Christoph Guttentag's Letter demystifying admission process at Duke

Parents Forum
1

<p>Christoph Guttentag, Duke's Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, sent the following "electronic letter" to applicants last Wednesday. I believe it incorporates great wisdom, and it does so with considerable eloquence and grace. Duke has been blessed -- now, and throughout its history -- with exceptional leaders. Dean Guttentag clearly is in the first-rank of those who have shaped and enhanced Duke during recent decades. </p>

<p>From the Dean of Admissions:</p>

<p>As we prepare to release admission decisions tomorrow evening, Duke’s admissions officers know that many deeply talented students are going to be crestfallen and perhaps mystified. Only 9% of Regular Decision applicants will receive the news they hope to see. For those we do not admit, an admissions officer’s words may not diminish disappointment, but I hope they can make the selection process less opaque.
Alongside mystery naturally lies skepticism for some, especially in an arena as complex and high-stakes as selective college admissions. Earlier in the application season, The Atlantic tapped into the confusion many students experience and took a shot at holistic admissions as a lure, offering students the false promise of personal consideration. Phoebe Maltz Bovy argues: “From colleges’ perspective, “holistic” is just shorthand for, we make the decisions we make, and would rather not be asked to spell out each one.”
The decisions we make here in Duke Admissions are nuanced, subjective, and, yes, personal. Though never arbitrary, they can be difficult to understand without having seen a large, representative sample of the applicant pool. However, “holistic admissions” is not an explanatory scapegoat; it is a practice that enables meaningful distinctions among a sea of candidates who are highly qualified to attend a school like Duke.
I’ve written before about the workings of reading season, but let me dig a little deeper into the underpinnings of holistic admissions. Philosophically, it rests on two fundamental assumptions:
1. Each student is a person, not merely a catalog of accomplishments (though, of course, those are considered in our selections). Remembering this benefits applicants by allowing identification of merits that do not lend themselves to quantitative measurements. It also benefits the university as we seek to create the most vibrant possible community of flesh-and-blood individuals.
2. Context matters. Each component of an application indicates more as part of a whole than on its own. Different pieces reflect back on one another to portray and reinforce characteristics, and accomplishments become more meaningful considered in the context of opportunities available and obstacles faced. Further, each application is necessarily considered in the context of the entire applicant pool and the potential context of a well-rounded incoming class.
As an intellectually demanding and fast-paced university, Duke is first and foremost concerned with our applicants’ academic qualifications. When I read an application, I always start with the transcript. Even the best essay of the year is unlikely to sustain an academically lackluster application. (By the way, to younger students reading—please don’t feel that you ought to write a confessional essay. The personal statement is already a tricky genre, and the confessional is even tougher to write well. For essay tips from Duke Dean of Admissions Christoph Guttentag, check out this piece in the Raleigh News & Observer.)
Most students who apply to Duke display the intellectual chops and commitment to succeed here. With over 32,000 students vying for just 1,700 spots in the class, even absurdly fine grained distinctions along a numeric metric wouldn’t get the selection job done. To look at just one example: more than twice as many valedictorians applied as we had spaces in the class, and that’s a count contextualized by the fact that only half of schools sending us applicants provided a class rank. We have to look at other factors, and we want to consider all the other ways a student might contribute to the richness of Duke’s community.
Duke is very transparent about relevant characteristics we seek—things like engagement, impact, creativity, talent, and drive—and where in the application we look to find them. There are six areas, both quantitative and qualitative: curricular rigor, academic grades, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, the quality of thought and expression in the application essays, and standardized test scores.
These components are equally important, and most of the time just one of them doesn’t “make or break” a decision, though different pieces may come to the fore in different discussions. In making a case to admit a student, I have to articulate to the committee what stands out. For decisions on the bubble, the factors that most differentiate a student from the norms of the applicant pool—positively, negatively, or simply uniquely—are likely to drive the committee conversation.
We do not rate or rank applicants’ personal qualities, but we do aim to identify those that emerge, and we care very much about them. A suite of recommendations, essays, extracurricular and academic choices, accomplishments, and an interview report, if available, can solidify a strong sense of kindness, grit, wit, or a particular flavor of intellectual fervor.
Evaluating a file is an art akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle without a box. We aren’t starting with any preconceived pictures, and we don’t possess every piece of information that might be interesting or valuable. We do not presume we know everything about all our applicants, but the application provides enough interlocking pieces, many of them very big, for us to identify a picture of each student as a person.
I take it very seriously that a real, hopeful human being devoted significant effort over many years to present each one of the 1,600 or so applications I read in a winter. I consider it a great privilege as well as my duty to give full, fair consideration to each applicant. I am often saddened to recommend deny decisions, and I frequently experience excitement when someone’s unique blend of traits and talents comes to life on the pages of her application. Many times, disappointment and delight come hand-in-hand as the committee is forced to make tough calls.
Bovy is right on this count: a disappointing outcome does not imply any shortcoming. The tough reality is that there is far more excellence of character and ability in our applicant pool than we can physically accommodate on campus. The selection process is personal, but don’t take it personally if you receive bad news from Duke or any other selective university. If you are among the few to receive a letter that begins with the word “Congratulations” from us, know that it has been tremendously well-earned.
Thornton Wilder writes: “Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous.” As you wait these last few hours, keep your courage—and be sure to take it with you to college. It is the first step in all great things.</p>

