- [Narrator] Striving
for the Golden Ticket. - My top dream school, Harvard. - My dream school is Duke. - Yale University. - Georgetown University. - The first to go to
college to make it. - [Narrator] A record number
of students are competing to get into America's
top colleges. - They're constantly picking
schools that are in the top 50 and the number of
applications that they receive are ridiculous. - I think going to college
has become a prestige item. So sort of like what
kind of car you drive. - [Narrator] They hope these
schools will open doors to success. - [Person 1] Yay. - [Narrator] What does
it take to get a yes. - My weighted GP is about a 5.2. - It's been go, go, go. And I just keep doing that
and doing that and doing that. - On the SAT, my super
score was a 1590. - I actually helped
with a research project that studied endoparasites
within the Alaskan march in rodents. - The expectation is that you
are as perfect as possible. - When I realized I
got a B, it just felt like I ruined my future. - The pressure to perform
is starting as early as elementary school. - [Narrator] And that
pressure can be overwhelming. - I just had a
full-blown panic attack. - What parents
don't understand now is that the competitive
nature of college admissions is so much greater than
it was 20, 30 years ago. - [Narrator] And their best
might not be good enough. - Ready? - [Person 2] No, no. Okay. - I've been deferred. And when I got deferred I
cried for a good like two days. (bleeps) you're not going
there (bleeps) them. - No. - Yeah, didn't get accepted. I'll get accepted somewhere. - Four years of all that work and how do they not accept her? - [Narrator] So how
do universities decide which students make the cut? - Time out, time out. She has all of these
extracurriculars plus two part-time jobs. - [Narrator] We take you
inside the decision room and we travel coast to
coast going straight to the decision
makers, getting answers to students' tough questions. How does income,
address, race and gender affect admissions decisions? Is college worth the price? - Is it tougher to
get into college today or does it just seem that way? - [Narrator] Does it matter
where your degree comes from? We journey through
the admissions process and find out if Gabe, Dee,
Sean, Nailah, Juan or Abby earn a seat at
their dream school. (upbeat music) - My name is Deandre Leyba. I am 17 years old and I'm
from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I've been dancing since
I was five years old. I guess I could say
I am a perfectionist, so I'm really, really
hard on myself. - [Narrator] Deandre Leyba
is a senior at St. Pius, a Catholic high school. - I am very quiet. I've had some people in class and once I start opening
up they go, oh my goodness, I didn't know you talked. And I love my family a lot. I love my friends. I would do anything for them. - [Narrator] And
while she loves home, she also feels she has to leave. - There's just so
much more out there. And if you don't get
out of Albuquerque when you have the
chance, you never do. Getting into literally
any school out of state is so important to me
because it's a way out. - [Narrator] Notre
Dame is her top pick. - It has everything
you want in a college. Like mix up in
like little bowls. I would just love to go there. - [Narrator] Her parents
support her dreams but worry about how
they'll pay for it. - I looked at some of these
letters, I was like, oh my god, there's just no way
I can afford that. It's very difficult to tell
somebody that's worked so hard that they can't
have what they need. - [Narrator] The odds
of acceptance are slim. About 88% of applicants to
Notre Dame are rejected. Scott Daigle, an
education consultant says for elite schools, top
grades just aren't good enough. - Every school receives more
applications than the number of people that they can take. So what'll happen is
you'll get a school that gets 50,000 applications
and 45,000 of them have the grades and
test scores to go there. So now what? So you've had a kid who just
studied their heart out, got the best grades,
worked with a tutor, got the top test scores
and still get rejected for nothing to do with
the amount of effort that they put in because
the school's looking for that demographic, a boy
girl in-state outta state, athlete, are they a legacy? Do they have the money? That type of thing. So there's so much of it now
that's out of your control that causes this anxiety because you can't do
anything about it. - [Narrator] Deandra
feels the pressure to impress admissions officers. - It's definitely
emotionally exhausting and from everything I definitely
feel emotionally drained. - [Narrator] While trying
to excel in her honors and AP classes she also
has clubs and volunteering and as captain of the
school dance team, she's trying to lead her
teammates to state competition. (indistinct chatter) At times she's needed help
managing that pressure from a mental
health professional. - This year I had my first
panic attack and it was wild. The depression and the anxiety, I definitely worry that
it's not gonna get better. - [Narrator] Her best
friend Sean Mignon understands her struggles. Sean's dream school is
Yale and the pursuit of academic excellence
has also taken a toll. - Some of my own friends, there
are several in counseling. I have actually been in
counseling in for OCD in my freshman year. Whole nights I wouldn't sleep just stressed about the
process being started. - [Narrator] Sean would
spend hours redoing even the simplest assignments until he felt they were perfect. - There is an incredible
amount of pressure to perform. - [Narrator] Dr.
