At Top Tier Admissions, we have a number of former admissions officers on staff. Dr. Michele Hernandez and Maria Laskaris (former Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid) both spent years at the Dartmouth Admissions Office, while Dr. Kristen Willmott worked as an Admissions and Financial Aid Officer at Harvard University. In addition to working with students at Top Tier, each of these counselors has also guided (or is still guiding) her own children through the admissions process. Since Michele, Maria, and Kristen know the college admissions process inside and out, we wanted to know—what are they suggesting to their own children? Read on to find out!
With all of your experience in admissions at schools with very low acceptance rates, what was your top take away that you implemented or will implement with your own children?
MH: In high school, I encouraged my children to focus on honing their interests in one or two academic areas, rather than trying to be a jack of all trades. Since my daughter loved Latin, we looked for summer activities and in school leadership positions that hinged on Classics. This allowed her to follow her authentic intellectual interests, but still made her look different from the average college applicant. Since she loved languages, she did SYA in Italy her junior year which put her on a path to major in linguistics at Princeton.
ML: I helped my daughters focus on finding schools that were the right fit for them. What was right for one daughter wasn’t necessarily right for the other. We worked to identify colleges that had not just strong academic programs and opportunities, but also communities where they would thrive.
KW: I think establishing a love of learning during a child’s early years is key. During the first term of my PhD program in Education, my professor told a story about his daughter. Each year at her parent-teacher conferences, he asked her teacher whether he or she felt that his daughter still loved learning. His point was that standardized testing and lessons have value, but the most important measure was whether she loved going to school, being challenged, and discovering new subjects. My goal with my children is to instill this love of learning both in and out of school.
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What common mistakes did applicants or their families make that you have helped guide your children away from?
MH: I’ve seen some parents try to force their kids in a certain direction (to study a particular field, to pursue a particular job, etc.). It’s crucial to separate your desires from your child’s and to empower your son or daughter to make his or her own choices. As for students: I think the worst mistakes are focusing on schools that are out-of-range and writing clichéd essays. It’s important to be realistic and thoughtful.
ML: I think a common mistake is assuming that the best school for you is the most highly ranked or most selective one. In many cases, it’s not! I also pushed my kids not to wait until the last minute to write their essays.
KW: Mykids are still young, but when they are applying to college or graduate school, I will encourage them to be careful about using quotations in their application materials. There’s a fine line between referencing an important piece of work and including a paragraph-long quote from another scholar. Admissions officers want to know your voice, your work, your interests—that’s how they assess fit.
How did you help your children find the right college match?
MH: Though this is a bit challenging at the moment, visiting is what made all the difference. My daughter liked certain schools on paper, but when she spent time on the campus, she realized they weren’t what she wanted. Seeing the school, meeting with professors, and looking at individual departments really made her decisions a lot easier. Same for my son.
ML: Since my kids applied to college pre-pandemic, they could visit, attend classes, talk to faculty, hang out in the student center, and get a sense of the energy of the schools that interested them. Both of my daughters knew they wanted schools with vibrant music and dance offerings, so we spent a lot of time in performing arts centers on college campuses, looking at opportunities for curricular and co-curricular arts. Initially, both thought they wanted to get as far away from home as possible, so we visited a few schools well outside of our geographic area. They both ended up within 3 hours of home – they liked the practicality and realized that mom and dad wouldn’t just “drop by.”
KW: My hope is that when we come to the college admissions process, my kids will feel that they are the ones who steer the ship on picking a college. The “push for prestige” is very strong in U.S. admissions, but a conversation I recently had with a private counseling student who got into a top Ivy League university and selected a small liberal arts college instead was a great reminder that goals and interests should drive students’ admissions decisions, not a university’s name or ranking.
How do you think admissions has changed since you worked in an Ivy League admissions office?
MH: It’s gotten a lot more competitive, with falling admissions rates every single year. Much of that had to do with HYPS starting Single-Choice Early Action, which I really dislike. That artificially made those schools more desirable, and their admissions rates plummeted. The other two big changes are attracting and reporting first generation college students (rather than just “minority” students) and picking students who have done significant things related to social action, showing they care not just about themselves, but the world at large.
ML: The process has become significantly more competitive, and to be honest, I’m not sure how some top schools continue to maintain a truly holistic review process. I am certain there is a fair bit of “quick reads” (or triaging) in these large applicant pools to weed out the students who simply won’t be competitive. Colleges have also sought to significantly increase the diversity of their admitted students — underrepresented minority students and students from first gen/low-income backgrounds — making the process harder for students from more traditional backgrounds. During the pandemic, the move to test-optional was a major shift as well, although I believe that testing still plays a key role for students from better-resourced schools and communities.
KW: When I worked at Harvard, it was common for us to review TOEFL scores in huge batches, and we printed out students’ FAFSA forms to review them in detail. There were thousands of TOEFL scores and thousands of financial aid applications, since there were tons of international applicants. With Covid-19, I think international applicants and those who need full financial aid are going to have a tougher — or, at least, much more complex — time than they did pre-2020.
When your children were younger (not yet in high school), was there anything you did to stimulate their love of learning or develop a talent with an eye towards those successful students you admitted?
MH: Mostly reading, reading, and more reading! We also took advantage of programs like Kumon and JHU to advance their math skills and encouraged them to try music. We didn’t focus as much on sports, as those take a lot of time if you’re not going to be recruited.
ML: In middle school, my kids read a ton. To this day, I credit their love of reading for success on standardized testing and getting them through college and grad school. Both also were talented artists — one a pianist and dancer, the other a singer and violinist — and they developed their talents through classes, ensembles, and summer programs.
KW: My family is big on the arts. My husband is a musician, so we put our kids in music classes right from the start. I also remember learning in my own studies that attentive listening skills are exponentially stronger in students who have had exposure to musical training, so music classes are a win/win for everyone — parent, student, teacher. For high schoolers, the Common App has a Slideroom music supplement option, so it’s not just classical pianists who want to major in music theory who have the opportunity to show colleges their music skills.
Mimi holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard University. Dubbed a “parenting guru” by Ladies Home Journal, Mimi was featured in weekly segments on The Hallmark Channel’s New Morning TV for a number of years and has appeared on Oprah and the CBS Early Show and her work has been covered in such publications as Parenting, USA Today, The London Independent, Forbes, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.
It is Mimi’s mission to make admissions less stressful by fully informing students as well as supporting them in presenting their true selves.
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2 replies on “What Ivy League Admissions Officers Do For Their Own Kids”
For parents of young kids, age 10 thru 14, if you want suggestions on how to get them interested in reading , try the Alex Rider series by The NY Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz. Those books are this generation’s Nancy Drew mysteries.
Alex Rider is as well crafted as 24 with Donald Sutherland or Homeland with Claire Danes. From many parent reviews on Amazon, kids who never liked to read before , can’t put them down .
And thanks for all of your suggestions – well done.
Great, thank you!