Million Dollar Degree

By Billy Downing

A student's decision on where to go to college is deeply personal. Families need to be mindful of their student's individual needs while navigating the application process during a time of great change within higher education. Multiple factors must be considered, including the value of a college degree, what it costs, and what individual students seek to gain from their college experience. Not all costs and benefits are monetary, of course.

 

The arrival of COVID accelerated many college admission trends that were already beginning to emerge, including the declining use of standardized tests like the SAT and ACT and the increasing acceptance of early-decision students to fill classes. How will these trends play out for the next generation of college students?

College admissions expert Billy Downing has coached students and families through the application process for nearly 20 years. Million Dollar Degree offers practical, actionable information so readers can make informed decisions on the strategies that will work best for them.

 

Downing also offers insight into the broader landscape of higher education. He examines the societal conversation about the true value of college, predicts a move by some schools to higher-cost degrees, and discusses the responsibility we all share to ensure college remains attainable for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Billy Downing
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218197810

Book preview

Introduction

I wrote my first book in 2016. Since then, the college admissions world has changed—along with so much else in the world.

Even before COVID turned things upside-down, higher education was on the precipice of some pretty significant shifts. People were challenging the purpose and validity of standardized tests. Schools were starting to fill a large percentage of their incoming classes with early-decision applicants. Parents and students were realizing that the pressure for students to overachieve on everything all of the time was burdensome, exhausting, and uninteresting. Even the value of college itself was starting to be questioned in the larger social discourse.

I have been doing this work for nearly 20 years. I have seen all kinds of personalities come through the door. I have witnessed endless forms of family dynamics. I have seen admission trends come and go. And I have seen students soar through their college years while others stumble even before they reach the launching pad.

Over the years, I have learned that it’s not my job to make sure people do certain things. My role is more like that of a coach. I can share with you and your student what I know, based on my expertise and the experiences of other students and families who walked a similar path before you. I can cheer them on, encourage them, and provide helpful information along the way. But ultimately, the decision about what to do and how to do it is up to your student.

My professional and ethical obligation is to make sure you have access to the information you and your student need so that when you do make college-related decisions, everyone is doing so in a fully informed, personalized way.

I don’t want you to make certain decisions because everyone else does. I don’t want your student to apply to specific schools because everyone else has. I want you and your student to make decisions about what to do because you have an idea of how college can help your student live a happy life in a way that provides meaning for them as a person.

My first book had a lot of practical, actionable information. This one does, too, because it’s needed and important. I don’t want to gloss over the fact that many students and families simply need help figuring out what exactly to do and when to do it. It can be completely overwhelming, and I enjoy helping people through the seemingly endless list of to-dos in a strategic, manageable way.

All the practical information feels a bit adrift, however, if you don’t understand the larger context your family’s decision is taking place in. The admissions world you knew if and when you applied to college is completely different from the one that exists today. (In fact, it’s completely different from a mere five years ago.) It is irresponsible of me to provide advice and recommendations without taking that context into account—and without sharing that larger context with you.

With this book, I cover some of the key elements we should think about as parents, as educators, and as those involved in the process at this particular moment in history. What does it mean that colleges are now looking for well-rounded classes instead of well-rounded students? How do the different admissions phases affect your chances of admission? What should you do if a school says SAT and ACT scores are optional? What do all of these new dynamics mean for your particular student, for this generation of students, and for American higher education generally?

So yes, this book provides a lot of advice on what to do and when. It also provides advice on how to think about what a successful college application process looks like. Your definition of success may be drastically different from your neighbor’s definition of success—and that’s the point. Each family’s approach should cater to the individual student everyone is looking to support. For me, that’s the ultimate goal.

I want your student to be leading the process every step of the way. I want them to figure out what matters most to them. I want them to think deeply about what they love and what kind of experience they both want and need at college. I want them to be excited about the possibilities that await them after they graduate, and I want them to feel confident in their process. Will that eliminate all of the stress and disappointment that come with applying to college? Of course not. But it will ground them in their values and emerging identity and help them develop ownership and agency along the way.

Last but not least, I share my thoughts about where we, as a society so overfocused on educational prestige, go from here. The final section of the book jumps headfirst into the discussion about the value and cost of a degree. Given all the changes I have seen happen and all the changes I see coming, including skyrocketing costs and alternative models, I felt compelled to add my voice to this important social discourse.

Like many others, I have also been watching seismic shifts in the field—and their long-term impact—begin to take hold. The dynamics of standardized testing, the discrepancy between institutions’ stated versus actual efforts at providing educational equity, and public colleges turning into de facto lottery systems for admission cause me great concern.

