 50 at one or two places up to 60% of their class early decision. You are within the admissible profile, but are you so wildly admissible that you're going to achieve one of those 40% seats with significantly larger pool? Maybe not. And if this is the type of school you want, your best way in is to use the schools where you're going to get the biggest impact. Now, that is one strategy, and think it is very effective strategy for many, many students to you know really jump up level maybe. don't generally think that works with lottery schools. think if you're admissible at lottery school, you're going to be admissible generally in either round. and if you're admissible at lottery school if if you're playing the lottery, right? If you have your ticket cuz you've done everything that you need to do during high school and you are intrinsically motivated and you're self-motivated that your parents aren't pushing, you know, the bus that you're driving the bus yourself. All the stuff is happening. So you're playing the lottery, in my experience, you will generally have outcomes in the regular round, right? That is my experience over the last 25 years. so at the lottery level, don't think that early decision necessarily makes significant difference. Maybe Vanderbilt, but that just moved into the lottery process this year, so that's wholly different conversation. and think the same is think it's different ultra selective. think at ultra selective, early applications can have much bigger impact for students who are on the cusp cuspy in terms of admissibility. Yeah, and would say totally agree with you. think that for the most most selective, see lot of good results in regular decision cuz if the student just had the stuff, right? And so yeah, yeah. So do really agree with you there. want to turn it to you, Jed, just little bit because one of the things that we really have seen this year, think, and notice it with my students like like gosh, did one point make difference? You know what I'm saying? But the test scores and not just SAT and ACT, but also AP scores where they had them. So can you just talk little bit about that and kind of what you guys have seen and and kind of strategy for that, you know, because think test because we have grade inflation. Yes. which is very real. unfortunately, everyone is an student, which doesn't always benefit the true the highest student, right? Because it's hard to differentiate, especially in so many high schools that don't rank. So, test score is way to validate, if you will, what what we're seeing on transcript. Can you talk little bit about testing and, you know, kind of how now that testing is really back with vengeance and our tests have had lot of changes, what what you're kind of recommending, seeing, all of that? Yeah, when it comes to testing, mean, we we live live in world where A's the the culture of grading has changed so dramatically since all through all four of us were in high school. mean, it's my one of my good my my best friend's his daughter goes to the same high school where we went and we knew the grading culture in the late '80s and early '90s and his daughter like opened up getting 97s and 98s when we were struggling for 90. And you know, it was simply where the average grade for Helen Smith was about an 87. Now the things are, you know, the average grade is like 95. It's simply different time. different world where grades mean different things and norms have shifted and norms have changed, which is putting all this pressure when you have this kind of compression of grades and inflation of grades. and so it's putting standardized measures in very different light. And and that comes about for the SAT, for the ACT, and it's, you know, also for the AP exam, as you mentioned. And there's the issue of like fit to major, am taking the right classes, have the right level of rigor, do perform in that class? And there's performance in terms of got the in the class, but also, you know, if I'm applying to be something in in STEM or an engineer or, you know, if did get the four or the five on the calc exam? Did get you know, I'm applying for liberal arts thing. Is Is my comp all grade five or is it three? Is my US history push and you know, Euro? It When things fit and it lines up, it's all part of the narrative and it's consistent. and so testing it absolutely matters. we're seeing every year we're seeing another six, seven schools that are very selective becoming test required. And it's simply, you know, it's There's no There's no certainty. Like right now, if if you're rising senior, like for sure there going to be several schools coming in who are going to be test required. They'll often give year of grace. but we just saw at Claremont McKenna. I'm waiting for Harvey Mudd to jump in the mix. We just saw in the South in the past, you know, five, six months the string from LSU to Auburn to Alabama. They're they're they're they're filling in. Like the map is filling in. and so you can't rely, even if school currently is test optional, that they're going to remain so. Especially if you have, you know, rising junior. You can almost guarantee there going to be six, seven new schools coming in. And looking at What always look to is the schools with high percentage of students in their common data set, the enrolled students, over 60% or so of the kids who are enrolled sent test scores. That tells me that admissions office is looking more closely cuz not all schools have that. And then those kind of schools, like this year it was Princeton and Penn jumped in, Ohio State jumped in, all these other schools are getting in the mix for test