The Truth About Getting In: Knowing Your "Battleground" Colleges

Regardless of your preferred presidential candidate, if you're like me, then you've been examining the Electoral College map these past few weeks for a little post-election analysis. Not only was I interested to see when Missouri will finally turn definitively red or blue, but I also can't help but draw a comparison to what high school seniors go through when developing a strategy for applying to college. As many presidential candidates know, winning the majority of the Electoral College is based on a few battleground states. As seniors feel the pressure of looming college application deadlines, I hope they learn a few lessons from this past election. Using Senator McCain as an example, students need to use their resources wisely by determining if their potential colleges are reaches (blue), targets (battleground), or safeties (red). This way they can invest emotional and financial resources appropriately to endure the next few months.

High school students need to develop a balanced list of potential colleges. In my practice, when a student wants to apply only to top-10 schools or all eight members of the Ivy League, I advise him that this is a risky approach. This would be comparable to McCain creating a strategy to campaign only in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey. Winning these top eleven states would result in 271 electoral votes, enough to win the presidency.

Regardless of how stellar a candidate is this strategy is ill-advised. First, it does not acknowledge the differences between states and colleges. For instance, the voters of Texas will have different needs compared to the voters in New York. In turn, Columbia's Core Curriculum and urban location provides a different learning environment compared to Amherst's rural location and open curriculum.

I encourage students to identify a few safety schools. These are like red states to Senator McCain. He placed minimal effort to win these safety states and students should have a few to ensure at least a couple of acceptances. Then, students should find two or three "blue" colleges. Although the chances of admission are slim, they should give it a shot. You never know what the admissions committee might do that could result in a letter of admission. For McCain, Pennsylvania was his blue state, in a way, his Harvard or Yale. While polls and pundits predicted McCain could not with the Keystone state, McCain still spent time and resources there. Even though he lost Pennsylvania by 11% margin, McCain's campaign knows that they gave their best effort.

The battleground colleges are where students must really invest their efforts. With a record number of students graduating in Spring 2009, combined with a depressed economy, colleges will be flooded with applications. Winning admission to these battleground colleges may hinge on a few items. Like North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, and Missouri, the final admissions outcome will be determined by how well a student has researched a school, the effort he put in his essays and interviews, and how he communicates his "fit" for that college. From my experience, students need to learn to invest their time wisely on these battleground colleges because subjective nature of college admissions decisions. Like convincing the independent voter, it is hard to read the mind of an admissions committee, or predict what they are looking for. A student should make an effort to understand how unique one school is over another. They can't simply expect an essay about "Joe, the Plumber" to resonate with every admissions officer or interviewer. With successful research and self-understanding and presentation, a student should expect to gain admission to a few of their target colleges. If they are lucky, he might get into all of them.

By putting one's eggs into a wide variety of baskets, a student can rest easy knowing he or she will get in somewhere. Overall, students should learn from Senator McCain's example. They need to know which colleges are metaphorically red, or blue, and know their battleground. When they do, then they can prepare themselves mentally for this long process. Like the long quest to win the presidency, it takes a smart strategy to be successful-- and that's the truth about using your resources to win admission.