This book provides insight and new ideas on how we can make the college admissions process more equitable, student-centered, and sustainable. It’s not just how we can make the process healthy and successful for our own kids; it’s how we can make the process healthy and successful for all kids.

I started my career working with students in a coaching role. The many years since have only confirmed that the line of work I’m in is exactly where I should be. With that dedication comes a sense of obligation to serve students and families who expend so much emotional capital on this small window of time.

American higher education is unlike any other system in the world. I want to make sure your student gets every last drop of excellence out of their college experience. I also want to make sure every student in this country has the exact same opportunity to do so, too.

PART I

Fundamentals,

NEW AND OLD

Chapter 1

A NEW LANDSCAPE

If someone walked up to you and told you to buy stock in a certain coffee shop, you wouldn’t do that. At least not before you asked a lot of questions about who that person was, what their information was and how they got it, what their experiences had been with the coffee shop, and why they thought it was something that was a good match for you and your goals. And even then, you’d go home and do your own research on the company before you took any action—if you took any action at all.

I wish that the process of sharing advice and recommendations on where, how, and when to apply to colleges followed these same social norms. Are parents experts on their own kids? Of course. There’s no one better. And yet . . . all parents aren’t experts on all kids. What worked for the family down the street or the parent you met at the coffee shop may not necessarily work for you and your own family.

People in your social circle can speak to what they know and to their own experience. But those of us in the college admissions world, like attorneys or CPAs, use our experience and expertise to advise you in personal, individualized ways. I give different advice to the family I meet with before you, and I give different advice to the family I meet with after you. And I do so because that is the appropriate, responsible, and caring thing to do.

On that note, one of my hopes for this book is to really dig deep into the changing landscape of college admissions and provide insight to parents and families who may be operating under old assumptions, historical norms, and information they hear from friends and family who, while well-intentioned, aren’t experts in applying to college.

The admissions process is not the same process you and I went through many years ago. It’s not the same process your older child(ren) went through a few short years ago, either. The world has changed, and admissions has changed with it.

COVID

Among all aspects of higher education, admissions is perhaps the most tradition-bound due to its recruiting calendars and campus tours, common application deadlines, and rigid rating scales for assessing applicants. But a year since the coronavirus took hold in the United States, the debate among enrollment leaders is no longer about when the traditional customs of admissions will return, but what changes from this year will stick, and whether colleges should speed those changes along.

— The Future of Admissions,

The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2021

The COVID pandemic has forever altered the American higher education system. In addition to the enormous personal loss felt by the country, the impact on colleges and universities has been nothing short of profound.

Although I hope in several years to address COVID only in retrospect, it feels irresponsible to not address it fully and head- on now.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I need to simply confess that all of us who work in college admissions are still sorting out how COVID has changed our systems, policies, and protocols. We’re still sharing anecdotal stories and waiting for (more) research to come in that shows to what extent students and families changed their approaches to, and decisions around, going to college. Some changes in the field have been good, whereas others have not. Some changes appear short-term, whereas I suspect others are here to stay. Some changes were coming regardless, and COVID simply accelerated them into existence.

Let’s start with the most obvious shift: when colleges and universities suddenly and unexpectedly moved exclusively online, forever changing what we picture in our minds when we think of applying to college.

A Shift in How—and Where—Families Apply

When COVID hit the United States in early 2020, American higher education approached the situation like nearly all other components of the country’s infrastructure. Like many of us, colleges and universities also thought things might be weird for a few weeks but would eventually return to normal before the Class of 2020 tossed their caps at in-person graduation ceremonies, attended by thousands of people, across the country.

Admissions offices in particular adopted this outlook. When schools shut down in spring of 2020, Enrollment leaders thought the move online was temporary, merely inconveniencing their April on-campus open-house attempts to reel in their next class.¹

As weeks turned into months, however, admissions staff accustomed to being on the road recruiting students started to map out a new enrollment playbook.² And that meant lots of changes for the students and families I work with, too.

With colleges and universities closing down their physical campuses, many of the admission rituals students and families were looking for were no longer possible. Campus tours, for example, were not being offered for safety reasons; instead, colleges and universities created new and improved virtual tours (if they hadn’t already) and offered virtual information sessions (appointments with admissions staff via Zoom) and opportunities to connect with current students for Q&A.

These changes brought a significant shift in where students considered applying. The physical and financial barriers that often prevented families from spending several weeks and thousands of dollars touring college campuses were suddenly removed. Students in California could attend a