Before I start let me tell you that I know nothing about this topic, so I may seem annoying at times. I apologize in advance. So let me start. Harvard gets around 34,000 applicants each year. Lets say only 30,000 of these applicants are really qualified for Harvard. Now, when I read Harvard’s “What we look of page” I actually feel that the council takes the time to read, discuss, debate, and carefully analyze each applicant. If they do that it would take them about 10 minutes for each applicant. If the council works for 8 hours then 8*60=480 480/10=48. The council would be able to finish 48 applicants each day. Now lets see how long the would finish they total amount of applications. 30,000/48=625 days. Thats about 2 years. How do they do it? All these applications and still promising a careful evaluation for each application. Lets say they took 5 minutes each. 312 days, etc. So does anyone have any knowledge on how they go through all these applications in such a short time.
Yes I know I didn’t include Early action, but I also didn’t include the lunch breaks, weekends, vacations, snow days, sick days, etc.
I am thinking of single digit thousands.
BTW, Harvard once said that about 20% percent of the applicants are really unqualified, which is about 7000.
I imagine that each regional leader appoints a bunch of people to the committee.
hmm, thats pretty low, don’t you think. Lets go with 9,000 then. Well then that would be 90 days, which would be 3 months, it fits. Wow, 9,000 is pretty low.
I don’t think so. You have ignored regional officers altogether. I would think that at least a month is needed for them to cherry pick their nominees from their qualifies pool, and they work very differently from the adcom. I am an applicant like you though, so these are all my theories.
And it’s one-person, one-vote! Every accepted student must receive a nod from at least 51% of the people in the room. If every member of the full committee happens to be present that day, that means each student needs at least 20+ people in the room saying “YES” for them to be accepted.
It’s important to remember though that not every student is brought before the full committee. Regional Admissions Directors and the regional admissions committees read files and only bring the strongest applicants to the full committee.
My guess is that between the SCEA and RD cycle maybe 3,000 to 3,500 students who have it all – top grades and test scores, stellar teacher recommendations, thought provoking essays, good interview reports and remarkable extracurricular activities – are brought before the whole committee each year. Of those 3500 students, about 2100 of them are made an offer of admission. The 1400 or so applicants who are not chosen by the full committee probably go to the waitlist.
The vast majority of applicants – probably 85% to 90% of students who apply to Harvard never make it to the full committee. That’s because their Regional Admissions Director had other top candidates to choose from.
I was too late too to add this comment to the above.
During peak reading season, every college employs external readers, temporary workers who are trained to read applications and rate them according to institutional requirements. A college like Harvard could employ another 40 external readers to help them get through all the applications. If you want to logistically calculate the process, it would be something like
20 Admissions staff + 40 external readers = 60 people reading applications
60 people times 20 applications per-person, per day = 1200 applications per-day
1200 applications per-day times 30-days (6 weeks) = 36,000 applications read
It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very manageable for the Regional Admissions Committees, with outside help, to read every RD application between mid-January and the end of February. Then in March, the Regional Admissions Committees bring their strongest candidates to the full Admissions Committee for review and approval.
About half end at first cut. The rest get read by multiple readers, in a sequence that works. I’d guess Harvard will only start additional reads on about 15-16k.
The external readers won’t generally work a 40 or 60 hour week. Sometimes, depending, not even 20. Only the most compelling kids get to final review. Probably the 6k Harvard has mentioned before. By that point, you have multiple very short summaries all can see. How brutal all that final work is can depend on the region and the rest of the balance the U needs. Not everyone will sit on the final committee.
When you know what a school needs and wants- eg, a level of critical thinking and certain sorts of experiences- it’s easy to look for, in an app. The big shame for bright, qualified kids, is how often they miss the point, think they’re just a natural based on their hs successes, can write any old thing in their app and supp.
The link is iffy because she was a one-timer and admits she didn’t get how to review. And UCB is looking for different points than Harvard.
And also you have to consider that many athletic recruits just have their applications checked for baselines scores. So that saves a lot of time for admissions officers.