Multiple studies have shown that the coronavirus crisis has made us more depressed, anxious, and stressed. Students are not immune from these effects, particularly when they are juggling other stressors, including the college admission process. Remote learning, physical distancing, and the cancellation of extracurricular activities and other milestone events have only ratcheted up feelings of isolation and anxiety for many students – and all this is happening as they’re engaged in the college search process, which can be overwhelming in the best of times. Hear real-life advice from veteran college counselors for easing students’ mental health concerns.
Edward Truong:
Hello, and welcome to the College Admissions Decoded podcast, an occasional series from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC. NACAC is an association of more than 15,000 professionals at high schools, colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations, as well as independent counselors, who support and advise students through the college admissions process. I’m Edward Truong, Associate Director at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and today we’ll be talking about how the stresses and traumas of the coronavirus pandemic are impacting students as they prepare for and apply to college.
Our panel members are Norma Gutierrez, Director of College Counseling, Saint Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, and Celeste Suris-Rosselli, Director of College Counseling, The Baldwin School of Puerto Rico. Thank you for joining me, Norma and Celeste.
Norma Gutierrez:
Thank you for having us.
Celeste Suris-Rosselli:
Thanks for this. This is really great.
Truong: Months into the pandemic, multiple studies have shown us what we all know instinctively. The coronavirus crisis has made us more depressed, anxious, and stressed, and students are in no way immune, particularly when they’re juggling other stressors, including the college admissions process, or have a pre-existing mental health condition. Remote learning, physical distancing, and the cancellation of extracurricular activities and other milestone events have only ratcheted up feelings of isolation and loneliness for many students. And amid it all, they’re engaged in the college search process, which as we all know can be overwhelming in the best of times.
Lots to unpack today. Thank you all for joining me. Let’s get started. The college admissions process has long been a source of stress for high school students. Now, the pandemic has created a whole new layer of uncertainty, anxiety, and trauma. What are some of the issues you’ve seen students grappling with this year?
Gutierrez: I know for me it’s the seniors are really struggling with they haven’t had a chance to visit campuses. So, so many, they apply to many more colleges just because they wanted to cast the net a little wider, just because of the uncertainty. They’re not quite sure. And I feel like even in a good year, when students are able to visit campuses and interact with current students, and see what the campus community feels like, that part is missing. And so, that’s part of their stressors.
And then I feel like a lot of the students early on in the fall were, “Are the colleges really test optional who say they’re test optional?” I think that just makes them nervous. I think that nervousness has calmed a little bit since a lot of the seniors have received some positive admissions decisions if they hadn’t submitted their test score. The juniors, on the other hand, I feel like similarly, they haven't been able to visit campus, they’re not quite sure if they should try to test or not test, and then the uncertainty of what will colleges be like next year? Will colleges be in person? Will I have to be online or will I be able to have a traditional campus college experience? I think both juniors and seniors are grappling with those experiences.
Suris-Rosselli: I agree with Norma. For us, it’s been very similar issues. It’s from the simple to the complex. Having sufficient internet access, having stable internet access, being able to balance the fact that you’re a teenager and this is the time when you least want to be with your parents, and now you’ve been with your parents for over a year in lockdown, particularly here in Puerto Rico. We’ve been in lockdown for almost a year now, where any kind of activity has been severely limited. We are not receiving students in school, so it’s been real tough for them to engage socially with their peers, with their teachers, with us, and not receiving high school visits has also been tough, because that’s how they get a sense of the college that they’re hoping to apply to, because traveling is always difficult anyway.
Truong: Yeah. It has been. It’s been hard for all of us. For any parents listening, Celeste, can you explain why all of the measures designed to keep us safe, such as physical distancing, remote learning, presents a unique challenge for teens? Norma, how has the pandemic affected the discussions and decisions you’re helping students and their families make regarding college?
Gutierrez: Because of the uncertainty of what will college be like when they’re entering as a first-year student, it’s should they go away? Far away from home? Or should they stay closer to home? So, I think that’s been a big discussion with families, is trying to decide if there is another spike, a lot of parents would feel like they’d rather have their children a little closer to home than a plane ride half across the country. So, that’s one big discussion.
Truong: Right. It’s a lot to deal with.