David Ruby is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He says there are many
reasons why reports of anxiety and other mental health
conditions are on the rise in teenagers. One reason is social media, which he says clearly
adds to the pressure on high school students. - Kids are now
competing with not just in their local environments, but the box or the sandbox
that kids are playing in now extends nationally
or internationally. It's not just keeping
up with the Joneses, it's now keeping up with the
massive amounts of Joneses throughout the world. - [Narrator] To compete for a
spot at an Ivy League school, Sean takes six AP courses. His days are also full
of extracurriculars from clubs to sports
to volunteering on
a research project at the University of New Mexico
studying forest ecosystems. - I've been trying to
diversify my own application, but I don't know
if it'll be enough. - [Narrator] About 94% of
students who apply to Yale will get rejected. - I often question and
if my work throughout these last four years
is worth getting into one of these schools. - [Narrator] Sean's
mom wonders too. - He believes he needs
this school in order to do reach the goals that
he wants to reach. I believe he can reach those
goals wherever he goes. - [Narrator] Sean and Dee say their stress
is self-inflicted, but that society makes
kids believe success is tied to elite schools. - Even like growing up with
like Disney Channel movies and stuff. I've noticed that a lot
of the final episodes when the main characters
are going to college, they all go to these Ivy
Leagues and things like that. They're usually focused
on like Yale or Harvard. Or just super high
up their schools. So I think that gives
everyone an expectation that they also have to
get into those schools. (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Their
classmate, Gabe Neel says he's working
hard to live up to his parents' expectations. - My parents always told me
that if I don't go somewhere to school or if I like stay here just because it's
the easy choice to do and that they'll say that
they failed as parents. So I don't know that's
kind of like a big pressure that I have on me. - The thing he doesn't
realize for us, he doesn't have to get into
one of those top tier schools for us to be proud of him. I mean, I think we think
he can and I wanna push him to not just settle for the
first college that says, okay, come on. - [Narrator] Gabe's mom calls
her son's days crazy busy. It starts with a
5:00 AM workout. He plays varsity
basketball and football along with his
rigorous coursework. He's also senior
class president. He volunteers tutoring children and teaching
Catholicism classes. He even became an Eagle Scout
even though he didn't want to. - Everything that we've
pushed him towards honestly is to check the box. You know, get your eagle
'cause like as he told you, he wasn't thrilled
about being in scouts. Everything's been done to check
a box 'cause if you don't, you're not in a
position to even apply. - One of the biggest stresses
is all these families and all these kids
thinking that they need to look like everyone else. Meaning I need to
be president of this and I need to lead this. - [Narrator] Mandy
Adler's founder of a private consulting
firm that helps students pursue their dream schools. After graduated from two
Ivy's, Harvard and Penn. But says things have changed
when it comes to admission to elite schools. - It is harder to get
into colleges today. So what we're expecting
our children to do is a lot more than we
were expected to do. - [Narrator] Gabe says his
parents believe West Point would be his best option. - It could be a free education
and you would be able to go into the military
right after that. That would be like a great
honor for the family. They're like, that would
be the best education in our family anyone on
either side of our family's ever gotten. So they're like, they're
always like, I don't know, pushing me for that. And I was like,
well I don't know. What if I don't want
to go into West Point? What if I wanna have
a normal college life? - [Narrator] Gabe's
top pick is Duke. - Ever since I was little, I've always watched
Duke basketball. I've always had my eye on Duke. - [Narrator] 2000 miles
away Nailah Allen in Miami also has family on her mind
when it comes to college goals. - My grandmother's dream ' cause she always wanted
to go to college. My mom wanted to go to college
and women don't necessarily get education
where we come from. And so he'll be like,
how do I say this? Kind of like make a
history for our family. - [Narrator] Nailah's mom
believes a college degree will make life a lot easier. - A lot of the things
like the struggles that I've been through, I never try to sugarcoat
it or hide it from Nailah. She's my first child. So I always show her the
decisions that I made. I'm where I am and
I took this road. You understand not having
to being hardheaded. And what I want from her is
for her to be open to see. You don't have to
grow up like this. - [Narrator] At Booker
T. Washington High Nailah takes advanced courses and
is involved in 10 clubs. She's hoping her 4.0 GPA
is enough to compensate for SAT scores that aren't
as high as she'd like. Nailah wants a spot at one of the most popular
public universities in the Sunshine State, Florida State University
in Tallahassee. - You know, I love
entrepreneurship so I'm like, well they have a school. This definitely
looks like it's it. - [[Narrator] Well Florida's
public universities have some of the most
affordable tuition rates in the country. The cost of room and board
is a problem for Nailah. - 'Cause I know I can't
afford like a $3,000 tuition. - [Narrator] Money
is also a big concern for Juan Bustamante. He doesn't want to add to
the financial pressures facing his parents
who immigrated to
the US from Columbia when he was two. - They had their jobs
but they gave all that up for me and my
brother to come here. So that gets me
thinking now I owe them. Now it's up to me
to go out and and do what they brought me here for. - His father and me
tried to work very hard because his future
is dedication. - [Narrator] Now divorced,
his mom worked several jobs so Juan and his brother
can afford to live in this neighborhood
near Fort Lauderdale. That way Juan can
attend Cooper City High, a top performing public school. - There's been times where
the money that comes in isn't enough to
pay for essentials such as the electricity
here at home. - [Narrator] That means
there have been nights of doing homework in the dark
and in the stifling heat. - And I've tried just try
