<p>What does a college mean when they say they consider if you would "fit" in to their university? I mean, obviously they are looking for specific traits but what do they exactly mean? Are they looking for specific types of people? e.g. a "go-getter" type person, an intellectual, etc. How would they go about making such a decision considering they don't know you personally, they only know you through your essay? This has confused me because I have read this on multiple college websites and am not sure how they would go about choosing applicants in that manner.</p>
<p>Go to [NPR</a> : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org%5DNPR”>http://www.npr.org) and do a search on keyword: “Amherst” and you get info on admissions deliberations. You’ll get an inside peek at what goes on.</p>
<p>It’s not always just that they’re looking for a specific type of person. It’s important to most schools that they get a mix of people (i.e., not everyone they accept is the same type of person with the same interests, because that’s boring). It’s very much a subjective measure based on what you write in your essay, what you’re interested in studying, what ECs you’ve done, what your recommendations say, etc.</p>
<p>All you can do about it is try your hardest to make the application reflect who you are.</p>
<p>I enjoyed that, T26E4. I think more than anything else, it just tells you how seemingly illogical the admissions process can be. We spend years building our application, but if the vibe the committee is getting doesn’t seem right, then everything has gone out the window.</p>
<p>Wow. That link was helpful. also… bump.</p>
<p>When I think of fit, I think of trying to “fit in” in high school. Some people don’t “fit in” and their lives are miserable. Colleges want their students to naturally fit in with the campus and culture so that the student’s experience is the best possible.</p>
<p>It depends on the school.</p>
<p>The moderately selective state universities that most students at four year schools attend determine fit generally by grades and test scores.</p>
<p>The community colleges assume that everyone can fit in.</p>
<p>Now, if you mean the super highly selective schools, they find that they have more applicants with near-maximum grades and test scores than will fill their freshman classes several times over. So they look at the extracurriculars, etc. that make the process so opaque to and unpredictable from the outside.</p>