Suris-Rosselli: For us, it’s been a little bit like that too, but we only have a couple of universities here anyway, so it’s not as if we have unlimited seats for all the students, so they have to consider traveling and being far away from their parents, but the conversation has changed to maybe they want to be a little bit closer. And it’s been tough in that sense, because with Florida public schools still requiring testing, and the fact that testing didn’t happen here until November, our students for the first time ever at The Baldwin School, no one applied to any public universities in Florida. And that’s never happened.
And now they’re actually going a little bit farther. They are going to Illinois. They are applying to schools in Minnesota. Because those were the schools that were on their radar and felt like they were receptive to the situation here.
Truong: That’s really interesting. So, I want to talk about college applications and want to ask both of you, for students who are experiencing traumas related to COVID-19, should they share those stories in their college applications? And what’s the best way to disclose those personal stories? Would it be in the essays? Or in the supplemental materials?
Gutierrez: Common App did add that question about COVID-19, how it had affected them, and we have been encouraging students to say if COVID had impacted them, either in mental health, or their grades, then yes, it’s appropriate to share. Especially if it impacted their grades. Every school is different as far as if they changed to pass/fail, or if they’re still pass/fail from spring of junior year to now. Colleges don’t have a sense of their A work or C work. I think just how it impacted them is good to share.
So, I really just think that students should feel free to respond to that question, how it impacted them, either positively or negatively. Because there are some students that took this opportunity to do something really cool, and learn a new language, or learned how to knit, or learned how to cook, so I think those are all great things to add to their college application. It helps the college learn a little bit more about who they are.
Suris-Rosselli: Same here. We made a decision to start by telling them that we’re not gonna tell them what to share or what not to share, because we didn’t want them to feel like they had a burden. This is not the first time that we’ve had to deal with a monumental life change here in Puerto Rico. Back in 2017, we had Hurricanes Maria and Irma cut right through the island and affect the students throughout the application process because the storm landed in September and most families didn’t get power for almost six months to a year later. So, they’re unfortunately veterans of this kind of interruption and having to tell some of these difficult and tragic stories.
When I talked to this class, I gave them the advice and said, “Maria is not all that you were in ninth grade, and COVID-19 is not all that you are at this moment in your life. And I think that you have really great stories to tell, and if that story does include COVID-19, then by all means, let’s work on how we tell that story and how we work with the tone, but if that’s not all you are, and that’s not all that you want to say, we have that option to talk about it in the Common Application, but we also have that option to tell another wonderful facet of who you are.”
Truong: Yeah. That reminds me of something that one of my colleagues many years ago, when I was first starting out in college admissions told me, is that we admit students. We don’t admit stories. That’s a really good summary of how complex it is and how we don’t know everything when we’re reading a person’s application, but it is important, and it’s gonna be different for everybody to make the decision that works best for them on what information they want to share and how much detail they want to go into.
In the short term, what are some things that students can and should do to look after their mental health?
Suris-Rosselli: That’s a tough question. In the short term, at least for us in our school, we’ve built a more robust school psychologist network, and had a form where students could enter it in confidentially how they were feeling, or if they were going through something, so that we knew to reach out for them. Our school psychologists have been fantastic. I want to give a shout out to… Her name is [inaudible 0:09:24.7] and [inaudible 0:09:27.3]. Both of them, they’ve gone to students’ houses to check on them physically, and just sit in their front yard, with masks on, and talk to them, and see how they’re doing, because their job hasn’t stopped. It’s been 24/7. So, that is one short-term thing that we’ve worked with them, just creating a larger network with our school psychologist network.
Gutierrez: I think encouraging students to stay active, I think for students who are totally distance learning or hybrid, it’s so easy to hide in your room and just stare at your screen all day, and you’re not moving around. When you’re in school, you’re going from class to class, you’re interacting with people in the hallway, and so it’s so easy to get sucked into your own little cave, you and your screen, when you’re distance learning. So, and also encouraging students to keep those social opportunities going via chat or Zoom. Have a party, so to speak, a virtual party with your friends.
Again, I think it’s so easy to kind of get lazy and maybe just text your friend, but I think that that interaction, face to face, is so important. So, just really encouraging students to try to stay involved virtually as best that they can.
Truong: Yeah. That’s helpful. Thanks for suggesting that.
