Deep-Fit: Thrive in College & Beyond. A New Paradigm for the College Search and Application Process
If you’ve begun thinking about college for your child, you’ve probably heard the terms “fit,” “good-fit,” and “thriving” in college. What do these terms mean? How can you identify a good-fit college for your child? What might you overlook as you seek a college where your child will thrive? I am excited to share a new paradigm for the college search and application process centered on thriving as a foundation for lifelong success.
Let me start by sharing a story about my own daughter, who is now 27 years old. At the start of her college search, I suspected she would be an engineer. She could attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is top-ranked in engineering, for free because of faculty affiliation. So, a natural conclusion for me was that MIT would be a good-fit for her.
However, this was not her perspective! She had many academic interests that she was eager to explore and didn’t see herself as an engineer. She also didn’t see herself at MIT. Further, she wasn’t prepared to commit to any school through a binding early decision (ED) plan.
As a mother, I worried about her lack of academic direction and that she might be losing an opportunity to gain acceptance somewhere through ED that she might later not gain acceptance to. As a dean, however, I knew I had to center her and meet her where she was at so that she stood the chance of a positive college experience. I had seen firsthand that attending a school that isn’t a fit can lead to a complicated, messy college experience that impacts the student’s future options.
Looking Beyond Good-Fit
My daughter needed an approach that looked beyond what was a good-fit on paper. She needed to spend time finding the right school for her. As a parent, this wasn’t easy. It’s hard and scary when your child’s path is unclear. But my “dean head” knew it would work out since I was centering her and supporting her in what I have since coined a Deep-Fit™ college search.
What is a Deep-Fit College?
A Deep-Fit college is one where a student will have the opportunity to thrive and lay the foundation for a successful life—to create their future.
Good-Fit vs. Deep-Fit
Most college search guidance is about identifying a good-fit school that meets the student’s general criteria, such as location, size, and academic and social opportunities. These criteria are objective and concrete factors and independent of any given student. For example, consider this recent NY Times tool, which allows students to build their own rankings based on earnings potential, cost (sticker and net price), academic profile, party scene, diversity (racial and economic), potential for economic mobility, athletics, and campus safety.
With the concept of Deep-Fit, choosing a school isn't about chasing prestige, US News and World Report rankings, or fit to expected obvious factors. These factors are important to consider, of course, but Deep-Fit is more than this. After all, two schools with similar size, location, and academic and social opportunities are not the same, and a student might have vastly different experiences at them.
A Deep-Fit college is a good-fit college where a student will have the opportunity to have positive, impactful experiences, meet their specific academic and personal goals, thrive, and lay the foundation for a successful life—to create their future.
What is a Deep-Fit College Search?
A Deep-Fit college search is one where a student is engaged in the process of identifying Deep-Fit colleges.
Deep-Fit is not absolute; it is relative to the student and works best when a student spends time learning about themselves and learning about colleges. Now, you may be thinking: introspection and reflection are not my child’s nature! Will my child engage in a Deep-Fit process? Yes! Remember, our Deep-Fit college counseling is a guided process. We are your child’s partner in their Deep-Fit college search. Drawing on my decades of experience, I’ve developed a robust approach to help your child understand the value and importance of Deep-Fit and lead them through the process. At Lantern College Counseling, we support students with a range of tools to gain a sense of what they seek and value, their academic direction, and do deep research to identify Deep-Fit colleges.
In all cases, we meet the student where they are at and take them as far as they are willing and able to go on their journey to choose a Deep-Fit college.
Deep-Fit: The First Step in Creating Your Future
Choosing a Deep-Fit college can set a student up to thrive into the future.
In fact, research shows that the "big six college experiences" have a stronger relationship to long-term life outcomes than the type of school from which students graduate. Another way of saying this is that what a student accomplishes at a school is far more important than its ranking and selectivity.
At a Deep-Fit college, a student has the opportunity to thrive and ultimately lay the foundation for a successful life: to create their future.
Where Can Students Have Deep-Fit Experiences?
Students can find impactful experiences at any school, not just highly-ranked ones. However, not every student will find these experiences everywhere. Some schools offer a higher likelihood of that particular student thriving and having these enriching experiences—these are known as a student’s Deep-Fit colleges.
Once a student arrives at their Deep-Fit college, they may make the most of their time there by following my road map for college success.
Why Take a Deep-Fit Approach?
Deep-Fit may make sense for your family if:
Your child is targeting highly-selective schools and/or competitive, saturated majors (i.e., STEM, CS) since demonstrating a Deep-Fit to a school can boost a student’s chances of admission. A Deep-Fit application is a powerful form of demonstrated interest that differentiates a student from other compelling students with similar grades, courses, test scores, and activities.
Your child has unique requirements for their learning environment. Attending a Deep-Fit school is critical for their growth, development, and well-being.
It aligns with your family’s value system, and you want to give your child this opportunity. You value education, have a nuanced understanding of the college experience and success, and want Deep-Fit for your child. It is a gift representing your wish, hope, and dreams that you are giving to your child - the opportunity to have Deep-Fit. It is a privilege.
I am an example of the third type of family! I have spent my entire life supporting college students, and I’ve seen them struggle and thrive. You better bet that I would fight for my daughter to have a Deep-Fit.
Case Study 1: My Own Daughter
…continued
So, With This Understood, What Happened to my Daughter?
