<p>Well, how does UPenn evaluate its applicants? When I say this I mean, do the 20-25 people on the admissions staff review the same applicant, discuss about him/her and come to a consensus as to whether they should be acc/rej/def? This would seem most fair, yet extremely time consuming.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this is true, but I this is what I think I remember hearing from an admissions officer when I visited:</p>
<p>Your regional admissions officer is the main person who will review you but I think a couple of other admissions officers look over your app. Then you regional admissions officer presents you application to the entire group. They might argue for your acceptance or rejection or ask for suggestions. The rest of the group doesn’t read your application, the regional admissions officer just tells the highlights of you app and your essays.</p>
<p>Again, I could be wrong here. I went to one of those legacy advising sessions and this is what I remember hearing… but I went to so many college visits and have talked with so many admissions officers that I may have mixed what a Penn admissions officer said with what another admissions officer at a different college said.</p>
<p>Hopeful hit the gold. After talking with adcoms from multiple schools such as Brown, Columbia, and NYU, the consensus is that your regional officer is literally your lifeline. It is them, not the dean of admissions or the president or whatever that decides your fate. They are the ones who receive your applications and read it from cover to cover and make a decision. Yes, they then go before the entire committee to say their decision, but almost 99% of the time the committee will simply accept whatever decisions he has made without thinking twice. In a way, this is the only practical way for colleges to work since its impossible for the entire committee to read and discuss every single applicant from thousands. If that were the case, the early decision results would come sometime in January or February!</p>
<p>But…how is that fair? One person is literally deciding the fate of a students future. Will the admissions council also be presented with the students stats, resume and outside achievements? Also, does the regional officer come to a decision on his/her own way, or does he/she discuss with other regional representatives from the area?</p>
<p>It is disappointing to realize that our regional admissions officer decides our fate. I thought more people would be in on the decision making process. :/</p>
<p>life isn’t always fair bro</p>
<p>My guess is that most regional directors know immediately who is a fit for Penn and who isn’t. I’m also sure many candidate are on the border, but I’d wager a buck that most decisions are fairly obvious. The toughest job probably is deciding who to defer and who to reject outright.</p>
<p>This discussion is about regular admissions. Do you think the regional director has much input into specialized programs, such as Huntsman? Or does a committee for that program handle all apps?</p>
<p>All this talk about an increased number of applicants is really worrying me :-(. i hope if i was evaluated first and put in the admit pile by my regional counselor and later she sees a much more qualified applicant, she wont go back and change her mind. aghh</p>
<p>i had an interview with marianne smith, admission officer of the school of nursing and this is what she said:</p>
<p>the regional director reads through all the applications and makes notes then dicusses the apps with the regional committee. then the applications are divided by school (school, wharton, engineering, nursing). then the director of enrollment for each school and the regional director along with eric furda and other committee members discuss the applicants</p>
<p>fromNJ123, your input brings me some hope =] Hopefully they go through with what they say. So you mean, when the regional director takes notes, he discuses the applicant with his opinion to the regional committee right? Im assuming the regional committee will be notified of your SAT Scores/GPA? And when you say “the director of enrollment for each school and the regional director along with eric furda and other committee members discuss the applicants” would they see the complete profile of the applicant i.e not just the “notes” taken by the regional director but also supplemental recs provided, essays etc. Would you say that Eric Furda and the other committee members read these? </p>
<p>I know these are a lot of questions, im just anxious lol. thanks.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this applies to Penn but I saw a video from a counselor that showed how MIT determined the fate of “threshold” students. There were like 15 people in one room and they would talk about the student for about 20 minutes. Then at the end, they voted on whether the student should be accepted, denied, or wait listed. Kind of scary that it’s down to a vote.</p>
<p>^^ you have a link to that video? lol thanks</p>
<p>the regional person is very important in terms of their initial read and the notes they make about your app. however, every decision has to go through the dean of enrollment for the school you chose, as well as through the dean of admissions. it never ends at the regional reader.</p>
<p>wow. yea. any chance you have a link to that video?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s online because he showed it to me on the itune thing. So maybe if you search on there it will come up?</p>
<p>It doesn’t seem right that the regional officer would solely decide. I’m from northern california and there are very few students that apply to penn, let alone ED (compared to other ivies). Do you think the regional admissions officers have a quota of applicants he or she is supposed to accept/deny/defer? That shouldn’t be right, considering there might be several hundred applicants from pennsylvania and only a fraction of that number from california.</p>
<p>Maybe the adjust the quota with regards to the region?</p>
<p>is the regional admissions officer the person that interviews you?</p>
<p>no the regional admissions officer is the admission officer for ur area (city, state, country) who is at penn.</p>
<p>they wouldn’t adjust the quota for each particular region. They accept/reject based on the quality of the application, not on the location of the applicant (i would hope). Anyone know anything about the role of location in decisions?</p>