to make the best out of it. If the power goes off,
I'll light a candle. I'll continue doing what
I do and truck through it. But otherwise, if now I have
electricity, I feel grateful. - [Narrator] Juan doesn't
complain about his situation. His only regret is the
family can't afford resources that could improve
his SAT scores. - Applying to
college costs money. Taking these tests that
are required to apply to these colleges
also cost money. You do wish sometimes
that you had more money just to be able to
buy a test review book or be able to be tutored,
get that extra help. - [Narrator]
Georgetown is his dream one he thinks could
help his family. - I see them working
as hard as they do for the low amount of
salary that they get compared to others. It makes me feel the pressure
to go out, get this education, get a career and not end
up in the same situation that they are in now. - [Narrator] Juan's
classmate Abbie Tuschman faces different pressures
including perfection. She says that expectation
of being among the best in her class comes from
within and from classmates. - Sometimes people will say to
me, Abbie, you seem so calm, you have it all together. How are you not pulling
your hair out with stress? My hair is falling
out from stress. They just don't see it. I think-- - [Narrator] Are you joking? - No, no I've gone to the
doctor because of how much hair is falling out. - [Narrator] Is that stress? - Yeah. - [Narrator] Abbie is president of the school's honor
society and editor of the school paper. She's got a weighted GPA of 5.2 and a nearly perfect SAT score. - I guess my lowest point in
high school was after I got a B in a class, which sounds ridiculous
saying that now I just felt really idiotic
for getting distracted enough that I let myself get a B. And saying things like
that makes me realize how much I've let grades
consume me at times. - [Narrator] Abbie wants
to attend an Ivy league. Yale is her first choice,
but her mom worries Abbie's chances of admission
will suffer because of things outside of her
daughter's control. - Do I believe that it
hurts Abbie that we live in a nice neighborhood? Yes, but her whole life
she's benefited from that. But for college, if she was
an underrepresented minority or our last name was not Jewish, she would have a better
chance of getting in. - So how important are
things like wealth, legacy and diversity in
the admissions process? That depends on the school, admissions teams can use
very different factors when judging applications,
particularly when it comes to public versus
private schools. - [Narrator] Of course
schools generally consider academic performance
the core of an application. But at top schools where
the number of applications have skyrocketed, so many
students earn top grades and high SAT and ACT scores. It's much tougher deciding
who deserves a seat. - With the greater
number of applications, there are more people
overly qualified. So what happens is they
gotta find like tiebreakers to weed you out. So did you run
your own business? Do you have a pilot's license? Do you speak three languages? Were you student body president? - [Narrator] Charles Murphy
is an admissions officer at the University of Florida
ranked in the top five in the country for
public institutions
according to US news. Murphy says, while
academics are the priority for admissions at UF, it
is not a formula decision. - We feel in our admissions
process that there's value in giving an individualistic
holistic review of an applicant. So that can lead to
some decisions where
someone with maybe a slightly higher test score
or a slightly higher GPA would not be admitted
over a student who has a slightly
lower test score GPA. - [Narrator] In a holistic
review, admissions officers look beyond grades
and test scores and consider the whole student from an applicant's
special talents to their community service. - And for decades, many
schools considered race as a part of that
holistic review, federal law had permitted
the use of affirmative action in admissions as long as schools
didn't use racial quotas. - [Narrator] Dana Thompson
Dorsey teaches education law at the University
of South Florida. - The court basically
said race could be used as a plus factor. It was added to many admissions
policies at universities and particularly those
are highly selective elite universities
admissions policies. - [Narrator] Harvard
has said race was used as a tipping factor and when we visited George
Washington University, their admissions
officer Ben Toll, shared how race played a role
in their admissions process. - So at GW we have a very
strong commitment diversity. There are times where
it'll play a role in how we look at files. You know, and that's something
that the university's been out loud about it. - [Narrator] But in a
historic 2023 decision, the Supreme Court struck down race conscious
admissions policies. That means schools admissions
practices must be colorblind. Even as university leaders
strive for diverse campuses. - There are some factors that
have often been considered proxies for race and
socioeconomic status
is one of them. So you will have more
universities focusing on those who are economically
disadvantaged, maybe first generation students, maybe even geographical
locations because those things that you may consider may
also bring in more students who are racially and
ethnically diverse. - [Narrator] Thompson
Dorsey believes race won't be completely
eliminated from the process because students can
still talk about ethnicity in their essays. - The case at no way
impacts students' right to be able to talk about things
that are important to them, that have impacted their lives, that have shaped who they are. Race may be one, maybe
being poor or being homeless or being Jewish and maybe having
to deal with antisemitism. All those things
may be mentioned in one's personal statement. So admissions can consider all
of that's a holistic review of that individual. - [Narrator] All of our
students want diverse campuses, but how to even the playing
field for applicants isn't simple. - I think economics should
definitely be considered in an application just
because a kids don't have like a choice of how
well their economics is. But I don't think you should
make the standards less per se. - I believe they do try
to diversify their class as much as they can. And I believe this is
fair to the country. Diversity within a
student body I believe is one of the most important
things these schools can look for. That's not necessarily fair to the random
individual student. - [Narrator] Sean is Hispanic. He's not sure what
