<p>Do they do it alphabetically, in order in which the application comes, legacy first, by state? What? I'm not really worried about this, I just thought it was interesting to think about. What's your take? I personally think its alphabetically...
:)</p>
<p>I suspect that it is done by admissions officers - meaning that each admisisons officer has a number of apps to read through (which then may be passed on to other admin people) and then on a given day/time each admissions officer presents some or all of their apps to the admissions committee for review</p>
<p>At SPS the admission officers sit around a table and read through the apps together. They then place them in three piles. Accept, maybe, and deny. I imagine this part can go pretty rapidly. After counting how many they have accepted they then take the SAO’s into consideration. They again go through the same process (this time only reading the maybes) and discuss each student, this time with the students chiming in. My advisor is on the admissions committee and I have several friends that are SAO’s so I believe this to be pretty accurate.</p>
<p>For all of you who don’t know a SAO is a student admissions officer.</p>
<p>Are the SAO’s the older tour guides?</p>
<p>hockeykid, do you know what school has SAO’s? is it just SPS?</p>
<p>evil cackling witches with green skin and warts that tear applications into shreds and mix a bubbling cauldron while they’re at it, waving a big red REJECTION stamp all over the place!!!</p>
<p>… that would require 3 hands, but something like that. you know :)</p>
<p>They put all of the applications on the wall of a building. They give a team of monkeys paintball guns, but they only give enough paint balls to shoot 82% of the applicants. That is how they achieve that perfect 18% admission rate. They let the monkeys go to town, and whoever didn’t get hit gets in.</p>
<p>Flawless.</p>
<p>hockeykid is correct.</p>
<p>Italianboarder: Unfortunately, this year, there has been an abnormal amount of paintballs that hit more than one application, lowering the admissions rate to 12%.</p>
<p>Having monkeys choose may not be such a bad idea.</p>
<p>[The</a> year of the monkey … again :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: David Roeder](<a href=“http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/191471,CST-FIN-roeder31.article]The”>http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/191471,CST-FIN-roeder31.article)</p>
<p>I don’t think my kid’s received this much attention and scrutinization since the day he was born! This process is kinda like the rebirth…which brings me to my first book project after he’s secured in his dorm room…</p>
<p>“WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING TO GET INTO PREP SCHOOL”</p>
<p>Oh. I have first hand experience. Over winter break last year when I was a junior, I was able to visit the admission’s offices of Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, and Hotchkiss and serve as an intern. They made sure that I had no affiliation with any of the applicants, which I didn’t, and they showed me the process of their choosing. They have ordinary filing cabinets adorned with locks, and they have files and files of people based on alphabetical order. I asked if this would take a long time, the deciding process. They said no. They get an interview, and after the interviewee has left, the Admissions office gives the interviewer a slip saying, “Was the child normal? [Yes/No] Was the child good and promising? [Yes/No].” If there is a no for the first one, then you’re out and you’re tossed in the bin. If there’s a no for the second option, but a yes for the first, then you’re put in a special container, where approximately 5% of the entirety is accepted, generally from waitlist. Afterwards, the people who pass the slip with flying colors, are put into a bin of “general students.” This normally equates to 90% of all applicants. Hotchkiss however receives strange applicants, and their percentage is around 40%. Anyways, there is normally a strange old lady with a weird smell to her person that then sorts out these applications. The first 100 are chosen and sent to the second level, while the next 100 are shredded in her big shredding machine. This is continued until all the apps have been processed through this method. Finally, with less than 45% of the original applicants, they begin to look at your content. They sort you by “International,” “Normal United States,” and “Alaska and Hawaii.” All the Alaskan and Hawaiian students get in, which adds up to roughly five or so people. The International students are then typed onto a random name generator, where 35% of all the names are highlighted in green. This means that these students are now the future class of 20__ and are sent their acceptance letters. If they are highlighted in yellow, there will be no response, or is sent by snail mail, which will take approximately 3.5 years. If they are highlighted in red, then that means they are waitlisted. Finally, the schools consider the domestic apps. For this, they read all of the names and sort them, once again, in alphabetical order. From then on, they count each letter of every person’s name and reject the people with over 15 characters in their names - Sorry, but we can’t wait that long for standardized testing days. Then, people with oddly short names, such as “Bob Joe,” are immediately accepted, as it saves the ink required on monogramming and certificates. Finally, the adcom reads the remaining applications one by one, which typically is less than half the original amount.</p>
<p>From a Princeton adcom I know… </p>
<p>Unhooked people, hooked people may get a serious re look:</p>
<p>Look for every reason they can find to reject you and put you in that pile. Biggest cut. </p>
<p>Look for every reason as to why they need you, if they cannot find reason reject</p>
<p>Rinse and repeat once</p>
<p>By now they will look for more specific things and accept based on that.</p>
<p>LOL stoompy! You had me until:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lol I believed you all the way till the last sentence actually. I was kinda like “sounds weird but I guess its possible…”</p>
<p>Yeah, you had me going until the strange Hotchkiss applicants, the old lady and her shredding machine, and the thing about all the Alaskan and Hawaiian student getting in. Oh, and the international student’s selection process. And the entire last bit of it. Lol, great post though. XD</p>
<p>Lol, ditto. I thought it was weird as I was going along. & I was like, “does this really happen?” & then the part with 15 characters or more, just blew it. 
Nice though, 'cuz the intro. was really convincing.</p>
<p>I think stoompy deserves to get into any school he desires…</p>