required. And it's just going to continue. you know, it's some level with every domino that falls gives permission to the next school. there was minute where testing was anathema and there was questions, then suddenly it's it's really pivoted with all the research coming out from MIT and Yale and Dartmouth and Harvard Opportunity Insights and then all these schools saying without test scores we really can't tell who's going to do well here. Right. And the UT Austin the data there showing the difference of 0.8 points on the GPA for those who had test scores and didn't have test scores, UT Austin's like, we are requiring test scores. Not for any kind of high idealistic, high mind, but just because of the data. And we want to make sure kids don't fail out or are on probation. Kids without test scores were much more likely to be on probation academically at UT. And and so for many schools who are very selective, that's real. Other schools, their internal data that doesn't show that, and so they're committing to an policy of test optional. But even in in the world of of optional, we are seeing many schools like Emory and Virginia and you know, where where the test scores are optional, but man, they make difference. So Boston College, Boston University, where the admit rates and for couple years when test optional was new, you know, during the pandemic, kids couldn't get testing and so the whole world went optional because they had to. Except for the Florida publics and the other schools. And then for year or two, they gave out data. Kids getting in without test score, that admit rate. Now, they've locked all that down cuz they don't want to discourage kids from applying and they want to maximize their number of applications. But when we saw that data, we saw schools like Notre Dame and Boston College and Emory where it was two to one. Like kids getting in with test scores. Now, they don't ever reveal that. But look at the common data set and see how many kids are you know, enrolled with test scores. When that number is high, clearly there's philosophy in that admissions office that does privilege and prioritize testing. And so, you know, think it's it's good to have test score. There are still some kids who are not going to be able to get score that's competitive. And then we have to build good list. Like where their grades and rigor are here and they're outstanding, but their testing is really not even close. I'm not going to waste their time. I'm not going to use their resources unless they're so gung-ho on the school for financial reason. If they're looking at if you're in Georgia, where live, and there's the Hope Scholarship, is it Georgia would be free versus 80 grand year tuition. It's like, let's work on that free. or Alabama, you know, where tuition goes from, you know, 30 grand year to with the full highest level of scholarship, like $7,000. Things like that, where then suddenly it's worth the investment of time and resources because the merit-based aid is so compelling. with that higher test score. So, but you know, lot of kids it's going to be Now we have, you know, some 40 of the top schools are test required. That number will be higher at the end of this year. And then, as schools are test optional, it's still It's not test blind at all. And that was for minute that was concern that test optional doesn't mean like test are relevant. Not even close. these are There are many many things on your application that are optional, but are very impactful. Like your academic rigor. It's optional to take the advanced classes, but it matters. and so at many schools, there is certainly pathway. And what's interesting to me is getting really close to this. have, you know, this year I'm 50. have so many friends whose kids are applying to college this year where our freshman or sophomores in college. And understanding, you know, these scores, you know, if you have 32 or 33 and you're applying to Vanderbilt, and their middle 50 is 34 to 35, I'm Everyone's telling me to, you know, my good friend, don't send that 33. Which even though few years ago that would have been fine score, it's like, no, they're trying to maintain their branding, their marketing. And so for those kids, no. And When my my niece got into Tulane, the admissions officer told her directly, she had 1390. We sent that score to South Carolina, which he's he's graduating from in like week. We sent that score to Georgia, she got in there, but Tulane said, don't send it. We want 1420 or above. And so honor that. And so the same score will be helpful at these four schools, and will be negative at these four schools. So it's So kids are being very, you know, very thoughtful in these in strategy in terms of work hard, get my score, I'll use it here, won't use it here. And we're going to see more of that. That that's already deeply entrenched trend and that's going to only continue. but yeah, go ahead. Sorry. good. wanted to jump on this. do think that strategy point with where to send scores, it's like so much of this now becomes school specific, right? Yeah. Yeah. 33. My buddy and were looking at this like, "Okay, that's going to WashU where we have some legacy. That's not going to Vandy. That'll hurt you at Vandy. We've learned from the school counselor and two ICs. That's going to Georgia for sure. That'll probably be solid with 9 APs. That that, you know, Georgia looks pretty solid for us in state." And so, it's understanding, you know, with the scores, are you on profile? Are you above profile? Does it help you? Does it hurt you? But it's important that everyone get gets dual baseline. Everyone figures out SAT ACT, where do