impact, if any, it had on his application at Yale, one of the most competitive
institutions in the world. Sean applied before the
Supreme Court decision. He also applied early admission, which can increase the
odds of getting in, but he was deferred, which
means he'll have to wait while Yale considers him with
the regular applicant pool. - My deferral letter
said, please understand that this is not based
on your hard work, it's based on the needs
of our student class. So I understand that. However, it doesn't mean you
emotionally understand that. - [Narrator] Campus diversity
is more than just about race. Ellen Chow is the dean of
undergraduate admissions for Johns Hopkins University, one of the country's top
private higher ed institutions. - We do try to maintain
some sense of balance across all the different
aspects of our student body. And those can be a
factor for students as they apply to
different schools. - Balance for a student body
can mean admissions officers consider things like
female to male ratios or admitting students
from all 50 states or as many countries
as possible. Another factor students
can't control is the impact of legacy. Some schools give students
whose parent or loved one attended that school a leg
up in the admissions process. Do legacy families
have an advantage in the admissions process? - Sure. I mean I think that
answer is gonna vary at different institutions. At GW, is it, are we excited
when we see a legacy applicant? Yes obviously we like
to see the students that have that affinity for GW, but is it gonna cause
me to select one student over a more qualified one? No. And so sometimes maybe
you're at the point that it might be
helping to break a tie when we're in a really
tight spot and trying to figure out what's
the right decision and that that can help get
a student over the edge. But it's never gonna move above
the more core academic parts of how we evaluate students. - If I had the power
to, I would get rid of legacy preference at colleges because I understand
the holistic process and looking at someone's
socioeconomic background and the hardships
that they've overcome because that shows
grit, it shows endurance and that's important in college. But looking at where someone's
parents went to school, I think it's just undermining
the meritocracy ideal that you would imagine
elite schools having. - [Narrator] In 2023, just 3% of the 56,000 plus
students who applied to Harvard were admitted. But legacy applicants have had
a significantly higher rate of acceptance. - 30 to 40% of the incoming
freshman class at Harvard were legacies. - A 2023 study by researchers at Harvard and
Brown universities found that the
most elite colleges do enroll a disproportionate
share of legacy students. The weight of legacy can vary
greatly from school to school. Some institutions don't
consider it while at others it can play a significant role. - I think that the college
admissions process is not fair because it favors some
students over the other. - [Narrator] Angel Perez
leads the National Association of College Admissions
counselors. He says Legacy
admissions still exists because it fosters
generational loyalties and can help a
university's bottom line. - The majority of
institutions in this country, the two biggest sources
of revenue for them are tuition and philanthropy. And so they're always also
going to be looking for families who are going to make, be able to make generous
donations to the institution. - [Narrator] Regardless some
schools have announced an end to the use of legacy
and other institutions are examining the fairness of it in their admissions policies. - Family income can also
be a part of admissions. Schools are looking for a
certain percentage of students that can pay full tuition. - When I was a chief
enrollment officer at an institution
of higher education, every year I had to bring
in a certain amount of money in tuition revenue in
order for the institution to thrive and to
meet its budget. And so every year I had to
balance my revenue needs with what's right for students. And I think that's a
model that this country really has to grapple with. The issue in our country is that we don't
fund higher education as if it's a public good,
as if it's good for society. We kind of fund it as if
it's good for the individual and that conflict really
ends up coming to play in the admissions process. - [Narrator] And a
student's lack of income can also be part of
weighing applications. - There are some schools who
are what we call need aware and so they will look at
whether students intend to or have applied
for financial aid. - [Narrator] That
means a private college
that has budgeted, for example $20 million
in financial aid will accept a class that
doesn't exceed that amount. Perez remembers the
frustration of not being able to give everyone a seat. - One of the things that
I used to do when I worked at colleges is I
would show my trustees every single year the data on
the students I couldn't admit because I couldn't fund
them and I would give them some demographic information. Here's how much more
diverse my class could be if I had more funding. Here is how much more
academically talented my class could be if
I had more funding. And so most schools
keep that data, but they're certainly never
gonna make that public. - [Narrator] Sometimes the
nation's most elite universities can actually afford to be more
generous with financial aid. That's because they
have large endowments. That's money and assets
that have been donated to the institution. And while public universities
may not have as large of endowments, they do get public
dollars that substantially reduce the cost of
student tuition. And so what you want the price
of a degree often determines where, or even if a
student goes to college, incomes haven't kept up with
the cost of an education over the decades and
student debt has exploded. Doug Shapiro is
research director for the National
Student Clearinghouse. - Students and families
are being asked to pay a much larger share of
the burden of their education than we've done in this
country in many, many years. - [Narrator] According
to a survey by US News, a student at an
in-state public college in the 2022/23 school year paid
on average more than $10,400 in tuition and fees. That doesn't include
room and board, out-state students at public
colleges paid nearly $23,000 and students at
private institutions
paid nearly $40,000. - What's really
important is for families to have a conversation about
what am I willing to pay while I'm in school and then
