How exactly do colleges look at your college application?

College Essays
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<p>Hello I am a prospective college student looking to attend the reach schools (MIT, Harvard, Princeton)...my question is how and in what order do college admission people look at your application. Are we filtered based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores and then admissions look at the students with the higher tier GPA and test scores first then after seats are filled they move onto the lower tier students? Are we separated by our majors and then we compete against other students with similar majors? Are we separate at all?</p>

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<p>Bump… I am also interested</p>

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<p>The process is going to vary from college to college. For example: <a href=“College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube”>College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube;

<p>If you watch the above video from Amherst over 8,000 candidates applied, and Admissions used some sort of weeding-out criteria to bring about 1,000 of those students to the Committee. In the video, the Committee is then voting on whether to accept or waitlist each candidate. The presumption is that those students that didn’t make it to Committee have already been denied. </p>

<p>Note: the comments read out loud from Admissions Directors – comments such as “Inside the box kind of gal” and "the night before her AP Chem exam she learned her father had an affair . . . " and “his family financial situation took a huge hit . . .” – are probably comments made by guidance counselors or comments from teacher recommendations, which are critical when Committee’s are making decisions. Likewise with the comments made directly in students essays, such as the last comment "The alcohol consuming muslim family down the street . . . "</p>

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<p>Here’s how Harvard does it: <a href=“A Glimpse Inside Harvard Admissions | Flyby | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/video/2011/3/28/tour-admissions-office&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;