start? Am close to that threshold where this would be competitive score? And if so, the kind of resource and time I'm going to put in. It takes time to get the score you want. My The student who got 33 started with 25. And it was you know, it was three three-pack. And there's always, tell everybody, plan on three tests because of the super scoring and everything else. And there's still, you know, 36 on reading but the math still 29. What But she's going to be verbal kid. She's applying to program at Vandy, you know, that's that's liberal arts. So, that 36 on reading and the 34 English matters more than that 29 on on math cuz again, fit to major with your scoring profile. And it really matters with kids who are want to be engineers, want to be computer science majors, want to be, you know, it's business majors where there's all the finance and calculus for derivatives and pricing. That math score is the key if you're looking at STEM. So, you got to have good math score and that's what we learned from MIT when they went back test required 3 years ago. Then it was Caltech and Carnegie Mellon. of the top engineering programs, like over half of them now require testing because they want that math score. so, that really is critical. Mhm. Thank you. There's just so much on testing and we didn't get to hit on this, but want to get to some of the other trends. But one of the other key things is do think AP scores mattered more this year and think that it is now we're seeing kids prepping for them some, which can move the dial. Now obviously some schools don't have them, that's understandable. You don't need to worry about it, but if your school offers it, think it is becoming more important. That's right. There There is having them on the transcript for the rigor getting the points. But then like if you're UC now for the UC system, UCLA, UC Berkeley, man those APs make difference. Because again everyone they're they're they're blind to the SATs and ACTs, so anything that's standardized becomes more important. And because again everyone has an so that's not going to be the differentiator, but send you bunch of fives, okay, versus the kid who sends one five and I'm sending six, that's that's differentiating factor showing your level of mastery. Because so many kids now they're pushing them towards advanced coursework. Everyone knows like the you know, rigor matters, but many schools like the average on their on their APs there's one or two or three. It's much lower performance versus no, took the class and not only that, demonstrated mastery of the class and I'm showing college and there's all this evidence of college readiness of the AP scores correlating so highly with freshman grades and your four-year grades. So performance on APs and with John Latting live you know five miles from Emory is like we are looking so much more closely. We we know grade inflation, we know the grades don't associate as much with performance or ability or knowledge acquired, but we're looking very closely at standardized tests like AP exams. He's very explicit in his in his language. So yeah, there are schools like who are selective like the Emorys and the UCs where those APs make difference and especially to the major if you you know major specific AP and in terms of that's going to affect you and in performance especially for calc if you're looking at engineering or anything like that, they want to see good performance if you have it. was going to say, okay, go ahead. And then I'm going to switch you back to I'm going to go whole 'nother direction, but jump in whenever you want. also just want to say like part of this is about context. So, want to make it really clear that there are schools number one that don't offer any APs. There are schools that offer APs, but there's not tradition of taking the test for variety of reasons. So, it could be that it's financial bar to taking the test or something similar. There are some schools that offer IB programs, but don't necessarily require the diploma. So, you're doing certificates or only taking the test in the higher level. The reason I'm saying this is that what Jed is absolutely right that standardized testing is coming back. AP scores we have seen there be real value to having strong AP scores, particularly from schools where there is tradition of sending AP scores. Where there is tradition of taking for the the strongest students to take significant number of APs. So, everything is contextualized to your local context. want to make that very, very clear. That's absolutely right. If the best students at your high school typically take maybe three or four APs, that's your norm. If you're the best students at your high school typically have 12 to 14 APs, that's your norm. If the best students at your high school Yeah, the share is divisive that yeah, the norms are so different. Yes. So, just want to make that very clear to the people watching. Your norm is local. Yeah, that's such good point. And now I'm going to turn this totally to another direction. Okay, Amanda, back to you. want to talk little bit about the regional trends that we saw this year because think it's super interesting and something that we've chatted about. Can you kind of talk about and you have students obviously in Texas, you have students in the Northeast, you have students everywhere, California. So, can you talk what kind of regional trends you saw that you felt like were impacting admissions this year. Absolutely. So, think we're seeing lot and you're seeing it in the news and pop culture everywhere else that there has been big shift south. there's lot of interest in southern schools