what kind of monthly payments am I willing to make
after I graduate? And the conversation has to
happen not just with students but also with the parents. Because many parents are
taking out parent plus loans, which are loans
specifically for parents. - I need you to be clear
on what you're saying. - [Narrator] Nailah's
very tight family budget is the main reason why she now
considers Miami-Dade College, part of the state's community
college system her backup plan if she can't afford a state
school or doesn't get admitted. - Miami-Dade it's a lower
tuition and my debt rate wouldn't be as high and then
maybe I'll go somewhere else maybe give it a second chance. So I just think that Miami-Dade,
it's not a bad place, it's just like more of a backup. Okay, you didn't get to
where you wanted to be, but you're here right now so
what are you gonna do now? - I worry about throwing
my family into debt 'cause of the money. Especially because
not my whole life. They've been helping me
out and they've essentially been paying for everything
and it adds another pressure to do super well and
get a super good job at super good graduate
school because I feel like if I go to college outta
state somewhere expensive. And I don't do as well
as I was anticipating, then I'm just
wasting their money. - Many seemingly small factors
like a student's choice of major can also impact
their odds of admission. - At the University of Illinois, the applicant pool for
the College of Engineering when I was there was
very large, very strong. Had high average
GPA and test scores. But as a comparison
it would be easier to get into the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences. So students have no control
that while the program that I'm interested
in is more competitive than a program that
I'm not interested in. - At GW we do kind of look at
students by broader themes. Like we look at engineering
versus liberal arts versus international relations
and business and so on. And we do look to try to make
sure we have certain number of students in each
different area. - [Narrator] For Juan,
that means the competition for Georgetown
will be very steep since he wants to major in
international relations, the school is coveted for
its public policy program, which is ranked among
the best nationally. - If Georgetown says no, I'm
gonna have to accept the fact that they said no. It's pretty difficult. Especially when
you set your eyes on a school for so many years. - [Narrator] Murphy says
students need to accept there are a list of factors
outside of their hands. - They also have no control
over institutional priorities. So what's important for
a particular institution? At one institution
it may be having an outstanding music program
is an institutional priority. So someone who has
outstanding music talent is going to have an advantage
in the admissions process. - [Narrator] The quality
of an application is also important. All six students have
been doing their best to showcase their strengths,
talents and achievements. Dee isn't sure she did all
she could to sell herself in her applications,
especially the essays. - I think you do
have to be aggressive in the admissions process
because if you're not aggressive then you're kind of
just in the background, your background
character and you need, it's super important
to stand out. I do feel it's become
that way to where people have to pretty much give
them their whole backstory and they love hearing
about struggles and stuff, even if it's kind of
weird because some people really like to keep those
things to themselves. - [Narrator] Perez disagrees
and says it's about being real. - The one thing that I admire
the most was authenticity. I think students often forget
that admissions officers know that they are
16, 17, 18 year olds who are just teenagers. And so we wanted them
to write their essays in a teenage voice. I didn't expect
that it was gonna be a Pulitzer Prize winning essay. I didn't expect that students
were going to Costa Rica to save the rainforest
as many students actually told me that they
felt they needed to do in order to get into college. And so that's the kind
of pressure that students put on themselves that
actually admission officers are not expecting. - [Narrator] Sometimes
Nailah can feel overwhelmed by the process because
no one in her family has earned a college degree. She wished she had more support. - It's more like, I don't
know how to do this. I'm getting a little
stressed out, I'm crying, like it's okay I'm almost there. I'm not good at this, but it's okay 'cause I know
school isn't everything that I know I'm gonna
go out in the world and I'm gonna do
something with myself. - [Narrator] Where
Nailah and her peers get admitted lies with
a group like this. This is the admissions team at Florida International
University. The state university in
Miami, the day we visited, they reviewed student appeals
to admissions decisions. - His family member
that's ill in the summer. That could affect how we
perform in those classes. - That's why, yeah,
that's why I'm thinking, I think we can, I don't
think that falls the option. - When I look at the high
school GPA, she did well in terms of her entire
academic career. Up until at least from I'm
seeing from a high school or from a senior perspective. She's a 4.10. - You saw that. - I did circle it
on my paperwork. - Yeah. So that right there is my
biggest pet peeve of any essays. - [Narrator] Jody Glassman
is assistant vice president of admissions at FIU. - We're going beyond
the quantitative. And looking at qualitative
characteristics. Such as the strength
of schedule. Did the student take
challenging courses all the way through their high
school curriculum? Were they taking the most
challenging classes for them? - [Narrator] Making admissions
decisions will remain especially difficult for schools like the University of Florida. There are several reasons why
the number of applications to these highly sought after
schools continues to grow. Many schools are now test
optional when it comes to SAT and ACT scores and the common
app also made it easier to apply to many schools
with one application. - The difference between,
for lack of a better term, the last 10% that get
admitted and the first 10% that do not get admitted, there is very, very
little difference between those two groups. However you slice it sometimes students
think those differences are bigger than
they actually are. So if a student scored 20
points higher on an SAT than another student, that's
essentially the same score. - [Narrator] Acceptance rates at these highly competitive