1 Like
2

<p>

</p>

<p>I suspect most top universities are using a similar matrix to evaluate applicants. </p>

3

<p>@texaspg: I would agree, but how many are explicit regarding their rationale? </p>

4

<p>This letter would have more credibility in my mind if I could stop thinking of it as the place that got 16000 applications and decided that a porn star was what they really needed. Did he get excited about her unique attributes? I would rather not know.</p>

5

<p>FWIW, the student in question was admitted and enrolled at Duke before she embarked on her controversial career path. Or, to be more crass, I don’t think she submitted the arts supplement. </p>

6

<p>If you were to look at our school’s naviance, you’d think admission at Duke came down to SAT’s first, GPA second. But who knows? Maybe it’s just a huge coincidence and the kids with the highest SAT’s were also the kids with the best curricular rigor, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and quality of thought and expression in their application essays, I suppose it’s possible, but I’d be curious what other schools’ naviance accounts show.</p>

7

<p>As a parent of a Duke student, I am proud of C. Guttentag sending the letter caring for all applicants. </p>

<p>What are the sources of prestige of Duke? Quality of education for some. Research performances for others. Career achievements, D1 sports, and so on, for the others. I know Duke people work together to achieve excelleneces in all of these (except basketball) very GENTLY, CAREFULLY and with WARM HEARTS. That is the VALUES of Duke differentiating from others, I believe, and the reason I become a big fan of Duke. But unfortunately it takes a long time for some to realize that.</p>

8

<p>@halfemptypockets: Our Naviance seems to suggest that, while there may be the slightest bit of flexibility on SAT scores, there’s a relatively distinct GPA cut-off (at near-perfect levels) below which no applicant from my kids’ HS has been successful. Once you get into that “upper-right quadrant,” history at our school looks like about one in three, which tends to support Dean Guttentag’s explanation about the other factors that take over in making decisions among highly qualified applicants.</p>

9

<p>Thanks @SomeOldGuy! That does make it seem like our school’s acceptances are just coincidence. I wonder if others would post. In our school, the only rejected student with super high SAT’s had a 3.5 GPA. </p>

10

<p>Naviance is a good tool, but for most colleges the sample size you’ll see for any given HS is still more anecdote than data. I wouldn’t over-read either what you’re seeing or what I’m seeing. I do think, however, that Christoph Guttentag basically means what he says in that letter; he’s not a ball-hiding type. </p>

11

<p>Many admissions folks have posted letters like this one over the years.
Like this others, this is quite disingenuous.
It ignores the big elephant in the room: hooked applicants.
In Duke’s case, it’s particulary laughable as I’m quite sure pretty much 100% of what he writes goes out the window if Coach K wants the applicant.</p>

<p>It ignores the fact that being a URM applicant is good for about 200 SAT points and a .75 GPA bump.
It ignores the fact that legacy and/or donor applicants are essentially competing in a different pool.
It ignores the fact that in all likelyhood admissions essays from recruited athleates are not even read, let alone considered.</p>

<p>None of these things are particulary bad, as it’s part of the game and everybody knows it. But to write such an essay and pretend that this does not exist is showing very little respect for your readers.</p>

12

<p>I think it is clear that in highly selective schools, there are special applicant pools for “flagged” applicants that comprise as certain percentage of the spots at the school. Those applicants which do include first generation college students, students with extraordinary challenges, development kids, legacy, URMs, athletes, celebrity are all treated specially. Unless you are in those pools, it’s a waste of time to even fret about them. You are eligible for the seats that are left, and that is what Guttentag’s letter addresses. </p>