generally. There's very strong and vibrant social media presence, which think has shown what we've known all along, which is there's wonderful school culture, there's wonderful academic culture, there's just great weather. There's so much great stuff happening down south. It's pulling students in from all over the country. So, schools that were more predictable 5 years ago, even 3 years ago, are now wildly unpredictable because of that pull south. On the flip side, have seen really great outcomes from students applying from the south up north. so, you know, where have student applying to Tufts from Texas, that is going to help because Tufts is going to want more applicants from Texas. They have way too many applicants from New York and Massachusetts and New England generally. So, while we are seeing huge shift in terms of interest in the south, we are also seeing then corollary impact for northern schools and western schools to really excited to have applicants from from the south as well. So, think that there's been shift that way. we are also really encouraging students to think about what they like in these core southern schools, which are amazing, and helping them find those cultural opportunities, those academic opportunities outside their region or outside that region. and the reason that that's important is because these schools are becoming oversaturated with applications. We're not able to predict with the level of consistency that we would like what those outcomes are going to be. But, if we know student really loves certain elements of the academic culture of UNC, you know, we can talk to them about where those opportunities exist outside of the region they're applying from. Where their application is going to be more prized because it's coming from an area where that receiving institution is receiving fewer applicants. Right. And this this all depends on what location you're in, right? Now, one interesting thing about the Southern thing is that everyone like California is going there, the Northeast is going there, Texas going like everyone is bunching up in the South. So, and think for Texans, especially College MatchPoint based in Texas, is that that that's little complicated because like Texans have always wanted to go there, but now they're comp their competition is much greater because you've got all the Californians that want to go there and all the people from the Northeast. So, so it does like Amanda said really encourage looking out saying, "What is it like about that? And where else could get what like about that, right?" Is think very very good strategy because, you know, just getting kind of shocked at how competitive, you know, some of these schools. You know, always think back few years ago to the Tennessee, you know, jump from out of state went and don't know what it is now, but you know, yeah yeah, mean there it's just crazy. So, Auburn, you know, has become so do And think that's going to continue as long as everybody wants to go there from all all over the all over the country. So, And you you you have to think about it this way. And you know, if you think about Texas, right? Texas, this massive state, right? And some phenomenal high schools and some phenomenal students at less, you know, phenomenal high schools, right? And if you think just from Texas, the number of top 10% students, top 20% students who are throwing their hat in the ring at Vanderbilt or Duke. We'll just use those two as examples. And knowing that Vanderbilt and Duke are only going to take amount of students from Texas as an entire state. And then you look at okay, well, from Houston, from Austin, from San Antonio, they're taking just few students from each of these demographics. And then you start if you think about it in that global way, you start to understand the challenge that these admissions offices are dealing with in that they are saying no to students they would have said yes to in heartbeat 5 years ago. Simply because they're getting significantly more applications from the same demographic regions and they cannot take too many students from one place. They will not and can't. it's not good for the mean the university loves to be national university. Every university wants to have broad base is is is good for them in so many ways. So, yeah, it is challenging and think what's hard, especially for parents, mean, feel this being consultant for, you know, bazillion years, is I'm like, wait, what? Like and so think, you know, sometimes you if you hear college thrown out for your child and you're like, no, like they're not going there or whatever. Like that college might be kind of lot more competitive than it was, you know, back in the day, right? grew up outside Boston and feel this way about Northeastern. it's wonderful school. Northeastern's nuts. Can't believe it. YEAH. NO, you know, commuter school when was growing up in Massachusetts and now first years of consulting, would send so many kids to Georgia Tech. felt like it was like my little secret weapon in my back pocket for all the engineers. And they would all get in. And now I'm like, my gosh, you know, what dreamed cuz it was like 45% acceptance rate or something. So, you know, it's not 45% acceptance rate anymore. So, think one thing that is really important is to understand that when we look at results, all of this matters. The regions, the demographics, the where you're coming from, all of that really does matter. Which leads me to another topic, which is what we've really seen playing out over, don't know, at least the last 5 years, would say. And that is this whole thing around competitive majors and how