My daughter ended up applying to about a dozen Deep-Fit schools through non-binding early action and regular decision plans. All the schools offered a flexible curriculum where all majors that interested her, including engineering, were accessible and where she would have access to resources to support her academic exploration. The schools had extracurricular activities that she was seeking and the promise that she could participate in them (note, it is not always the case that an extracurricular activity is an accessible real option for a student.) They also offered study abroad programs that matched her academic interests and potential majors. Lastly, the schools provided the academic and social culture she was seeking.
My daughter chose to attend Tufts, which was a Deep-Fit choice for her. At Tufts, she enrolled in the School of Arts and Sciences, but after exploring her academic interests, discovered for herself that she drumroll… did want to be an engineer after all!
My Daughter Thrived at Tufts and Created Her Future
At Tufts, my daughter thrived. While at Tufts, she had several strong mentors who cared about her and encouraged and supported her to achieve her goals—and with whom she still maintains a relationship. Since graduating, they’ve invited her to social events and to present to current students in their classes, and they are now a resource for her professionally, serving as a reference.
She had summer research internships at MIT Lincoln Lab in her first- and sophomore-year summers, and before her senior year, she was accepted to one of Tufts signature research programs – the Summer Scholars Program – where she was paid to do research for the summer. This work evolved into the senior capstone project required of all Tufts School of Engineering students and a published journal article of which she was the first author.
Outside the classroom, she walked on to the Tufts varsity softball team, for which she played for four years and was a senior captain. She was also an executive board member of Tufts Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. She served as an Engineering Ambassador peer leader to help first-year engineers orient to Tufts.
In addition to achieving her goal of playing softball in college, she was thrilled to fulfill her dream of studying abroad. She spent a semester in Nice, France, advancing her degree, honing her French, and learning through traveling. She made lifelong friends in her engineering classes and through her extracurricular activities. Upon graduation, my daughter won one of Tufts distinctive senior awards.
My Daughter: What is She Doing Now?
My daughter graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts in 2019. She applied to and was accepted by several PhD programs, but instead, she went to work as a researcher at (another) drumroll… MIT! After working for a few years at MIT, she enrolled in an MS in Biomedical Informatics degree program at Harvard Medical School, funded by MIT. She just graduated and is now back at MIT, applying what she learned.
It All Starts With Deep-Fit
My daughter and I engaged in a Deep-Fit college search with an unsure destination. Her achievements have come to fruition because we centered her perspective in her college search. We engaged in a Deep-Fit college search. We allowed her to create her future herself—the one she has now.
And it isn’t just my daughter. I’ve seen this same thing with countless others in my years as both a dean and counselor. As a counselor, I guide my students with Deep-Fit college searches. Let’s look at two!
Case Study 2: Dylan
University of Vermont (UVM) as a Deep-Fit Choice
Deep-Fit is not correlated with prestige!
Dylan is an example of a student who was targeting the extremely competitive field of CS and had special requirements for his learning environment. He is a cancer survivor who had his last treatment in September of his senior year, so he had very real constraints concerning access to specific types of health care. Also, his illness had shaped his perspective. He sought a rich, rewarding, enjoyable college experience.
He was accepted to several highly-selective institutions but chose to attend less-selective UVM for Deep-Fit reasons. These are (in part) his notes about his reasons:
campus college experience
interest housing (gaming!)
multiple styles of living on campus, and plenty of it
their computer science major is spot on with what I am looking for
practical classes each year, with less but still some theory
well-documented paths to take, and lots of paths to take
Vermont is beautiful (he is from California)
lifestyle on-campus – culture of wellness
the tour guide was super enthusiastic and although he was not a CS major, he definitely reminded me of my current friends
He is now a happy rising sophomore after a successful first year!
Case Study 3: Nick
Harvard University as a Deep-Fit Choice
A student’s best chances of successful outcomes are through an authentic (Deep-Fit) application!
Now let’s look at Nick, a current high school senior who is an example of a student who was targeting highly selective schools and STEM fields (biomedical engineering and math.) He was an outstanding student with impeccable grades, a perfect ACT score, and strong rigor, including advanced math courses at a community college, and exceptional extracurricular activities. In other words, he had all the ingredients to make a competitive application to the most highly-selective institutions. However, he applied ambitiously to good-fit schools that weren’t necessarily a Deep-Fit because of their reputation and ranking and was denied early decision admission to the University of Pennsylvania. He was also not admitted to several schools through early action. These early results were humbling and helped him to understand that he needed to make true Deep-Fit applications to his remaining schools. He used this “aha” moment to work significantly on his regular decision applications, better understanding, and showing Deep-Fit. Ultimately, he was waitlisted or denied at Boston University, the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, and MIT. He was accepted to Harvard!
In a sense, it seems like he got lucky. But he didn’t. It wasn’t luck. He made a Deep-Fit and authentic application to Harvard. He’ll be a first-year student there in the fall.
What have we learned?
Choosing a college is not about chasing rankings or superficial factors. It isn’t all about getting in - it is about what happens during college. At a Deep-Fit college, your child will have the opportunity to achieve their personal and academic goals, have impactful experiences, thrive, and lay the foundation for a successful life.
Trust the process!
Because it is about the student, we as parents have to trust the process and trust in our children. To create their future!
Learn more about our Deep-Fit counseling services.
Where is your child on their journey to find their Deep-Fit? Access our Deep-Fit Assessment tool.