<p>What the letter fails to bring home, IMO, is the sheer number of kids that will fit into a particular category and get a particular “score” in Dukes’ talley system, and when it then really becomes a matter of chance within those groups. With so many qualified applicants, the test scores become the arbiters of who is considered and the class rank/gpa. Without getting the highest category test score, it becomes increasingly important to have something to distinguish yourself from so many students with like profiles. Geographics, special talents, a major in a field not so represented with some extra work showing passion in those studies. </p>

<p>Looking at our Naviance points, and that of a few other schools in our area, it is really just about impossible to get into Duke or like schools without the upper echelon in test scores and grades in difficult courses if not in special pools. I believe Duke’s method was made transparent by a “tell all” book written by an Admissions employee some years ago, and the SAT was indeed the deal breaker in the 6 category ratings as given by two admissions workers. Very simple numerical system actual 1-5 with auto admit at a certain break point if SAT scores were over X which I’m sure varies each year depending on what the applicant pool has. </p>

<p>I did notice that ACT scores seem to be viewed with prejudice more so than at peer schools and wonder if this is the case, expecially when I found out that a double legacy, rigorous prep school kid was declined ED with top ACT scores and grades with peers getting in with not so top SAT scores and lower grades at same school. Some schools show NO kids getting in when just ACT scores reported even with top grades which does not show up even at HPY which is concerning to me if Duke claims they do take ACT scores without prejudice and commensurately to SATs. </p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, to quote another wise poster I know, “I bet Jabari Parker had only one EC.” But regardless of the latitude Mike Krzyzewski does or does not get from admissions, that affects only four spots out of 1705 in the entering class. And, at least at a Division 1 school, you can readily observe the number of spots subject to such considerations, which, to me at least, feels more transparent than the NESCAC schools. </p>

<p>As for legacy, unless you’re a developmental case (and I think there are far fewer of these than the CC fever-swamps imagine), all legacy candidates get at Duke is a promise that their application will not be rejected without review by at least two admissions officers. That’s it; that’s the list of privileges. </p>

14

<p>The letter is hardly unique. Yes, it is also a tad hypocritical and self-serving, but so what! If it helps someone --anyone-- to feel better about a rejection, it should be applauded. </p>

<p>In the end, Duke is not better nor worse than other schools in terms of admissions. Every “boss” of admissions had to do what he (or she) is paid to do and that is recruit and enroll the very best class that fits plenty of institutional demands and allows the school to keep up with the academic Joneses. </p>

<p>But it is nice to read an excerpt of the human side of a tough job! </p>

15

<p>As a Duke alum with a top-performing child that went through the process this year my only comment is that two 150 word essays are completely insufficient to capture the necessary distinctions he claims to want. And IMHO the essay is the heart of holistic evaluation.</p>

<p>I would urge Duke to increase the word count on the essays and/or allow additional topics so students can truly show who they are. This would help both the candidates and Duke.</p>

16

<p>If <em>I</em> was running things, I would eliminate the application essays altogether. You have no way of knowing who actually wrote them, how much assistance the student received, etc. </p>

<p>Instead, I’d have a two hour long essay section on the SAT where the student has to respond to a prompt and the essay is sent, as-is and ungraded to all the applied to schools, who can then assess this guaranteed authentic writing sample as they see fit. </p>

17

<p>@soze - That’s an interesting suggestion for sure. Unfortunately that only shows which students are good at writing spontaneously. Some of the greatest authors in history were notorious for laboring over every word and doing multiple drafts of their manuscripts. Asked to be judged on what they could write in an hour or two they may have been judged as completely mediocre.</p>

18

<p>@fallenchemist: Yes, but on many (most/all?) exams in college you will need to “write spontaneously”. Also, law schools have been doing this for decades. The LSAT has an “essay” section, but they simply send your ungraded writing to the law schools and they do with it what they wish.</p>

19

<p>@soze I believe most law schools (or was it medical schools?)discard that essay completely. A timed essay is a very bad idea in my opinion</p>

20

<p>I thought the point of the essay was not to judge writing capability, but to learn qualities of the applicant that don’t show up in other parts of the application. I actually did have one essay in one of my applications that seemed to exist to judge my writing, and the prompt was very different than the usual. If I remember correctly, one of the options was to write a persuasive essay on some political issue. I didn’t apply to Duke, so maybe their essays are more like that.</p>