<p>For those out there who know what they’re talking about, have the vast majority of EA decisions been made already?? A few weeks ago when I was up for an interview, my folder was ‘checked out’ and so I couldn’t check the status of a reccomendation I wanted to make sure got in there.</p>
<p>I called again today and they had the folder un-checked-in and were able to access it…dundundun. What does this mean!? Are our fates already sealed?</p>
<p>OMG! OMG! OMG! <em>runs around in tiny circles and falls down; lies still in fetal position</em>
j/k...i think many are and many aren't...they're in the process
and why would anyone check out anyone's folder?</p>
<p>haha, I guess one of the officers was reading it when I came up there...maybe they even had it at home! Does anyone know what the deal is with the whole committee thing? It's an interesting process - I mean apparently Princeton has every officer review an application, Dartmouth has 2 people. But for me, Harvard's approach is still an enigma.</p>
<p>Well, I just went to the old forums to do a little perusing and this is what I found:</p>
<p>"All right, here's how it goes for EA decisions and all others. Someone on the committee is the first person to look at your file. Now hopefully that one person likes you enough to make notes/recs about you in your folder. Then it's passed around certain other members of the committiee who perhaps have judged apps from your region in the past. </p>
<p>If that first person assigned to your folder doesn't like you, someone else will eventually as it's being passed around and will make favourable notes on your behalf. If not, you're out. </p>
<p>For the ones that make it past all this (and it's an extremely thorough scan of all the material they have on you) they await your alumni interview depositions, if any, and the one person who by now is your advocate on your folder decides at that time whether he/she really wants to recommend you to the committee or not. And then the whole committee sits down and as a group votes on you, with your advocate pleading for you to the other members, some of whom may like you, some who don't, and some who haven't ever seen your file. </p>
<p>That's how it works. All the best. </p>
<p>Take it from an insider."</p>
<p>Take it as you will I guess. It sounds like any other admissions decision to me.</p>
<p>ugh! that would suck if no one liked you enough to become your advocate</p>
<p>Yeah. I have a feeling that that will be me : (</p>
<p>I would interested to watch my application going around. I really do wonder what they'll say about me, and what the vote will be.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that, even after the bulk of the decisions are made, horse trading between the adcoms continues right up until the last moment. People keep getting pulled off and put on the admit pile right up until the letters get sealed and mailed (or e-mailed).</p>
<p>Imagine having your acceptance letter all typed and signed and sitting there with your name at the top waiting to be mailed, and with 30 minutes to go before they are sealed and mailed it gets pulled and redone into a reject or deferral letter. It happens all the time.</p>
<p>Now for a happier thought, imagine it the other way around. Your reject letter gets changed into an acceptance at the last minute. That happens all the time too.</p>
<p>thanks, coureur...i can't decide if i'm happy or dejected now</p>
<p>ugh college admissions make me extremely dejected :(</p>
<br>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that, even after the bulk of the decisions are made, horse trading between the adcoms continues right up until the last moment. People keep getting pulled off and put on the admit pile right up until the letters get sealed and mailed (or e-mailed).</p>
<br>
<p>And why would this happen?</p>
<p>I mean do they just kick you out on a whim?</p>
<p>I think by "horse trading" he meant the advocates of applicants do a little quid pro quo. "If you take willywonka out of the admit pile, we'll let you have LAgal instead. But only one."</p>
<p>"Fine, I'll take LAgal instead, but you have to take reject ivyleaguechamp if you want to keep Harpingchic."</p>
<p>And so forth.</p>
<p>Not on a whim. The adcoms are basically arguing among themselves and voting on whom to take and whom to reject or defer. They are filling in the last few slots, and it's often tough to choose between so many good applicants. One may be on the admit pile for a while but then get displaced by another when the pending files get reconsidered. Or some adcom may really like someone on the reject pile and refuse to let them go and reopens the argument and succeeds in getting them admitted. It happens this way at pretty much every selective school.</p>
<p>They have a very limited number they can accept. Once they have hit this number, every time they add a new one to the admit stack it means somebody already on there has to come off.</p>
<p>how about we think about and appreciate how nice it is that a group of people, for 65 dollars, care enough to argue for your future fate?? hmm? hmm?</p>
<p>i'm so glad you can know and are willing to share all this info, coureur...thanks!:)</p>
<p>This sounds eerily like sorority rush.</p>
<p>How on earth is this process accomplished with 2,000 applicants? There must be some initial weeding-out process where the woe-unto-you-who-darken-our-doors apps are stacked in a broom closet before the advocating process begins.</p>
<p>You know what would be cool -- if HYP etc. 'referred' the applicants they were rejecting out to schools they thought would be appropriate for the applicant, sort of like 'recommending' you to a place they think would be a better match. Then that school could contact you, determine your level of interest and move from there instead of starting all over with the application process...</p>
<p>coureur, how do you know all this?</p>
<p>Also, they can't possibly remember EVERY single person who they admit or defer (especially those who they decide on early in the process), and, so, isn't it somewhat unfair to the people who are judged later on in the process (since most spots have already been filled up)?</p>
<p>I know this from several sources. First from books by authors who had access to the inner workings of admissions committees at selective schools, such as The Gatekeepers by Jacques Steinberg. I recommend you read this book if you haven't. It's an eye-opener. Also last year I personally had an extended discussion with an adcom from MIT. I asked her directly, and she confirmed that it is true. The committees really do continue with the horse trading right up to the end. She told me that it was worthwhile to notify the schools of any late-breaking SIGNIFICANT honors or achievements that might tip the balance in favor of the applicant. They might be one of the ones on the bubble.</p>
<p>As for early or late in the process, everyone gets a read through and evaluation before any decisions are made. Some of those are clear admits or clear rejects, and they fall in or out early and stay there. No additional evaluation is needed to confirm their status. It's the near the borderline where all this late activity occurs.</p>
<p>Do they rescind acceptances after they send out decision letters? (not because of anything that you do but because they had second thoughts and think that someone else would be better suited for Harvard)</p>