While under-resourced students tend to undermatch– applying to less selective colleges and fewer of them than they could likely gain admission to– well-resourced kids often overmatch, applying to colleges more selective than the ones they are necessarily qualified for and to too many of them. I can’t count the number of times my under-resourced students plan to apply to only one or two colleges (the national average in 2021-2022 was approximately six colleges) when they should be aiming higher and more broadly.

I gained some new insights this year that I want to share with all of you. Let’s start with a high GPA is more important than AP courses for most students. My number one mistake with my oldest was holding him to a high level of academic rigor in subjects that weren’t his strength. It took me too long to realize that, and his grades early in high school suffered as a result. While Yale, Cal Tech, and Haverford will want to see the highest rigor in courses across the board (along with As), not every school will, and getting Cs and Ds instead of As and Bs will make life much harder for the college applicant.