Thread by @JonBoeckenstedt

Thread: I've heard from a few EM people that they're on board with the idea of moving to June 1 as the candidate's reply date. Understandably, they have some stuff to line up before they announce.

But mostly, the silence has been telling. So let me lecture a bit about this.

First, as I have said for years, May 1 is not really about protecting students. If it were, June 1 would be an easy and obvious choice.

May 1 is to protect the highly selective institutions from competition: They like May 1 because it allows them to be deliberate in process...

...while protecting them from competitors down the foodchain who might decide April 15th is better.

It also allows them time in the other direction to manage waitlists (but the idea of one of them going deep in a WL has been a quaint concept in recent years.)

Maybe not this year, of course. No one knows what's going on, or how to predict yield. All our models assume minor changes in behavior from one year to the next.

This is uncharted territory.

One college admissions staff member on the Facebook Admissions Group asked me why we'd do this. There are several reasons I thought should have been obvious.

1) HSs are closing. Students won't have as much opportunity to discuss options with them

2) College ADM and FA staff will be working remotely; there will be service disruptions, and this could make interactions between and among students, parents, and staff difficult. For instance, we don't have the capacity to forward everyone's office phone to their cell.

3) Of course, this all assumes that staff can get all our decisions on, admit letters mailed (is your mailing service working 40 hour weeks?), and FA processed.

What? You're just running with last year's packaging routine? That's cute. Good luck.

4) Your yield events are torched. It's unlikely you'll have anyone on campus before the end of April, and it's unlikely you'll be able to convert all your yield events to online programs (with the quality you want) by then.

5) Even if you will accommodate individual visitors, are you confident they'll be able to get an airline ticket to your campus? I'm not.

6) Do you know how much equity has been wiped out in the last two weeks in the US Markets? Do you think that's not going to cause some parents to re-think their ability to pay? Or at least their willingness? That's a problem at one end:

What about workers at the other end? People at or near minimum wage, with no sick leave, who are told to stay home while business drops off for the next couple of months.

People. Need. Time. To. Sort. This. Stuff. Out.

7) Have I mentioned that epidemiologists don't really know for sure how long COVID-19 will be a problem, or when a vaccine might be developed? Or when we'll even have tests available in the US to help contain it?

If you want to be a leader in EM (or even if you want your institution to be better), don't ask your SA or Orientation staff or your CFO or president if it's a good idea to do this. Step up and tell them why you should, and why you must.

There are 7 reasons in this thread.

Frankly, I'll be surprised if we don't end up just scrapping the idea of a "deadline" completely before this season is all over.

You know you'd extend your deadline for students who ask due to these circumstances. Right? RIGHT?

You know who'd be least likely to ask for an extension? The ones who are least savvy: Students who are low income, first generation, and/or students of color.

So just make it a policy. Send a tweet and ask permission later. Good EM people are hard to find. You won't get fired

Unless, of course, you're one of those schools that can only enroll a very precise number of freshmen because of some policy developed in 1742. Or because you have a waitlist of VIPs who really need to know so the children can choose between you and a gap year in Switzerland

Have a policy that makes sense for the time, not one that was codified before you were born, when students applied to three colleges on average (and two was probably the modal value.)

Yes, of course it will disrupt how you do things. The University of Iowa, hit with a flood in 1993, redesigned orientation in about 48 hours, after it took a year to plan.

Yes, of course it will be difficult, and require long hours under difficult logistics. Guess what: Things are changing whether you plan for them or not. And they may change again even after the first disruption.

Same goes for high school counselors, who've told me it will be difficult if they have to send out final transcripts in June or July, when their offices are closed.

Figure. It. Out.

A pandemic is not optimal. It's disruptive. It's a little scary if you're over 60 like me and thus in a high risk group.

A crisis requires leadership, and this is way better than that leadership development seminar you wanted to waste $2500 on.

Carpe Diem. #May1Schmay1

Oh, and #EMTalk