Most of the common data sets I have read list “character/personal qualities” as “very important”. How are those things evaluated? Since there is already a category for recommendations, is it just an overall feeling based on reading an application? Does it relate to volunteer work? Should it influence the selection of certain essay topics?
It’s all of the above. Your essays should make the admissions officers like you and think you will be an asset to the university. There’s no one right formula - good qualities might include persistence, curiosity, sense of humor, leadership, bravery, or a million other things.
BTW It’s not how many volunteer hours you put in, but what you did in those hours that will make a difference. But not everyone needs to have meaningful volunteer hours. My older son did help out at the senior center in their computer lab, but I’m pretty sure that was not as important as other qualities that came through his application - his sense of humor and drive in particular.
Good to know @mathmom . My S19 also doesn’t have a ton of volunteer hours but he has a lot of other good things that will hopefully be evident from his application. He definitely has the sense of humor but not sure that will come through.
I have been consistently told by AO’s that LoR’s are pretty critical pieces of the puzzle because those are coming from third party sources. That is why it is so important to choose LoR writers that know the student well and will spend the time and effort to write a personalized LoR. I do think essays and EC’s are other vehicles to get across the intangible desirable characteristics of the applicant. However, I think AO’s are savvy to the fact that essays and EC’s can be massaged. For the highly selective schools that practice holistic admissions, the AO’s are trying to select the candidates whose applications tell and demonstrate a consistent picture through all the pieces of the application of a student that they believe will be additive to the school.
Thanks for the comments. I do think the letters of rec will be pretty important. S19 asked two teachers in the spring who know him pretty well and who have each taught him in two courses that are relevant to his future studies. I think he participated a lot in those classes but I’m not sure the teachers knew much about him outside of class. He gave them a resume and filled out a long biographical info. form so hopefully those will help. It’s a little tricky because most kids don’t like to brag about themselves but it can be helpful for letter writers to know other things about them outside of classroom interactions. I suggested that S check in with his letter writers when school starts in a couple of weeks to update them about what he’s been up to and some recent accomplishments, but he didn’t seem too excited about that idea. 
However, LoR writers are not necessarily consistent in quality of LoR writing, or their “grading standards”. This can introduce be a random element into the application that can reduce the reliability of comparisons, unless two applicants have the same LoR writers.
^That is precisely why it is so important, especially for the highly selectives, to choose the best LoR writers that you can, ones that are good writers and who know you well hopefully beyond just your classwork – ones who ideally can speak to your character and subjective strengths based on factual anecdotes and genuine conviction.
Of course, the chance factor is whether the teacher who know you best and are most impressed happen to be good LoR writers. It seems unlikely that high school students choosing classes and teachers consider this when choosing (if they even have much if a choice).
In high schools where few go to highly selective colleges, there may not be any teachers with experience writing LoRs that these colleges want.
Exactly @ucbalumnus. At our very large high school, very few students go to out of state colleges and only a handful to highly selective schools. Although I think my son’s letter writers will likely do a good job and are used to teaching good students in their IB classes, they likely have less understanding about how important the quality of their letters might be for S’s chances than the GCs and teachers from private or prep schools.
You can get some idea of what criteria they are looking for on respective websites. MIT has a good summary at http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/match . In the lawsuit, Harvard says " “Many characteristics are valued in the assignment of the personal rating, and admissions officers may assign ratings based on their assessment of the applicant’s humor, sensitivity, grit, leadership, integrity, helpfulness, courage, kindness and many other qualities.” This personal/character rating was quite influential in admissions decisions, explaining more than twice the variance in admissions decisions as did their academic and EC rating of applicants.
These “character/personalty qualities” can be inferred from a combination of essays, LORs, and interview, among other sections of the application. The Harvard lawsuit states, “The personal rating summarizes the applicant’s personal qualities based on all aspects of the application, including essays, letters of recommendation, the alumni interview report, personal and family hardship, and any other relevant information in the application.”
Ability to “overcome obstacles” is a big factor in evaluating character. That does not mean that applicants should write essays on overcoming illness, family problems, poverty and so on, though these issues can be addressed in the supplementary essay, by guidance counselors or, with the applicant’s permission, in letters of recommendation.
If a student does an arts supplement or has an important activity outside of school, those addition LOR’s can be very helpful in filling out the profile of a student. Things like work ethic, ability to work with others, and so on. I cannot imagine relying on public school teachers, sorry to say.
Each of my college students shared one public school teacher recommendation letter with me. Both letters gave me that Mom misty eye experience. They had eloquently described our child’s, strengths, resilience, personality and HS growth and development experience.
ECs show your personal and academic interests and leadership abilities. Recommendations add your character with descriptions of obstacles overcome. Essays are the place to include humor in your personal narrative. Everything ties back to your academic record and test scores, but they never stand alone.
Our kids did not go to a very good high school. We spent years dealing with serious health issues and the teachers’ inability to accommodate properly. Luckily they had other LOR’s in areas where they had talent and ended up at great schools. The above advice is great if you have teachers who write well and are insightful about kids, and also kids who are not, um, an inconvenience to them. Ironically, the ability to overcome that obstacle figured largely in applications, I am sure, though my kids didn’t write about it.
Many kids with real character and leadership qualities don’t run for office or lead organizations but are seen by peers as mature, helpful and true leaders. I always wonder how that comes across in applications.
If you can schedule interviews with the AO’s, it will help too. All the schools my 2 kids applied to listed character as very important, and interviews were available at all. One of the schools was out of state and we didn’t visit before applying, so my S scheduled a phone interview. The Admissions Counselors know what to ask to reveal the information they want to know.