<p>Hi there,
Just curious about how the Ivys handle their 30000+ applications with the 'holistic approach' claimed to be adopted for assessing individual applicants. My understanding is they hire about 30 readers to do the prelim evaluation, then pass the files to another group I don't know how many (probably within the 30) to do further assessment, before ending up at the Adcom wherein each or more senior readers will come up with their selected files and ready to defend. </p>
<p>Along the way, I guess, many must have been thrown out and only less than 15-20% (which already amounts to 4500-6000 files) of total files remaining for final decisions. Imagine, if it takes 10-15 mins for each, it would be tantamount to at least 750-1000 hrs, or 62.5-83 days for the Adcom alone, assuming working 12 hrs a day!</p>
<p>My point is it's nearly impossible to use such 'holistic' way to do their job. GPA, SAT 1/ACT and SAT 2-Subjects should play their major role in ironing out those marginals to make sure the balance is small enough towards the Adcom. Even then, the fact that majority of applicants attain pretty high level of these standardized scores, it would be hard for the readers to flush them. This is where subjectivity in assessing ECs and probably other things like alumni, legacy or connections may come into play. Or probably these considerations come even before employing more objective standardized test results. My personal view is at the end of the day subjectivity rules, save probably those really outstanding applicants who the Adcom cannot possibly do away with.</p>
<p>Anyone with this knowledge or direct personal experience, please share your views.</p>
<p>Only guessing here but from my perspective, the schools that process 20-30K applications don’t seem to be in chaos. They have the resources to hire plenty of readers and I highly doubt they spend 10-15 min on initial reads. I’d guess 7-8 minutes and I’m would also agree that if a certain score threshold isn’t met, they quickly look to scan for any remarkable redeeming points – if none are found,that’s a quick reject. No point in being otherwise. $80 poorly spent for that kid.</p>
<p>We attended an info session with duke. ad officer stated that he can make an assessment in 2 minutes whether an applicant is good enough to advance to the next level. 2 minutes?!?! Son said “3 years of my life in 2 minutes???”</p>
<p>Just wondering, how low/high do you guys think the threshold for GPA would be at selective (top 30) schools? I’m just a little curious about this because GPA varies largely in terms of different high schools and it would suck if everyone with a GPA below say… 3.5 is automatically rejected.</p>
<p>Reading some answers here is enlightening but frustrating. I want to shake those adcoms’ heads and tell them “try doing what I do, then come judge me with two minutes of your time.” </p>
<p>Do they really only spend 2-3 minutes on the first reading? When I visited campuses, adcoms always said they looked each app for 20-25 minutes…although in retrospect, that does seem very long.</p>
<p>I do not know this for a fact, but I believe that GPA is a shorthand used by applicants and less so by admissions officers at top schools. I think they look at your transcript and get a gestalt view of the rigor of your course load and the general trend in grades. Mostly A’s? Honors courses? I’ll read on! Mostly B’s? Regular courses with just the occasional honors or AP? This one might not have what it takes to succeed here. </p>
<p>Given the great variability in how GPAs are calculated, it seems like that would be a valuable step and one that doesn’t take terribly long.</p>
<p>"I want to shake those adcoms’ heads and tell them ‘try doing what I do, then come judge me with two minutes of your time.’ "</p>
<p>But try to do what they do. They look at 200 similar applications each day. Your GPA is probably in a similar range to 80% of the others each day.</p>