Isabel Rozes ‘24
Recently, the Ivy League announced that they will delay their regular decisions until Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at 7 pm, the official Ivy Day 2021. Ivy Day has historically occurred in late March, occurring on March 26th in2020 and March 28th in 2019. The Ivy League schools have also extended their reply date to accept or decline an offer of admission until Monday, May 3, 2021.
The Ivy League schools announced the Ivy Day delay because of the record-high increases in applications received. Harvard’s website stated that its undergraduate college received more than 57,000 applications from high school students seeking admission for its Class of 2025. The Harvard Crimson newspaper reported that this is a 42% increase in applications received as compared to last year, when 40,248 students applied. Other Ivy League schools experienced similar increases that led to the collective delay of Ivy Day.
The Episcopal Academy’s College Counseling Office continues to advise and inform students about changes to the application cycle. Cynthia Crum, EA’s Director of College Counseling, says that the general landscape for college admissions for the current EA seniors has changed due to schools switching to being test-optional and many students being unable to visit prospective college campuses in person. However, while faced with limited college campus visits, Crum explains that “students are actually better informed than usual because they are having to really work at learning about their colleges rather than just driving up and looking around . . . [students] have to dig deep and decide if it is really a good fit for them.”
The impact of schools being test-optional is that students “are taking risks and applying to schools that they think their [test] scores might have kept them out of, so the application pools are larger at some highly selective schools,” explains Crum.
The larger application pools and record-setting increases in applications are not exclusive to the Ivy League schools. Crum noted that Penn State, Clemson, Colgate, and other schools that EA students are considering are also seeing tremendous increases in applications.
Mariana Ramirez, EA’s Associate Director of College Counseling, explains that “the impact [of increased applications] certainly has been a deeper dive into the academic story of a student, but at the same time the caliber of student coming from the Episcopal Academy certainly is enjoying admissions all across the board, whether you are talking Ivy League or not.”
This year in particular is difficult to plan for because there are so many unknowns, as “colleges do not know what their yields are going to be,” explains Lara Greico, EA’s Associate Director of College Counseling. Yields in college admissions are the percentage of students who have been offered admissions and accept the offer to enroll in that particular institution. Greico explains that there are several factors to consider, including limited in-person campus visits, so it is understandable that the whole college process is going to take longer than prior years when it comes to waitlists and waitlist movement. She reminds students to “focus on areas that you can control as a student and the power that you have.”
Majed Dergham, Associate Director of College Counseling, emphasizes that the Ivy Day delay for regular decisions until April 6, 2021 has no significant impact. “[Students] will find out a few days later and have plenty of time to still make a decision,” he reassures.
While some EA seniors are waiting to hear when decisions are released, other students were accepted earlier in the process or have already committed to the college of their choice. In August 2020, Riley Pujadas ’21 verbally committed to swim at Columbia University. Pujadas says she got along very well with the Columbia swim coach and “felt a strong connection with the school, so I did not look at other options.”
Pujadas acknowledged that the Ivy League regular admission delay may “affect others with their decisions” as they may wait for their acceptance or look for another school. Ashley Lederman ’21 is similarly unaffected by the delayed release date. In December 2020, Lederman committed to play field hockey and attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As for key future changes expected for students at Episcopal with respect to their college search and admissions process, the College Counseling Office advisors are hopeful for increased access, inclusion and equity. Crum expresses that the “pandemic has been a game changer for all of us in a really good way.” She cites the benefits of the increase in digital recruiting and virtual college visits as an active part of the process to provide greater access to more schools.