Gutierrez: And I feel like students should take advantage of the resources that the colleges have. I think colleges have done a really great job across the board of having counselors available to have Skype meetings, to help students, even with incoming students, making sure that they feel comfortable with picking their classes, and that they feel ready for the semester coming. So, there are a lot of resources out there, and just encouraging students and families to take advantage of all those resources.
Truong: Yeah. Definitely on the college side, I can attest to some of the different ways that we’ve attempted to maintain that community virtually. We were at Puget Sound providing instruction remotely in the fall semester, so students were staying at home and taking classes, and honestly it was in many ways just as challenging I think as it is on the high school side in terms of not being able to see their friends, not being able to have that kind of interaction that makes a liberal arts college such a special place.
So, for some students though, given all of these pressures, they might be feeling like they either need or would like to take a break from school. So, what options are there? What should students and families know about taking a gap year?
Gutierrez: The gap year, that’s definitely always been an option for students. There are some really great programs. Many of them are international, so with COVID restrictions, those would be a little bit more difficult for students to participate in. Other options are joining AmeriCorps, which I know that’s still an option for students. They’ve been keeping students in smaller pods. But also getting a job and working is another great option. And there’s been lots of benefits. Research has shown there are benefits for some students to take that gap year. Maturity sets in, they feel much more comfortable with having a little bit more money stocked away. Just because college is so expensive.
But no, there’s definitely lots of options, and it depends on the college. I know for my school, we always encourage students to get the applications in and get that, make sure they get the letters of recommendation, and once admitted to their top choice school, if they decide that they want to take a gap year, they can ask that college for a deferral. Many colleges will grant that deferral either for a semester or for a year, and for some colleges it’s really easy and it’s very seamless. Other colleges, they might ask the student to reapply. It does vary from school to school, so we would work with the student to try to figure out what college they would like to go to, then how the deferral process works.
Suris-Rosselli: Yeah. Same on our end. You know, we always encourage them to consider all of their options, whether it’s taking a gap year, going straight to college. Very few of them do take the gap year route, and actually very few of them took the gap year route this year anyway. We only had two students actively pursue a full gap year. One of them traveled to Israel as part of their religious studies, and another one decided that they wanted to work. But all of them actually started college… The rest of them, I should say, started college when it was supposed to start, even if it meant doing their first semester or even their first year from home. Some of them chose to stay and take all virtual classes, because that way they could save money on a residential experience for the following years. They didn’t feel like it was fair to ask their parents if all of their classes were gonna be through virtual means to also pay for a dorm and plane tickets to go out there.
So, you know, they were very mature about what was going on, but they felt that for their own mental health, for their own growth, that they needed to take that next step to jump and take the leap, to actually get to college, even if it just meant taking their classes on their kitchen counter or in a home office. They definitely weighed a lot of their options for it.
Truong: It’s interesting to consider that this was kind of a test year or pilot year of how the pandemic has impacted the college experience so that incoming classes can kind of have evidence to see the ways in which it actually played out, because this was so unprecedented, so for us on the college side, we, and I’m sure this is the case at many other institutions, saw a huge uptick in terms of the number of deferral requests. And of course, as a small school that’s really student focused, we really wanted to work with students to help them find a plan, and I think that was the most important part about the deferral requests, is developing a plan. So, how are you gonna spend that year or that semester while you’re not in school?
So, financial and family situations can change quickly during a pandemic, which is another source of stress and anxiety, uncertainty to a student’s college search. What advice do you have for students who have experienced loss or change in a family’s economic situation?
Gutierrez: For me, it’s communication with the colleges. The admissions reps have done such a great job this past year with trying to be there for the students, and so we tell the students, yes, your FAFSA may look very different. When you’ve submitted your FAFSA, your financial situation could be very different right now, so reach out to the colleges. Let them know what your story is. Most every college have an application to appeal their decision and not just look at the FAFSA and look at the family’s income from 2019, because now that we’re in 2021 and so much has changed since 2019, so really encouraging students to talk to financial aid offices at the colleges they’re interested in attending and have conversations with their admissions counselors, and I’m sure colleges will try their best to make adjustments that are appropriate for the family.