schools have dropped in recent years because
of more applications. Glassman says she's seen an
unreasonable amount of pressure on some students to get
into the right schools and parents can be a
part of the problem. - We have seen parents
writing students' essays. We have seen parents
writing emails to us pretending to be the student. That's not okay. Your student has to
have a vested interest of where they're going. They're the one who
is going to be here. - So I think part of the anxiety
has to do with our economy. I don't know, I don't
know what the future's gonna look like, but as a
parent, I'm with my children for 17, 18 years. What I can control is
perhaps putting them into a really good college to
give them the best advantage they have. So I think that's where
some of the fear comes in. - We see a lot of
anxiety of young people in the college admissions
process and it starts early even in middle school. And it's disheartening. It's up to all of us
to really find ways to get people to just relax. - [Narrator] But relaxing
after years of striving to get into a dream
school isn't easy. When decision day came for Gabe, the rejection from Duke
wasn't what he expected. - I didn't get in. I always assume that if
I give something my all and I don't hold anything
back that I'll be able to achieve and succeed it. And in this case I wasn't
able to, but I learned a lot from that, so. - [Narrator] Dee also
faced disappointment. Notre Dame said no
to her application. As for Nailah. - [Person 1] Can you read
a little bit of it to me? - It says after a careful review of your application, we
regret that we are unable to offer you admission
as a first year student to the Summer Bridge
program through care in Florida State University. So yeah. - [Narrator] But Nailah
had the comfort of knowing she had already been accepted
to another state university. - I didn't expect to get
accepted to everything or everywhere. So it's just like, okay,
you wouldn't accept me. It's okay I'll go
somewhere else. You know what I'm saying? So it's just like I'll
find my place somewhere. Yeah. - [Narrator] Juan also
got a no from Georgetown and Abbie who had hoped
Yale would say yes, did not. - Rejected from Yale. - Oh my god. Oh my god. Abbie, that doesn't
mean anything honey. We love you, it
doesn't mean anything. - I, yeah, I'm fine. - They're idiots. I am so angry at them
because she's amazing and she would be an amazing
asset to any school. So I'm really,
really pissed off. - Yeah, I don't
think I'm surprised. I think based on my
test scores, grades, the rigor of my course
load, I was qualified but they're looking
to build a class and I guess they just
didn't need me in it. - [Narrator] Abbie was
waitlisted at Harvard, meaning it might give her
a spot if there was space and she was accepted outright
to other institutions. - Johns Hopkins,
Carnegie Mellon or Pit is going to be so
lucky to have you. - Okay. Yeah, I'm fine. - [Narrator] Still, Abbie
thinks she could have done more. - I don't think that
I reached the ceiling in terms of living up to my
potential in high school. - I disagree with that. - I could have done more.
- I think they needed a tuba player from
Wyoming or something weird to make their class there. - I just think there are
a lot of students like me. - There's only so
many hours in a day. And she took classes
every summer. She has been working for
the newspaper the whole time and the National Honors Society
and being the president. I don't know what they
expect from these kids. - [Narrator] Abbie
doesn't have any regrets about working so hard, but
she does think her story might be a lesson to others. - Maybe people will be
able to ask themselves before they take on like
five AP classes in a year and a million
extracurricular positions. Do I want this? Because I mean you can
work really hard like me and then not get into any
of the Ivy League schools you apply to like
nothing is guaranteed. - [Narrator] And then
there was Sean who finally got his answer from Yale
after his initial deferral. - Oh, I got in. (audience cheering) Yay. - [Narrator] Sean's not sure
what pushed him over the edge, but he was meticulous
in his application and that includes an
essay which reflected on a meeting with a
stranger that made him want to help Alzheimer's patients. - I began to wonder
how such a powerful intricately engineered
instrument of
biological machinery could fail yet continue to feel. Eventually this interest
advanced into my inner passion for psychology and neuroscience influencing me to pursue
a career in medicine and the sciences. - [Narrator] The fact
that Sean was the only one of the six students who
got into his top pick was not a surprise
to our experts. - I will tell you that I spent
the majority of my career as a dean of admission at
highly selective institutions. I used to tell the
faculty every year that I could take the
admitted class, remove them and take the same
number off the wait list and my class would be just as
strong, maybe even stronger. That is how many
talented students were in my applicant pool. - [Narrator] All five students
admit the rejections hurt, but it appeared they
got over it fast. There were big moments
on the calendar, albeit celebrations
like graduations were virtual as they
were the first class to graduate during
the COVID pandemic. But there was also a
little time to prepare for the next big steps. In Juan's case he needed to
get to Alaska for a summer job. - Just to have this money
on the side that I could use to pay off any debts
that I get from dorming. - [Narrator] Nailah
decided to go with her most affordable
and convenient option, Miami-Dade College. - Well I don't have a car
and I didn't have a lot of scholarships. - [Narrator] To avoid
any debt she planned to get her associate's
degree online, then transfer to a
state university for
her business degree. Gabe followed his parents'
advice choosing a free education at West Point Military
Academy in New York. Dee flew across the country
to pursue a pre-med degree at Gonzaga University
in Washington State. Abbie plans to go pre-med too. She chose John Hopkins
University in Baltimore. Sean also had plans to
follow in his mom's footsteps as a physician and as
sweet as it was knowing he had achieved his goal. The goodbyes were
not any easier. - Sorry. - [Narrator] Oh that's okay. That's part of the process. It would be crazy
if you didn't cry. - Yeah, I'm supposed
to be happy. - [Narrator] I
wanna cry with you. - I'm just at home anyway. It's okay. - [Narrator] We wondered
whether Sean's acceptance to his dream school Yale