much more competitive may specific majors. And think Jed did really good job of explaining that when you're taking your testing, that is important that your test score, really your whole application, you want it to align with that major, right? So, you want your academics to show that you took classes in that. You want your test scores to back up that you would be good at that. But, Amanda, when you think about this year in particular, what did you notice about the major choice making it even more selective for some kids. So, that's why you can't just take, don't know how many families I've sat with where they're like, "Yeah, but the acceptance rate is Number one, are you looking at in-state or out-of-state? But, also, that is not true for every major, right? So, yeah. So. mean, phew, it's tough. business business in particular, Yes. business coming out of certain demographics, is tougher. and so, would say I'll I'll just talk about business. For me, it was engineering for while, and now it is business. and to some extent, high-performing females in the health sciences. those boys in business and health sciences for for females, those have been really wildly competitive this year. and think that is down to popularity by and large. think that's been born out by lot of my colleagues as well. and so when you have students who are looking at very competitive majors and coming out of particularly competitive demographics, it's double whammy. and so it's important for them to one, be really clear about why that major is the right major for them. And pre-health sciences, you know, sometimes we'll talk about alternative ways to get into health sciences so they can kind of back door it little bit. but business is little bit harder to back door. lot of students really do want an undergraduate business experience. and so for them it's being able to articulate why. I've seen really big difference in success with students applying for business where they are very clear about the why. And that is hard to do as 17- or 18-year-old. and it differentiates students quite distinctly. where students have had some sort of commercial experience of their their own, where they have held job consistently, where they have done lot of shadowing, not big kind of bright shiny lights interning, but lots of shadowing where they've really interacted with different types of work experiences and were able to hone why their interest in business is what their current interest in business is, those are the students who saw lot of success. think, you know, it sounds unfair to say that that's what student needs in order to be competitive at these programs because it it's hard to do, but that's the point. It's hard to do. and that's why these programs are competitive. would say some of these business programs at schools that might admit 25% of their applicants are actually more in the lottery level in terms of their admissions statistics, although most schools don't publish them, the UCs are very good about that, but lot of schools don't publish them, but their applicant numbers for business and health sciences in particular are very, very high. And that is one of the reasons that it is really important to give that major choice some thought. We all can agree that as Amanda said, these are really hard choices for 17-year-olds and if was creating world, might not create it this way, but I'm not. And so, it is the reality of the moment at least. And so, do think especially if students think there is totally place for student who doesn't know what they want to major in. Yeah. But what think is dangerous sometimes and just I'm like, "No, no, no, don't do that." is just throwing an arrow at business cuz it sort of sounds good. Like if you did not strategically plan to be business major and you want to apply to competitive programs, it's probably not going to work out well. It's not going to be ideal. Yeah. You're going to need resume to back that up. And honestly, an interest an interesting resume is even better, you know, like not just like Amanda said, not just the shiny things, but things that do show interest in business and some character behind it, you know, think is is kind of the winning can often be the winning sauce. And so, it's not something that you want to throw dart at cuz like at school like University of Texas, you're one and done. So, you know, think that is is really risky choice to just say, "I'm just going to try it." You know, it's it's sort of like the I'm going to just apply to school that's got 3% an rate even though my transcript doesn't line up with that. That's right. would would say, and just answered this on the Q&A, too. do think there can be case for very, very well-honed undecided application. And I've same lots of these. So, think evidence of multiple curiosity, true intellectual curiosity that's like, "Woo!" going off in two very different directions, or where there's thread of interacting interests that has not been honed yet. Those are brilliant undecided applications, and colleges respond very, very positively to them when it is clearly the intellectual kind of push of the student to not be narrowed quite yet. And that's not unusual, but it's important to tell the story correctly. And that is so important. One of my most successful students this year, who he was just, you know, had so many interests, and was really kind of the great American high school student. Do you know what mean? In other words, he really was top of his class. He really was great test score. He really was and he had Texas summer summer camp that he loved, and he chose every summer not to play the summer game, and