<p>I heard this from an adcom at Princeton, Wesleyan, Columbia, NYU, Penn and Stanford:</p>
<p>Holistic review means that if YOUR APPLICATION speaks to us with sincerity and honesty we are able to judge your non-academic qualities that would be a fine addition to the school. </p>
<p>This is why it is important to think carefully about what you write in ur App, so it does present what you want them to holistically review… </p>
<p>hope this helps</p>
<p>^^ I know in one expensive private high school in CA, the counselor corrects over and over her students’ essay until it 's well done</p>
<p>Okay, switch my last post from “because they didn’t like you” to “because they liked someone else more.” Seriously, what do they do after they cut down to the must-admit pile and a bunch of people still have to be cut? Start playing lottery and randomly draw files out of a box? No, they CHOOSE.</p>
<p>I could completely understand where the original poster is coming from-after all, it is so much easier to be rejected as a number (i.e. SAT scores) vs. as a person. Does it hurt more? Probably, but like someone said, people are accepted/rejected their whole lives; this happens in job interviews all the time. It certainly doesn’t soften the wound, but it’s food for thought.</p>