would give him an advantage post-graduation over his peers. Yale has one of the largest
endowments in the world to pay for groundbreaking
research and top faculty. - Well the biggest factor in
determining future earnings is your major,
what you get into. There's just certain majors
that pay and a lot more than others do. - [Narrator] Martin Van Der Werf is the director of editorial
and education policy at Georgetown University Center
on Education and Workforce. - In certain places
what you're buying, if you go to an institution
like Georgetown, you're buying basically
the group of people that you're going to meet and
the reputation of the school. However, there's a number of
industries in which we find that getting a degree from a
super expensive institution really doesn't matter in
terms of your future earnings. A good example is nursing. They might get it from the
local public institution. They might get it from a very
expensive private institution. But we find that actually
it doesn't matter that much. In a lot of professions,
it doesn't matter. It's the high professions
when you're really trying to get into leadership roles, there's a reason why
there's so many CEOs who went to the top 100
institutions in this country. You're buying your
way into that clique, if I can put it that way, that where everyone watches
out for one another. - The nice thing about
having gone to Harvard and having gone to Penn
is that quite frankly I have a lot of
unsuccessful friends. So I can look these
parents in the eye and I can say to them, just sending your child to
UF or Harvard or Stanford is not a ticket
to success at all. It's not. - [Narrator] So what success
did our students find at the schools they
chose to attend? - There are a lot
of things about Yale that I realize now would
not have meshed well with my personality. But I think the name
recognition played so much into the schools I applied to. - [Narrator] While pursuing
a career in medicine would likely be lucrative
wherever Abbie went to college. Johns Hopkins has a world
renowned medical school. She also has a writing
major she's excited about. - It does seem crazy to me
now that I was so focused on getting into a school
that didn't have the major I actually wanted. Yeah, I was just so caught up
in the name of the university that I didn't really
pay attention to
whether I'd be happy. - [Narrator] Dee says when
she applied to Gonzaga, a small private Catholic
university in Spokane, she never really thought she'd
actually end up attending. - It definitely was an
interesting journey. If I'm being 100% honest, my
freshman year of high school, I didn't know what Gonzaga was. I'd honestly never
heard about it. - [Narrator] Dee told us
she thinks it's a better fit for her peace of
mind than Notre Dame because of the size
of the institution. - I feel amazing. I do think that size
was definitely a factor. I think if it was a lot
bigger I would definitely be super overwhelmed. - [Narrator] Dee admits
she's still concerned though about the price tag. - So I'm definitely a little
bit worried about money 'cause I mean it is
an expensive school, but also I'm kind of
just going with it through the next four years. - [Narrator] Juan says pursuing
his bachelor's degree at FSU instead of Georgetown
turned out to be a blessing. Studying in Florida's
capital of Tallahassee still gives him a
connection to politics and there's a big
financial benefit. - I remember looking into
schools in Washington DC I would've been stuck
paying a lot of money and probably would've
graduated with a lot of debt. And then, looking at a
school, a public school, they're pretty generous
with financial aid. I'm gonna leave here getting
paid to go to school, so that is ideal for anybody. - [Narrator] Months later,
Nailah decided business was not the right fit
for her and switched to pursue her passion for
writing as an English major. But soon after that she decided to take a break from college. - Honestly, going through
like the years of doing it, like it was kind of
making me a bit miserable. - [Narrator] Nailah
never felt comfortable attending college in
person and instead decided it was time to look for a job. She plans to keep
writing her poetry. - You'll get your
degree, you'll get a job, you know what I'm saying? And you're gonna be
okay from there on. But now things have changed. You don't really need a degree. You know, sometimes you
just need a certificate in certain things
like to do real estate or different things. And so from what I'm
doing, I'm thinking I don't really need
a degree so it's like I can be doing something else. - [Narrator] Nailah's
dilemma about whether to even get a college degree
is a far more common worry than whether a student
can get admitted to an elite university. High school graduates often
choose to pursue a paycheck instead of a degree, but research shows
that for most people, getting a degree does matter when it comes to future
financial earnings. - Typically the data shows that what we call the earnings
premium for a person with a bachelor's degree
over a high school graduate has been pretty
steady at around 80%. So you would make about
80% more during a lifetime as an adult than you
would if you only had a high school diploma. - [Narrator] Gabe's
education didn't come with the typical
college price tag. He and his fellow cadets get
a stipend during their time at the military academy
and after graduation, he'll have to commit to
five years of service in the military. It's a choice he's
grateful he made. - Getting used to all
the standards and rules and the way things, the way
people do things around here was really tough. But now honestly the hardest
part is the academics. This week I had four
papers due and two projects and so I was like, man, I really could be
at a regular college taking 14 credit hours, not
worrying about a whole lot. But then I realized
I want to be here and honestly, there's
nowhere else I'd rather be. - [Narrator] Gabe
says, looking back, he appreciates his parents
pushing him to go to West Point and leave home. - For my parents
feeling like I failed if I didn't leave
Albuquerque or New Mexico. I see what they were saying. I have experienced so
many different people and different things
just coming here. I kind of opened
up my perspectives. Everybody has such a
different perspective on like what is America
and what values they hold that it's just coming
here has really allowed me to grow in my understanding
of what it means to be an American and what
it means to be a good person. And then I guess
there's something to say about the saying
