| If you have a high school senior in your life, you're probably in the thick of college application season. This year the uncertainty about the process might be worse than ever. Francesca Maglione is here to explain. Plus: The businesses trying to turn wood waste into profit in fire-prone states, and how ridiculously large skeletons became a big hit for Home Depot. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. Higher education in the US is facing a reckoning. As costs creep toward $100,000 a year at some schools, and millions of Americans struggle to pay their student loans, more and more families are questioning the value of college degrees. Ivy League schools and other elite universities are still flooded with applications, ramping up the cutthroat admissions competition, but smaller private colleges are folding under high costs and dwindling enrollment. The past year has been particularly tumultuous. The US Supreme Court effectively banned race-conscious admissions, forcing schools to find new ways to maintain their diversity goals. The Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza turned campuses into hotbeds of tension and protest, with administrators forced to grapple with thorny geopolitical issues under the microscope of national media attention.  Columbia University has had to balance protests with academics in the past year. Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Against this backdrop, highly sought-after schools are rethinking how they select their students. For applicants, that means the process is murkier than ever. "It's gotten more competitive and more uncertain," says Eric Tipler, author of Write Yourself In, a guide to writing college essays. "Uncertainty vis-à-vis what schools kids will get into, but also for families a lot of uncertainty about 'What are the rules of the game, and how can I set my kids up for success?'" Harvard University and other schools added questions to their application for the class of 2029, underscoring "the importance of enrolling a diverse student body" and asking students how "the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute" to the school. Still, demographic information for the first class admitted after the June 2023 landmark Supreme Court decision showed most elite universities enrolled fewer Black students than in past years. Another question colleges are asking? Whether students know how to engage with those they disagree with. After a year of protests over the war in Gaza, Harvard is asking students to discuss "a time when you strongly disagreed with someone about an idea or issue." That's not all that has admissions offices worried. The rise of artificial intelligence is making colleges question the validity of application essays—at least when it comes to signaling writing ability. (Colleges are also contending with AI detectors that falsely flag some student-written papers as cheating.) Duke University said earlier this year that application essays will no longer get numerical scores, with admissions officers reviewing the submissions "primarily to understand the student's lived experience," according to Christoph Guttentag, the school's dean of undergraduate admissions. And lastly, probably not surprisingly, standardized tests are making a comeback after a quick pandemic-induced hiatus. Elite schools including Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale have brought the exams back for students applying this year, arguing they are a reliable indicator of success and help identify high achievers from low-income and rural backgrounds. It's not like test-optional policies were stopping students from taking the SAT. Almost 2 million students in the high school class of 2024 took the test at least once, according to a report by College Board, the nonprofit behind the tests. Although SAT participation is not at pre-pandemic levels, it's up from a year prior. "From a college's standpoint, it's about obtaining as much context as possible for an application," says Jamie Moynihan, managing director at college counseling firm AcceptU. "It isn't necessarily a deciding factor, but it's context that, without it, makes it more challenging to differentiate some of these students." Related: Harvard's Embrace of SAT Showcases New College Admissions Regime | 
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