Suris-Rosselli: I tell them to not be afraid to reach out and prepare some sort of financial aid appeal and describe the situation that’s going on at home. There’s no shame, there’s no stigma with having to explain that your finances in 2019 are totally different from your finances in 2020, because so much has changed, and that the fact that it’s not just them who’s gone through this change, that financial aid offices are gonna be sympathetic to it and will listen. Just like the admissions counselors are human beings, the financial aid officers are human beings who are sympathetic to your stories, and to your changes, and you don’t know. Your story might be reflected in that same person who’s reading that letter and trying to get to know what it is. And as experts as they are, they also don’t know the unique situations of every single family, or every single state.
Truong: I think it’s important to keep in mind that worst-case scenario, they’re not able to provide any additional resources. It’s not gonna be punitive. You’re not going to have your admission decision rescinded or revoked just because you go back and ask for additional resources. But like you said earlier, it’s true. A lot of students and families are struggling financially, so the odds are you’re not the only or you’re not the first person to be reaching out. We also know that our continuing students are also in similar situations, so I know that my colleagues in our institution’s office of financial aid are very busy working one on one with a variety of different students, helping them trying to finance their education, and it is definitely harder than ever before.
So, amid all the chaos and trauma of the pandemic, what advice do you have, Norma, for students who are applying to college? What should they focus on and what can they let go of?
Gutierrez: I think the main thing that we’ve been trying to tell our students is control what you can. Everyone’s in the same boat with the pandemic. And it’s unnerving, it’s stressful, but really just control what you can. And what you can control is doing the research on your own. Reaching out to the colleges and admissions counselors. Using the resources that are available for you. One of the things that we have done at my school is really encourage students to reach out to the alums of my high school who are at the colleges that they wish to attend. They can’t get the flavor and the feel of a college campus because of the shutdowns but having a conversation with a student that went to your high school, you may or may not know them, and they could really give you the inside scoop of what it’s like to be there.
And so, I think just trying to take the open minded, be flexible. The other thing our seniors are experiencing is that so many more students apply to so many more colleges that a lot of colleges’ deferral list is so long, and so some students have gotten some news that they’re not very happy about, that they’ve been deferred from their top schools, so being patient I feel like is something that I keep telling my students, is that if this really is your top school, you just have to wait it out. I think this spring is gonna be a really interesting time. It’s hard to tell teenagers to be patient, but it really is… try to tell them not to focus on that. Deferral is not deny. We never know. Keep moving along. Keep doing your best in your classes and just let’s see what happens.
Suris-Rosselli: Yeah. I agree. I tell them the same thing. You know, focus on what you can control. Take everything day by day. Also, listen to what colleges are saying about how to engage with them, because they’re definitely getting very creative, using TikTok, and Snapchat, and Instagram, and takeovers, and all these things. The other thing is give yourself space to hope, and to plan, because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As tiny, tiny, tiny as it may be at the moment, we will eventually get through this. We will be different people when we get through it, but we have to give ourselves the space to hope and the space to plan.
The other thing that I was telling them is like I said, listen to colleges, because they’re telling you how to engage with them, but they’re also telling you what their outcomes are kind of going to be. I have to give props to a lot of the colleges that were honest, whether people like that answer or not, that they were going to maximize early decision versus regular decision, because they were telling students what they needed to do in order for them to function as a college, and in order for them to reach their own goals. Sometimes that can get lost for students and parents, that they just think colleges are admitting people for the sake of admitting people, but that they don’t have to plan for their own budgetary constraints, or their own likelihood of survival beyond the pandemic.
And so, early decision is not for everyone, but I have to give props, again, to those colleges who said, “If you really wanted to be here, then this is what we’re telling you.” As I look at the numbers of regular decision applicants at so many colleges out there, IT went up like 64% just for early action alone. It’s gonna be tough and there’s gonna be a lot of redirection come the spring, so we have to be open to that redirection that offices are going to be conveying through those decision letters, and you will be redirected to another path. It might not be the path that you intended, but it’ll be the path that might be the better path for you in the end of it all.
Truong: Yeah, that’s definitely a great way of looking at it, and a lot of food for thought. Well, thank you Norma and Celeste for a great conversation.
Thanks to all of you for listening. College Admissions Decoded is a podcast from NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling. It is produced by Lantigua Williams & Co. Kojin Tashiro produced this episode. If you would like to learn more about NACAC’s guests, our organization, and the college admission process, visit our website at www.nacacnet.org. Please leave a review and rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
CITATION:
National Association for College Admission Counseling. “Episode Title.” NACAC College Admissions Decoded, National Association for College Admissions Counseling, March 8, 2021.