Someone told me that they cross reference an applicant’s old file if they apply after being rejected previously and I’m looking to check.
Just to make it clear, I withdrew my app, but I’d still like to be safe.
I know that it is possible to go back and request to see your application file (though doing so is uncommon). That would suggest that colleges do hold on to them for a certain period of time. Exactly how long, I don’t know. Now that so much is computerized, it is much easier and cheaper for them to keep the data, but at some point it becomes useless to them.
The answer is that they don’t immediately discard or destroy prior applications - even if withdrawn - so they can compare any future applications against prior ones.
Do they discard them within a year or two? Do they remember previous applicants?
I’m not sure anybody other than the college can give you a definitive answer, but my guess is they hold them for one admissions cycle, and probably 2, before they dump, so that if one reapplies after a gap year or as a transfer they can refer to the original application. As noted above,since most everything id digitized these days, the storage is not as much of an issue as in the olden days when it was all paper.
Discovery for the Harvard admissions case resulted in the production of applicant files (successful and unsuccessful applicants included) covering quite a few years.
I think a lot of the cases filed in the recent cases will be after the admissions files in discovery, not necessarily the millions of $$$ asked for.