This will be the last high school class that will have the culture-changing year of 2020-21 as part of their secondary school experience. While this initial year of COVID brought many changes to learning and college plans, the question arises—does this interruption of school as usual affect the class of 2024, who were ninth graders at the time? The answer is yes, but it’s likely to have less of an effect than it has for the students in the past three graduating classes. Here’s what that means to the world of college admissions:
Academic preparation Ample studies suggest student learning took a serious blow during the COVID-intense school year of 2020-21, when classes largely met online. For the Class of 2024, it also means they were denied a year of in-person ninth grade learning, a year that often includes instruction in study skills and other executive skills that serve as a foundation for successful learning in high school and beyond. This means these students returned to “high school as usual” in tenth grade without a thorough understanding of what it meant to be an in-person high school learner.
What does this mean to colleges? This lack of learning fundamentals may have been addressed by tenth- and eleventh- grade teachers, who realized what their students had missed as freshmen. However, the absence of a national plan on how to address these gaps left a hit-and-miss approach to making up this essential year of understanding what it means to be a student. Rising seniors will want to take a moment to honestly consider how this experience affected their learning, and if the holes of ninth grade were ever filled.
Extracurricular preparation The world of extracurricular activities was less affected by COVID, in large part due to many parents who insisted high schools continue to offer these experiences, since, to them, “that’s what high school is really all about.”
The mild effect of COVID, and the speedy return of nearly all extracurriculars since, means next year’s seniors largely had every opportunity to engage in a rich array of learning experiences outside the classroom. Colleges that value these activities are less likely to overlook students who took a complete pass on extracurriculars , in the last four years, since opportunities to participate in many activities, if only online, have been in play.
Explaining COVID to colleges Students who feel COVID limited their high school experience and success would do well to use the essay portion of their college application to give the colleges a clear, cogent understanding of their circumstances. As is the case with any student experiencing unusual circumstances, the colleges will be more interested in how the students have overcome the challenges they’ve faced, and if the student feels they will be able to give their all, and make the most, out of the college experience.
Reports from the field suggest many of this year’s seniors are appealing admission denials with the claim that the college didn’t understand just how strong a role COVID played in limiting their high school success. Appeal admits are rare, so the time to provide a thorough explanation of those circumstances is during the application process, not once a college says no. This will be especially true for next year’s seniors, since their high school experience was an additional year away from the epicenter of the pandemic.
It’s great juniors are planning ahead and looking forward to college. Doing so with their COVID experience in mind, and explaining its effect to colleges early, can only strengthen the student’s success in finding strong college matches.
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