to go to summer camp. But honestly, at the end of the day, he just read like, want this kid at my school." Like, he had lot Obviously, he couldn't have been as smart at high good high school without this, right? Like, without all the stuff that he had. So, there was no doubt that he was brilliant. But was so cuz was nervous about it. was like, no, is this going to work?" And it did, because do think so much of this But he wasn't going for any of those majors, because he wasn't sure what he wanted to major in. But do think there is the place for that. But you've still got to show intellectual curiosity, engagement in your environment, and that you're making an impact on it. That you That place was better because you were there. Correct. And you got to have the academic chops, obviously, right? But it is 100% doable. So, hear what we're saying and not what we're not saying. If you don't want to be business major or one of these like highly, you know, really difficult majors, this becomes lot easier. do think showing intellectual curiosity is really important and and is especially at the more selective schools. Okay, we have time for one last This is going to be quick one. and Bob Carlton, feel free to jump in cuz you might have something to say about this. how do you see AI influencing do you see that changing or did you see that changing this year any students' choices in majors? So, are you asking Bob or me? Both of us? I'm asking you first and then Bob, feel free to jump in if you have anything. would say mean, think the biggest changes in terms of what students are interested in, did have lot of students interested in honors programs and think that multi-faceted academic experience. Mhm. had lot of students interested in well, for me, cuz work with kind of different group of students, liberal arts colleges and that idea of kind of not being tied down initially. Mhm. had students interested in internationalism in ways that hadn't experienced over the last few years as well. So, international studies, international relations, East Asian studies, things like that. but by and large, haven't seen huge shift in terms of majors. would say saw less computer science majors than some kids that think might have been computer science majors in the past that It's exactly It's exactly what was going to say. think that you know, if you look at it as category, it's felt like computer science and then all the other majors combined. some shift towards math, kids think thinking that's where they might be able to play role in algorithm, but computer science hands down the the biggest meaningful impact. And and engineering as mean, I've seen fewer engineers than usually do. Mhm. Yeah, that's interesting. And do agree that think students are tilting ever so slightly back into like honors colleges interdisciplinary, which I'm thinking as we enter more of an AI world that probably will probably see more of that in the future. This class, don't think it impacted them super significantly just because of where they are, but bet if we have this conversation in two years, there would be lot more to say about it. do think there's move also towards pre-health health care, which seems like it's going to be more stable space, the hands-on. One of my students coach, he's considering going to law school and we're we're having conversations about with cloud code and co-work and the plugins for legal like, am going to be able to get job? And like we're having the conversations. So, kids are definitely thinking several years out as they contemplate majors and then eventually grad school. Right. And will also say that has impacted some of my students' choices in terms of their outcomes. know we're going over time now because lot of them are thinking about next steps in terms of graduate school. So, they're thinking about their positioning for strong law schools, strong med schools, strong MBA programs, and that might mean that they're taking maybe different offer for what it offers them in terms of access to professors or access to research or access to, you know, the opportunity to maybe jump up in their next iteration of education. Mhm. my gosh, could talk to you guys forever. It's so much fun. just love to hear your thoughts and unfortunately was wrong and it was still competitive year. So we will beat on and hopefully this has been helpful and we really appreciate you all joining us this evening and if you want to hear from the emission side, join us on Wednesday night because we've got fantastic panel which will be really different from this one. And like Lisa said, thank you so much. want to thank our panel. They were just sensational. We could have this could have been not just one hour but one week. We really appreciate that. We're going to pop up again. You'd like us to follow up with you one-on-one, just let us know and tomorrow we'll reach out. But again, tomorrow we'll be sharing the recording of this presentation. Let us know if you have any questions. number of folks had really detailed wonderful Q&A questions that frankly with two fingers could not type an answer that was at personal detail level fast enough. So if you'd like to grab time with us one-on-one to get those detailed answers and to get sense of how we work with families, just let us know. We so appreciate your time and we hope for those of you that are parents who have been on this that this gives you some insights about what happened and how that might influence you and your students' priorities as you look to the next phase of their journey to college. Thanks so much. Have great rest of the evening. And have. Thank you. Bye-bye.