could someone please explain how the system of admissions within the college works? i.e. screeners and the board? I was a little confused about how it works. Also can you explain how rigorous each one is for the top schools (i.e. Penn, Yale, Harvard etc.)?
<p>you must be British :)</p>
<p>Admissions to US colleges is very different from English universities. By "board" and "screeners," i'm assuming you mean admissions committee and admissions committee members (or adcoms, as we call them for short). The details differ from college to college, but the general process is pretty much the same. Your application, assuming you are not a recruited athlete or a minority, is read by the adcom responsible for your geographical area. He skims the file, makes a list of your most important or impressive EC's, writes down some initial thoughts, and sends it to the committee. From here on it's a little hazy... some schools have an entire committee of 10 or so adcoms who vote on your app, others have one or two people who each judge your app then submit it to the dean of admissions for final review. Colleges look at 4 aspects of your app: scores (SAT or ACT and SAT II, maybe even AP or IB depending on the college), academics (grades, rigor of course schedule), extracurriculars, (clubs, leadership roles, and awards won) and personality (essays and teacher recs). Some of them also take into account interview, geographical diversity, and legacy status. Of course, college admissions is very fuzzy in the sense that it's impossible to ever really understand why some people with lesser stats get in and others with great stats get rejected. There's no formula, so you never know what could happen.</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford are usually considered the most difficult to get into, though Penn, Columbia, and a number of others are nearly as difficult. Admissions to these schools is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. They take pride in announcing that they rejected half of the people with perfect SAT's who applied, or rejected two-thirds of the valedictorians who applied. You have to be stellar in each of the areas above to even be considered, and even then you chance is slim. Admissions is even harder for international students because there are so many of them who apply. Of course, i'm not saying this to discourage you... i don't know anything about you, but you must be smart to be looking at these colleges, so just apply and hope for the best!</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. I was also wondering how the board of trustees fits in, because my friend's college advisor told him that the board reviews the applications as well.</p>
<p>Also, what happens if you are a minority? Is there a different route?</p>
<p>Thanks again</p>
<p>J</p>
<p>no problem :)</p>
<p>I don't really know much about the "board of trustees" thing, so i can't really help you there. I can, however, address your second question. Minorities, recruited athletes, and legacies' applications all receive a special "tag," meaning that they should be looked at specially and apart from the regular pool of applicants. I think some schools even have separate committees for looking at these apps, though others just give them a tag and have the adcoms take that into account when looking at the file. URMs (Under-Represented Minorities) include blacks, hispanics, and native americans. These applicants are given an edge for two reasons: first, colleges like to have diversity, so it detracts from the stereotypical white campus, and second, often minorities come from a low-income background, which means they probably didn't have the same opportunities as the rich white kids. So adcoms will be less harsh on minorities with lower scores than on white kids with lower scores. The truth is that there are far fewer high-scoring minorities out there than high-scoring whites/asians, so top colleges usually end up fighting over those minorities.</p>
<p>I'm not really sure, though, if URM status makes a difference in international admissions. Does anyone have a thought on that?</p>
<p>That's actually very interesting. Well, as a "URM," I can say you took a load off my shoulders, even though I am not from a low income background. The only reason I was asking about the board of trustees was that it doesn't really make sense to me how if some people have connections with a board member how it will affect the course of their application.Would you happen to have an answer to this?</p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p>J</p>