mother knows best, my parents wanting
me to come here really did affect where I went. I want to make them proud
and I want to earn that. So I guess that was a big
decision, a big factor. - [Narrator] He should be proud. It's not easy to get in. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas
Tolman leads admissions at West Point. - We receive more than 10
applicants for every student that gets admitted. So most of the letters
unfortunately that we send out are two students who
will not get admitted and I received one of those
as a high school senior and I know how
devastating that can be. So students should not
tie their self-worth to an acceptance by a
selective institution. - [Narrator] Tolman was
only admitted to West Point on his second try. - So it's important to
realize that you can reapply and try to get in a second
or third or fourth time. And also it's important
to think about what your larger goals are, so maybe you can
accomplish those same goals going somewhere else. - [Narrator] Sean also
believes he can reach his goals without a Yale degree. He says that while
clearly loving his life in New Haven, Connecticut. - How does it feel
to be at Yale? - No, it feels, as I hoped, it feels humbling to be around such immensely
brilliant young people. It feels competitive. - And do you think
it's any different than another university? - I think in general, no. I think life is the same. It's the amount of attention
you put into your work, the amount of tension you
put into what you wanna do in the future. However, I think the
expectations might be higher. - [Narrator] And Sean
is taking advantage of these opportunities. - You definitely have
professors who are at the top of their fields and
they very well integrate their current research
into the class material. - [Narrator] Between
classes Sean volunteers as a student researcher in
Yale's neurobiology labs. - So it studies the pathobiology
of neurodegeneration primarily in
Alzheimer's disease. So I've been thankful
to have the opportunity. - [Narrator] Sean estimates
he puts in five to seven hours of studying a day
and more on weekends. - Friends as well as
just people in classes. You realize how
brilliant they are and how much they've already
done at such a young age. You wonder if you actually
do fit where you are. Thankfully, I think that
it's okay to think that to a certain extent to see
that you can learn from them. - [Narrator] He also
feels a pressure to not let his parents down. They're paying for his
bachelor's at Yale and Sean wants to make sure their
investment pays off. - Most likely my parents
will have to work longer just for me and my
sisters to go to school. - [Narrator] How do
you feel about that? - Definitely guilty. I think anyone who would
be in that position would feel guilty. - [Narrator] Sean does not
take his parents' hard work for granted. - Almost every day I feel
privileged of what my parents have sacrificed
for me to be here. - [Narrator] Sean is fortunate. Less than 1% of
students will attend an Ivy League university. Those elite schools are
few and far between. Of the roughly 4,300
institutions that grant degrees, the majority of those
schools admit most people who apply to them. - There's a huge amount
of schools out there that do some really wonderful
things for their students and are really great
institutions and people graduate from there and live
happy and fulfilling and successful lives. I mean, I get it. I understand like parents,
you want what's best for your kids and
you want your kids to have everything
they've ever dreamed about and I totally understand that. But teach them that it's
okay if their dreams are just to be a happy and
healthy and loving person and everything else
will fall into place. - It's something about the
earth, it's worth saving, something about
me, this fondness, it's something you see
about living seconds and moments seem worth it. - [Narrator] A lesson all
of our students agreed with. - Right now I'm glad
I didn't go to Duke. I don't think I would've
enjoyed it as much. And I think that West Point's
a much better fit for me. - One of the biggest advice
they give you in high school, especially from
guidance counselors, is that where you end up is
where you are meant to be. And to be honest, I've
found that to be true even amongst my friends. - [Narrator] That seems to be
true, especially for Abbie. She considers it a blessing
she ended up at Johns Hopkins. - I wouldn't have the
friends I have here if I'd gone to Yale or any
other school and it's cheesy, but I'm really happy here. - [Narrator] Time and
distance have made them see their stress during high
school very differently. - I'm sure 14 year old me
would be very proud of me. - [Narrator] Nailah's success
is something she's trying to define for herself
and that might not include a university degree, but maybe a certificate and
finding a way to express herself in an artistic way. - I just feel like people
who are in the same position like me, like kids
of immigrant parents, they put a lot of
pressure on themselves to be the first to take
care of their family. And I just feel like sometimes
you have to step away from the whole family thing
and think about yourself. What do you really
want for yourself? - [Narrator] Sean has let
go of the perfectionism from high school. He has a new confidence. - I have definitely
struggled in a few classes, but I'm okay with that. I'm just glad to
be in a situation where I can struggle and
know that it'll be okay. - I mean, looking back the
all, the stress of trying to get into a
school that, I mean, it might be your dream school, but maybe you just think
it's your dream school and I actually just got
a thought about getting into top tier schools. I think a lot of the
part reasoning behind it is just the name. Like if it's labeled as an
Ivy, it's seen as amazing. It's kind of like, I don't know, like a Gucci belt versus a belt
that you can buy at Target. I mean, they both
do the same thing, but one's more expensive and
one gets a lot more hype, but the belt at Target
is just as great. I don't know if
that makes sense, but that's kind of how I see it. - [Narrator] Perhaps a dream
school is just the place where you start making
your dreams happen and that can be anywhere
you want it to be. - I think how far I make
it in life is how I choose to live my life, how smartly
I choose to live my life, and how much work I put into it. - I'm going to be
reapplying for grad school, so we're gonna go through
it all over again. You know, I'm a
little bit nervous, but I'll handle it
when I get there. (gentle music) (upbeat music)
