How long does a Holistic Application Review take? Is it good to get this notification? How many people get accepted after a Holistic Application Review at the University of Oregon?
I hope UO does not toy with you as they did with me. They strung me along until June. Move on and hope for the best. I hope you are pleasantly surprised and soon. I was lured by UO to 3 local events that I attended. I still did not get a reply until June.
My friend just got put under Holistic review…after doing research it seems it can last up until the last second. I don’t want to sound negative but don’t get your hopes up, so make sure you apply to a lot of other easier colleges
I applied last year and was put on holistic review from January until June. In June I was accepted and I decided to go but only because they gave me quite a bit of aid. Still if I were you I’d look elsewhere, no school should do that to anyone.
My son applied in early October as an “early action” applicant. He received notice of “Holistic Review” a few weeks later. We flew up for a campus tour in mid November and later emailed the admissions person who we met on the tour when we should expect to hear back with a decison. He said we would be informed of one of three things: “accepted, declined, or requesting 7th semester transcripts” by December 15. That is today. Nothing in the mail and Decision status on his application on duckweb still says “Holistic Application Review.” ::sigh::
My son was put on holistic review in December 2014, after applying early October.He finally was accepted in February or March,but had already decided to attend Penn State. It seemed like a long wait for him,but compared to many on this board,I guess he was lucky.
What irks me is that an admissions guy we have direct communication with said we would hear by December 15 and we have not. I wish they would just be honest even if the honest answer is “we can’t give you a date between now and June.” In the meantime he has been accepted to 3 other schools, but is waiting to hear back from UO as it is his first choice.
tonymannara, this sounds like our story from last year. Strung along till June. Watched lesser students get acceptances. Ended up at a much better university, IU. Beware if you are invited to local UO events. you attendance means nothing.
Well, as we are from So Cal there will be no “local events” in Eugene for us. If there are any down here I will leave it up to my son, but I appreciate the feedback that it will not factor in UO decision, thanks! We flew up to visit multiple schools - Portland State (accepted), UW (awaiting decision), Seattle Pacific (not interested), Oregon State (not interested). Oregon is his undisputed first choice so here we sit. We have seen lesser students admitted. I would think Holistic Review would work to our advantage so I will keep this thread posted to help future applicants. My son is Hispanic (UO 7-8% Hispanic), multicultural (Hispanic and Armenian, UO is 5% multicultural), has a 3.2 but grade trend is 4.0 both semesters junior and first semester senior…and that after transferring to a BETTER school…plus taking his first AP class (English Comp) as a senior and taking Pre-Calc as a senior. Essay is specific to life changing event that coincides exactly with the grade trend. 2 year team captain baseball, 2 years performance theater. Optional multicultural essay is strong with volunteer work with 5 different cultures, community service is average with youth sports groups, local church, food outreach, and elder care. Neither parent is a college graduate, he would be first in family to achieve a Bachelor’s degree. This is a very strong candidate based on Holistic Review criteria so I will keep this thread posted.
KatzWizkas did you hear anything between being put on Holistic Review (between October and December) and June? If so what did you hear from UO and when? Thanks!
tonymannara, UO asked for semester grades. We also submitted a recommendation letter. We heard nothing between October and December. It seems UO sends acceptances weekly. Many are students were accepted at various times. GPA was not an indicator as to who was accepted. Student with behavior issues admitted in April. Very few early admits. January started the rolling admissions. We are Southern California too. By local events I meant local for us in California. We did tour Eugene in 2014. Most kids we know had never toured the campus prior to being accepted. When we were deferred we received an invitation to tour. We sent a letter thanking them for the invitation but saying we had already toured, giving the date and time we visited. Also got into Portland State, Oregon State, Seattle Pacific(also not interested but it was free to apply), Seattle University, Washington State. UW was our first choice but we pretty much knew we would not get in. UO was the realistic first choice. Took APs too. Basic white kid.
My kid had over 400 hour of community service and played sports all four years. 2 years theater also, I doubt a Holistic review was done.
KatzWizkas thanks for reply. We shall see. I will keep this thread updated on our voyage.
Heard back from admissions rep re: email 12/15 that we met on tour and who told us we’d hear back by December 15 as described above. He now says the “notification” we were promised by 12/15 was in fact the notice of holistic review. We asked him this EXACT question as described above back in November and were told that this was NOT the case, but rather he would be accepted, denied, or asked for 7th semester transcripts by 12/15. He also had said they would begin holistic reviews the first week of December, but today stated that they just started them this week. He advised that we send 7th semester transcripts when ready, that they may help his evaluation, but added that they may not be necessary at all to complete the eval. He said duckweb status will be updated and letter sent out “sometime later this month, or perhaps in the month of January, but cannot provide you with a specific date at this time.”
I hope you hear good news soon! tonymannare, this is the same response we heard last year. Dragged on until June. Your son has a better chance than mine. Just keep in mind your son will land where he is suppose to be. If someone told me last year my son would be a IU I would have thought them crazy. UO is a great school but not the only option. Cheering for your son to get into UO.
UPDATE: We sent 7th semester grades and three letters of recommendation last week.
I heard some people’s online accounts were updated with ACCEPTANCE last Friday 1/15/16. My son was not among them. In fact, UO hasn’t even updated his online application/account to reflect receipt of 7th semester transcripts that we sent over 2 weeks ago (along with letters of recommendation). 
Keeping my fingers crosses tonymannara. You can monitor some of the activity at:https://www.facebook.com/uoadmissions/
I really appreciate it. UPDATE: they actually updated my son’s online application yesterday, Tuesday 1/26, to reflect that they had received his 7th semester transcripts. They were sent on 1/11…and other schools we sent them too posted that date as the date received. Oregon was 15 days later for some reason. But hey, it is SOME news and I am not going to lie, I was kind of excited to see they had updated the application at all.